Chapter 4: The Blancbaston Manor

                                    

                                          

                          
Ciel
                          
Raising an eyebrow as he watched Estella instantly grew rigid after his announcement of their arrival at their destination. Shrugging off at that girl’s odd reaction, Ciel turned back to study the manor through the window as the carriage trudged through its wide open gates.
                          
It was a pretty big-looking manor, though not bigger than his own. Green mosses that crept up its walls indicated the lack of maintenance. Ciel also noted the few of its broken windows as his pupil flicked about the manor, studying it with curiosity written in his eye. The two huge lawns at the either sides of the path which the carriage was now trudging on were fields of untamable-looking tall grass.
                          
 Done taking in all the details, Ciel turned away from the window and was about to open his mouth to comment something about the manor and closed it back again when he saw the girl staring wide eyes at the manor. He frowned when he also noticed that she was gripping onto the edge of the seat tightly.
                          
Flicking his eye back up at her face, he frowned with a small glint of concern in his eye as he studied her face. He then froze with eye widened in recognition as that expression on her face stirred something deep within his mind. Memories... Dark and haunting ones. The memories which he had tried so hard to forget. Those pair of ice blue eyes was stirring with the similar mixed emotions in them as the ones he once had and felt. Fear and anticipation.  He had those same eyes when he finally met his family manor again for the first time after years of being a captive, and the manor was where his nightmare took place.  The Phantomhive Tragedy.
                          
Snapping out of his trance, his gaze on the girl softened. She had gone through the same thing as him. Both of them had suffered a great deal of similar fate.  Gingerly reaching out a hand, Ciel reached out towards the girl and abruptly stopped before hastily pulling it back.  Look down at his hand with widened eye; he gave himself a mental slap. 
                          
What do you think you are doing?? Trying to comfort her?? Mind your own business!
                          
Adjusting his eye patch in frustration, he glanced up at the girl again and sighed inwardly. Leaning back onto the seat, Ciel closed his eyes and spoke nonchalantly. “Something once lost will never return.”
                          
Behind his closed lids, he could feel her staring at him.
                          
“What…?”
                          
 Sighing, he opened his eyes to meet the girl’s stare.  He stared back for a brief moment and sighed again. “I said… Something once lost will never return...”
                          
Ciel watched as one of her eyebrow shot up high, disappearing under her fringe, the girl shot him a questioning look.  “Wha-“
                          
The carriage door suddenly swung opened which interrupted her, revealed a bowing Sebastian standing outside its mouth.
                          
“We have arrived, Young Master.”
                          
Ciel glanced back at the girl before turning back to his butler and nodded.  Pushing off the seat to stand, he turned back to the girl again. “Let’s go, Blancbaston.”
                          
Strolling towards the door, Ciel took the waiting hand of his butler and stepped out onto the stone path. Moving a little away from the carriage door, Ciel studied the porch.
                          
There was a fountain which was crept up with many green algae, making it look greenish white, located right at the front of the manor. Water can barely be seen in it. Flicking his eye away, he turned back to face his two other companions, just in time to see the girl stepping out of the carriage. 
                          
…...
                          
 
                          
Estella