"Sir, we have removed the left end," came a maid to report him on the completion of it.
The butler nodded and said, "Move to the right section of it. Once you are done with it, we'll be moving to the front."
"The weeds keep growing every now and then. Removing it once in a while would be much easier. I don't know why this new butler thinks he will erase the existence of weeds by making us pull it out every two days," Lucas heard one of the servant girls complain in a whisper to another girl who was still pulling the weeds. He appeared to be human but he was far from it. His ability to hear was sharp and he said, "You," he walked towards the girl.
The maid turned around and her eyes widened looking at the stoic face of the newly a.s.signed butler, "Yes, Sir."
"You seem to have free time to talk here. Once you finish the weeds here, go to the back of the mansion and finish the entire land there."
"What?!" the maid looked baffled.
"Even the left side of the area where the fountain is placed."
"But I-"
"There are other sides where the weeds have grown, you will inspect and remove once these maids have completed their work," Lucas looked down at the maid who looked confused and unable to speak knowing well the more she spoke the more her work would be added. She opened her mouth but closed it instantly. After the house owners, it was the butler who took care of the mansion and the servants, holding the next authority where he could get a maid or any fellow worker dismissed from the house.
Lucas gave her a polite smile and then said, "With your help, we���ll be sure to remove the existence of the weeds from this mansion. Do let me know if you find the work to be short. I will be pleased to add some more to keep you occupied," leaving the maid who stood with disbelief she glared at him.
The other maids who were pulling out the unwanted plants were looking in the corner of their eyes and when the butler started to walk towards them, they quickly started to move their hands as if they were very busy and had no time in the world.
While the servants of the mansion were working outside, in the garden to clean the dirt, mud and anything plant which was good enough to be there along with the weeds, the little girl of the Adams had climbed the tree and was seated on the branch of the tree. Swinging her legs as she looked down at everyone working.
When Lucas caught sight of her, he stared at her. Walking to where the little girl was, he said, "Miss Belle, what are you doing there?"
"Looking," she answered, stopping her legs from swinging anymore and she leaned forward, "Mr. Fluffs...he went missing," she replied in a worried tone.
"That is sad news," Lucas said with no emotion in his voice but his voice gentle for the girl to listen.
"I will find Mr. Fluffs," little Belle had thought climbing on the tree would be easier to find him out here. She couldn't remember where she had left him. She had gone through the mansion, asking the servants and looking below her bed and other furniture to see him gone, "You gave him an eye and he went missing," she said that had Lucas' eyebrows twitch. He wondered how rude it would be to tell her that the toy was only a stuffed animal made of cotton where she needed to throw and get a new one.
"Maybe he went on a walk," said the butler and the maids who were near him, heard him speak to the young vampiress in a much politer tone compared to the crisp, sharp knife like tongue that was waiting to cut them and throw them into the fire, "He must be bored sitting inside the mansion."
Belle heeded to his words, her lips pressing tightly and she said, "He didn't tell me he was bored."
Lucas said, "Mr. Fluffs must be a shy rabbit. Rabbits tend to be like that. He might come back."
"Might?" Belle was small and young but there were things that she was very quick to catch. Especially when it came to her dear Mr. Fluffs, "I will search for Mr. Fluffs. Shouldn't have gone too far unless he...he got rabbitnapped!"
Lucas could tell that this child was one piece of art when it came to the way she thought about things, "You mean kidnapped," he corrected her.
"Mr. Fluffs is a rabbit and not a child," Belle went to correct him back as if he didn't know anything.
From what he had seen, a butler was supposed to make sure that the people in the mansion didn't stray away from the path that was designed for them. And he could tell that her mother, Mrs. Adams was having a tough time who kept telling her she would soon hire a governess.
"Of course, Miss Belle," Lucas replied to the girl, "You should get down if you don't want to get hurt," he warned her lightly. If she was going to fall and get hurt he wasn't going to take the blame, thought Lucas to himself. How did she even learn to climb a tree?
"But I need to search for him and it feels really nice up here. Come up," saying this, she moved around to make s.p.a.ce for him. This one had no sense of staying quiet and awareness of danger, did she?
"Thank you for your generous offer but I am fine. I have work to do," Lucas turned to look at the maids who were diligently working on the plants while they sat down on the ground. The branches of the trees around her were hindering her sight and she leaned the upper half of her body so that she could take a look at the maids.
"What are you doing?" she asked curiously, her small hands gripping on the branch she was sitting on.
"Pulling the weeds."
"Why?"
"Because they will kill the other good plants around it."
She looked at the maids, "So you kill it?" Miss Belle came with a lot of questions, always being curious.
"We are taking them away from the rest of the plants so that they can spend some quality time with their own kind," on the butler's answer she quickly nodded as if she understood everything.
"I think it should be fi-AHH!" the branch she was sitting on broke and she always fell on the muddy ground which was below if it weren't for Lucas who caught her quickly in his arms. She looked as if she had seen a ghost again, not speaking for a few seconds as she had her eyes closed and when she opened her red eyes, she said, "Oh, I fell."
The butler stared at her, not a word coming out from him as he had warned her to get down.
"What did I do?" Belle asked, looking at him as if she had no clue why he was staring at her.
He let her down and said, "This is why you should listen to what elders...to what your parents or I say," including all elders were subjective as he didn't believe it was good to listen to every person. There were people who were willing to lead a person on the right path while there were some who were ready to stray the person with bad intentions.
The little girl could still feel her heart beating in her chest. She placed her hand on her chest.
"How will I find Mr. Fluffs?" she looked up at him, both her hands holding each other and her eyebrows frowning in deep concentration.
"He will come to you," the butler said and at the same time, Mrs. Adams, who had heard her daughter's scream from outside, had come running out of the mansion. Seeing her daughter standing in front of the butler, she walked towards them.
"Did something happen, Belle?" her mother asked, getting down to check if Belle was alright.
"No," the little answered, her eyes darting to look at the butler hoping he wouldn't say anything.
Seeing that her daughter was alright, Mrs. Adams asked, "Why did you scream then?"
"I saw this big spider crawling on the ground," Belle started with one of her very creative stories, "It was walking with this big ant with it, and then it went up the tree, and then I was leaning against it. And I screamed," the story ended very quickly, thought the butler to himself.
"What happened here?" Mrs. Adams asked, ignoring her daughter's another tale to turn to look at the servants and the butler.
The maids who were working with their backs against the little girl, the butler, and Mrs. Adams couldn't help themselves from smiling. It wasn't the first story they had heard from the young vampiress, every time was a different story. Though a lot of them had been slacking at work before the butler had arrived in the mansion, they found the child to be adorable enough to make it appear that they didn't see what she was doing when Mrs. Adams questioned them unless it was something very grave.
But the butler wasn't the same.
"She climbed the tree and fell down," answered the butler bowing his head.
Belle gave the butler a sorrowful look. She then heard her mother say, "How many times have I told you to not climb the trees, Belle? Are you trying to be a monkey? Come on in," her mother said, taking her from there.
