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“Must you really stay and watch? This is embarrassing.”
Only months ago Elizabeth would have blushed and run, but they were newlywed now and surely this changed things.
“There’s nothing to be embarrassed about,” she told him, trying to sound soothing. “Out of the three of us, I’m the one who knows the most about female clothes. I chose the dress, after all.”
“I can assure you, my lady, that I’m perfectly capable of handling female garments,” Sebastian said, sounding a tad offended that she would question his skills. “We’ve been through this before.”
They were in Ciel’s dressing room, and Elizabeth sat in a chair watching her husband as he stood in drawers and a chemise, which he’d put on behind a screen. She’d seen him with less clothes on before, but they’d only been married for two months and he was still very shy with his body and parsimonious with his touch. She, on the other hand, wanted to touch him all the time and sometimes wondered if she was abnormal in some way.
“What do you mean,” she said, “that you’ve done this before?”
“Nothing! Nothing that should concern you,” Ciel said hurriedly. “As for you, you shut your mouth and help me with this thing,” he told Sebastian with a glare, holding out a corset.
“Right away, my lord,” Sebastian said diffidently, but Elizabeth caught the corner of his mouth twitching into a smile.
Bent over a commode, Ciel allowed Sebastian to lace the corset from behind, his face flaming red. He was so thin that Sebastian managed to fit him very tightly, ignoring his master's choked protests. Elizabeth looked at the line of his bowed neck, his sharp shoulders, the exquisite delicateness of his ankles poking out of the chemise’s hem. She knew what the next stages of dressing him would be: after the corset would come the petticoats, the corset cover, and then the bustle, underskirt, skirt, and finally the bodice, all of it a long-winded process of layering that aimed at protecting the female body like a carapace. She’d gone through it so many times that she usually thought nothing of the routine. Watching it happen to Ciel, though, suddenly made it take on a new meaning and become something mysterious, almost enticing.
“I think some of my organs got crushed in the process,” Ciel grumbled, tugging at the corset.
“Stop complaining and take it like a man, young master,” Sebastian said lightly. He examined his master critically. “We should fill this with something. Contrary to last time, you’re now of an age where you must have some chest to speak of.”
“What—Sebastian!”
“If you’re embarrassed that I’m having such frank talk in front of Lady Elizabeth, then I’m sure you’re worrying about nothing. My lady is now your wife, and thus your closest companion.”
“Don’t—don’t mind me,” Elizabeth stammered.
In truth, she was embarrassed, or at least she felt some emotion that came close to it. Her cheeks were very warm and she was probably blushing almost as hard as Ciel was. She could have left the room—should have left, maybe—but she felt stuck in place, incapable of looking away from the spectacle of Sebastian filling the chest area of Ciel’s corset with scraps of cotton fabric. Sebastian then proceeded to help Ciel put on the layers of petticoats, and still Elizabeth remained and watched, transfixed. Her heart pounded and her breathing quickened until, to her surprise and shame, she recognized the feeling that was overwhelming her as one that generally came upon her when she was alone in the bedroom with her husband.
Oh, my. What sort of pervert am I? she thought, pressing the cool back of her hand against her burning cheek.
She should leave before the situation became truly untenable, but by the time she had come to that decision Ciel was entirely dressed in pastel blue silk, wearing a wig that Sebastian had acquired through mysterious ways and which was the exact shade of Ciel’s natural hair. The hair wasn’t done up yet and was spread over Ciel’s shoulders and tumbled down his back. Elizabeth stood up and walked up to him, despite her previous resolution to leave the room.
“As I thought, this dress is very cute on you,” she said, clapping her hands. “You look very fine.”
He nervously smoothed the fabric of his skirt. He had removed his rings, which were a man’s jewellery, and his lovely hands looked white and naked without them.
“I look ridiculous,” he said in a tone that left no room for argument. “But do you think I’m passable, at least?”
Elizabeth hesitated, wondering what kind of answer would be the least damageable to his pride.
“You’ll do great,” she said. “I have no doubts.”
She stepped closer and took his hand, and then glanced in direction of Sebastian. The butler took the hint, and he smiled and bowed, leaving the room in his unobtrusive manner. Once he was gone, Elizabeth put her other hand on Ciel’s shoulder and then, watching hesitantly for his reaction, she let the hand slide to his waist, made tiny by Sebastian’s merciless tightening of the corset. He had his one eye on her, observing her guardedly, but he made no move to stop her or pull away. Encouraged, she leaned forward and pressed her lips to his in a kiss.
“I wish I could come with you,” she murmured. To watch him dance in those clothes—oh, the mere thought was almost too much to contemplate.
“People would wonder where your husband is,” he said.
“Then I could dress as a man and go as your escort,” she said.
She’d meant it in jest, not giving much thought to the concept, but as she said it she saw a glimmer in his eyes, a sudden added blush to his cheeks, that told her that he was thinking about it and wasn’t indifferent to the thought. They had no time to find clothes that would fit, she told herself, or to make sure that she could pass as a man, but this was something to keep in mind and then, one day, maybe.
She kissed him again, because she always wanted to and he was allowing her the liberty. She gave his hand a last squeeze and said, “You need to finish getting ready. I will leave you to it.”
“All right,” he said. “I’ll see you tonight, after I come back.”
It might have been her mind running wild again, but she heard this 'I’ll see you tonight' as full of unsaid promises. Maybe, she mused, she could manage to convince him to keep the corset on for a little while.