Black Butler Chapter 154

One morning, the maids of Heathfield Manor are in a rush, frantically running around, asking for makeup, and applying it. Mey-Rin enters the servants' room with Ran-Mao and Jane and asks what is going on. Jane then informs her that Chris Heathfield returned last night from parliament. Upon hearing her answer, Mey-Rin wonders why the other maids are applying makeup then—after all, should Baron Heathfield not be offended? 

Jane assures her that Heathfield is a bit eccentric and, in fact, expects it and that his servants align themselves in rows and greet him, with the new hires standing in the first row. Mey-Rin thinks that this is quite odd, and shortly afterward, she and the others greet Heathfield. Heathfield asks Mrs. Abbie if anything of interest happened during his absence, and Abbie tells him that she hired four new maids. He walks straight to Mey-Rin, Ran-Mao, Miranda, and Annie and greets and inspects them. Then, Heathfield welcomes them to his manor and turns away. Sometime later, the maids talk about Heathfield: how he is so good-looking and that he is still a bachelor. Especially, Annie and Miranda are all aflutter, and Jane has to remind them that nobles only fall for servants in romance novels. Another maid agrees, but also says that the possibility of something like that occurring at Heathfield Manor is actually not as low as anywhere else as Heathfield is known to summon a maid to his bedroom every night. 

The maid's former roommate used to be Heathfield's favorite maid, but, for some reason, she eventually left. Jane speculates that she, most likely, just fell out of his favor and returned home. Then, Mrs. Abbie enters the servants' room and tells them to go back to work. While the maids hurry away, she calls Ran-Mao, Mey-Rin, Annie, and Miranda to them. As they are new, she wants them to know that it is important that they look impeccable all the time. They should take special care of their collars and cuffs as they can get dirty easily. The maids then inspect their collars and cuffs, and Annie finds a little piece of paper in her cuffs. She quickly turns away, but Mey-Rin still catches its message: Annie should meet Heathfield in the west wing at ten p.m. At night, Mey-Rin informs Ran-Mao about her plan and tells her to stay in their room and be alert. Alone, she walks through the manor to the west wing and watches from a door crack Heathfield and Annie sleeping with each other. Not long afterward, Mey-Rin is grabbed by an unknown assailant.