REDEMPTION
Chapter 1: ‘Unbaked Dough’
Summary: Buffy ‘muses’ on the handsome stranger she saw at the church social.
Spike muses on the chance that Buffy might bring some happiness to his miserable life.
Chapter 1:
Buffy ‘slapped’ the bread dough that she had been kneading for almost fifteen minutes. Her frustration was obvious as she aggressively ‘beat’ the dough about.
‘Stupid mysterious blond man,’ Buffy hissed silently as she molded the dough into a perfect loaf. ‘Who the heck is he, anyway, to look at me like that? Didn’t he realize I’m a betrothed woman?’
Buffy had never thought of herself as a true, conventional beauty of sorts. She had not, in her seventeen years, discovered the real truth about herself. At least not by this tender age in her life. The young woman did not yet know the power that her emerald green eyes held over the males about her, Caleb included. Or the way she could twist her plump pink lips into a pout that could bring strong men to their knees.
The innate innocence that Buffy possessed was a lot of her charm, at least where the male population was concerned. Since she had no guile or carnal cunning, Buffy was all the more appealing to all of the men in her life. Especially in regards to her fiancé, Caleb Montgomery. Montgomery had picked up on Buffy’s naïve sensuality by the time the Summers’ girl was fifteen-years-old.
There was something else Buffy possessed, something most folks had no idea about. Only her family had the faintest notion that the oldest Summers’ child had a ‘special’ gift. Buffy had an inner sense of intuition that she seemed to have been born with. Her maternal grandmother, Elizabeth, Buffy’s namesake, had chattered on since the day she was born:
“She’s got the ‘shining’ Joyce,” Granny Elizabeth blathered on and on constantly. “It’s a gift and shouldn’t be ignored,” the old woman insisted.
Basically, in a nutshell, ‘the shining’ was just an old southern phrase for an inborn strong case of the sixth sense. Elizabeth Sawyers, Buffy’ grandmother had it, as did her own mother, Liza. Granny Elizabeth swore by the ‘sense’ and that her oldest granddaughter had it in spades.
“That man,” Buffy hissed as she rolled out the bread dough, and then violently punched it back into a large ball. “There’s something about that William Galvaston and his so called cousin that isn’t quite right,” she muttered.
Buffy wiped her hands on the kitchen towel and shoved the bread baking rack into the wood burning stove. She sighed heavily and sat down at the lovely wooden table her daddy, Hank, had fashioned years ago.
“Let’s be honest,” Buffy reasoned with her, “there’s something not quite right about Caleb either.”
A few months before, Buffy and Caleb had been ‘out’ socially as it were. They had gone on a picnic, which was quite reasonable for a young couple who were courting. When it had come time to leave for home, Buffy was stunned to feel Caleb’s strong arms about her, pulling her down on the carelessly thrown blanket they had eaten on.
“Caleb!” Buffy squealed in shock. “What are you doing?”
“Just trying to ‘pet’ with my girl,” the large dark-haired man chuckled wickedly. He embraced Buffy’s tiny frame in his vice-like grip and refused to let go.
Caleb had begun to paw at her like some animal. Buffy was so shocked and disgusted at her fiancé’s appalling behavior that she could barely cry out in protest.
“Caleb!” Buffy screamed in fright. “What are you doing? Let me go!”
“Aw, come on Elizabeth,” Caleb rasped lustily, “we’re nearly married. Where’s the harm in having the honeymoon before the wedding?”
“Stop it!” Buffy screeched, by now she was totally horrified. Her soon to be groom had an odd, almost evil gleam in his dark eyes and it was terrifying Buffy.
“Why should I? I am your fiancé, little girl. You don’t fool me, Elizabeth,” Caleb smirked, but his voice was low and nearly a growl. “I know under that prim and proper exterior, you’re going to be a little firecracker in our bed! Jesus Lizzy, I can’t wait for the delicious things we’ll do to each other in our marital bed!”
“Caleb!” Buffy gasped, she was sure she was pale as a ghost by now. “We’ve so little time before our wedding; we should wait to be married in the eyes of God!” Buffy was past terrified at this point. Her supposedly stoic, well-respected fiancé was almost burning her with unbridled lust in his dark eyes.
Montgomery was about to place a rough kiss on his Elizabeth’s pink, puffy little lips, but he stopped short just before. His assault halted, Caleb seemed to pause and ‘think’ about what he had just tried to do.
“You’re right, Lizzy, I’m sorry,” Caleb muttered under his breath. Although he looked more disappointed then remorseful at the present time?
However, something about the way he said ‘sorry’ and that still wild look in his eyes disturbed Buffy, greatly. It was as if this man, her fiancé, had to force himself into reigning in his desire. While this should probably be flattering to Buffy, at least a little, she found it rather disgusting.
Buffy and Caleb had left the secluded picnic spot and rode home, in the buckboard, in complete silence. The couple had not spoken of the embarrassing event since then.
As she sat, waiting for her bread to bake, Buffy realized something that she had not really pondered before. It wasn’t so much that Caleb had tried to seduce her on their picnic blanket at all, that bothered Buffy. That really was to be expected after all. What really confused and disturbed Buffy is that ‘she’ did not feel the same way about him.
There had not been, that day, nor had there ever been any of those desirous feelings, sensations or tingles in Buffy. Not one lustful or longing sensation had pulsated through Buffy’s small frame. Ever. Not even for her so called fiancé, Caleb Montgomery.
In fact, Buffy had never really had ‘those’ tingly sensations inside of her. At least she had not ever had them before, as she remembered. Not until a mysterious blond haired man by the name of William caused them to course through her. And, he had managed that, just by gazing at her with his indigo blue eyes. And that alone was accomplished from across the church social hall, no less.
This realization, above anything else, disturbed Buffy more then anything. She was so engaged in her confusing thoughts, that Buffy missed the tell tale sign of burning bread coming from the huge wood stove.
Spike Giles sauntered into his Uncle Wesley Pryce’s Nebraska farmhouse. He was good at sauntering, Spike was, and oh, how he enjoyed it so. It made him feel all manly for some reason.
At the moment, Angel, Wesley, Rupert Giles, Riley Finn and Xander Harris were huddled about the big table in the dining room.
Spike noted that his dad, Rupert, Angel, Riley and Xander were in a full on game of poker.
The stringent smell of cheap whiskey and the sweet, smoky scent of peyote permeated the dining room. Spike eyed Riley Finn suspiciously and noticed the rolled ‘cigarette’ in the large man’s meaty right hand.
“Keep smokin’ that peyote, Finn, and your brain’ll turn to mush,” Spike smirked in warning to the dark-haired man. Although he liked Riley, sort of, Spike never really trusted the hulking farm boy.
“My mother is a great-granddaughter of Tecumseh, warrior of the Shawnee,” Riley drawled amicably. He took another drag of the rolled ‘cigarette’ between his fingers. “Her people smoked this as a religious rite, for hundreds of years. Believe me, Spike,” Riley grunted, “no mush in ‘their’ brains.”
Spike shrugged in deference, “true,” he chuckled in response. “Spose it’s no worse then the rot gut whiskey I swallow daily.”
“Spose not,” Riley nodded as he tossed three throwaway cards onto the oaken table. “Give me three, Xander,” Riley ordered his good friend, amicably. “Make sure they’re real cards this time, huh?” Riley took another drag of the pungent cigarette that he so loved.
Xander Harris grinned warmly at his good friend Riley Finn. The two men had basically grown up together, on neighboring farms in Kentucky. They probably would have toiled away, forever, next to each other. That is if one Angel Crawford hadn’t ridden through their neck of the woods and persuaded both of the young men to follow him into a life of crime.
“When will you relieve the 1st National Bank of Redemption of its payload, Rupert?” Wesley asked his brother-in-law nervously.
“Saturday,” Rupert Giles grunted in response as he drained his own whiskey glass of its contents. “Angel and Spike seem to think that’s the best time to make the hit. Less customers and…”
“Just make sure you slip in and back out again, with as little drama as possible, Rupert,” Wesley muttered with a raised dark brow.
“All’s I need is for my fiancé, Winnefred, to even get inkling that I’m harboring a bunch of outlaws and she’ll leave me for good.” Wesley’s pleading voice ended up in a whine.
“You had your choice, brother,” Rupert mumbled with a scowl as he tossed a dead card onto the table and reached for the whiskey bottle again. “You threw your lot in with my nephew Angel and the rest of us. I noticed you made no ‘noise’ when we paid you good and well to board and keep us near your precious Redemption.”
“It’s true,” Wesley Pryce whispered anxiously. “Remember, your late wife, Jennifer was my half-sister and I loved her too. Just as I loved your daughter, Drusilla.” Wesley’s face was bright red with embarrassment, especially after both Rupert and Spike cringed at the mention Jennifer and Drusilla’s names. Jennifer Giles was Rupert’s late wife and William ‘Spike’s’ mother. Drusilla was Rupert and Jennifer’s daughter, their oldest child, Spike’s sister. At least, they had been, once.
“I know,” Rupert whispered harshly. The oldest man in the room stood and tossed the rest of his poker hand on the table before him. “I’m going for a ride,” he stated simply.
After the elder Giles left, Spike sat down next to Wesley, his uncle of sorts, and glared at the dark-haired man. Spike had never quite figured old Wesley out, except to note that although he was British by birth? This man had migrated to the Americas years before and set up business and home near Redemption, Nebraska. As it turned out, that served Angel’s gang of bank and train robbers well. In the here and now that is.
“So,” Spike murmured out of the side of his mouth to his uncle, “this Elizabeth Summers. She’s really going to marry that ponce of a bloke? Wasn't it Caleb something or other?”
Wesley gave his nephew a chastising glare, and then nodded his head in confirmation. “Yes,” is all the older, articulate man uttered.
“Not as bright as she looks, eh?” Spike asked with a smirk as he picked up his father’s discarded hand of cards.
“Now see here, William,” Wesley hissed in exasperation. “I gave your father and you, and this rag tag gang of hooligans a place to ‘stay’ while you size up the local bank to rob. I don’t owe you, especially, any explanations regarding Elizabeth Summers or her wedding plans!”
“Buffy Summers is a good friend of my own fiancé, Winnefred Burkle, and I’ll be bloody damned to hell if I sell her out to the likes of you! I’m only going along with this whole sordid mess of harboring you all because I loved my sister, Jenny. I love your sister, Drusilla, too. I hate Ethan Rayne and his cohorts, mainly for what they did to Jenny, Drusilla and your father. Even to you in the process,” Wesley finished with a blush.
Riley interjected, tactfully, at this point. “I’m beat,” he offered weakly. “Going to bed,” Finn made a big deal of yawning loudly.
“Me too,” Xander added. “See you in the morning Spike. Wesley.”
After the two men left, Wesley turned to face his nephew. His countenance was sympathetic, but stern.
“Listen William,” Wesley began with hesitation. “I hate Ethan Rayne and his whole crew for what happened to your mother and sister. That’s why I did not hesitate when your father asked me to board him, Angel, you and some of your men here at my farm. I'd do anything to avenge ourselves on the likes of Rayne. I knew that in England, our homeland, we would never get justice for Rayne’s crimes. Here? You hit the monster of a man, like Ethan Rayne, where it hurts most. In his pocket book!”
Spike stared into the half empty glass before him and thought about his beautiful mother and lost sister. Ethan Rayne had taken everything from his father and him. Or, anything that mattered anyway
The truth was, when Spike had spied the young blond, Buffy Summers at that silly church social? He had considered, for once, the chance that maybe something else might just matter in his miserable life. Maybe this Buffy offered something besides hatred and revenge.
The young woman, Buffy, had moved Spike in a way that he’d never felt before. When a man looked at a saloon whore, or easy woman, he saw a quickly paid for release of a physical need. When a man, like Spike, looked at a young, beautiful woman like Buffy Summers, he saw a future; marriage, children and a hearth and home.
Spike had a feeling that he’d never feel that way again, as he had the moment he saw Buffy Summers. It near killed him to think that he might ride out of this God forsaken town and territory; never to see again, the blond vision he’d spied the other night.
“I can’t have you chasing after a respectable young woman like Buffy Summers, William,” Wesley warned. “Not only is she betrothed to one of the most beloved, respected young men in the county? If you dare to try and entangle yourself personally, in any way with her, you will be sorry. You risk the chance of exposing your family and friends to the law. Here, and in the parts surrounding this town.”
“Besides,” Wesley snorted, “you and your gang will be gone after Saturday. Right?”
Spike glanced at his uncle out of the corner of his left blue eye. “Yeah,” he answered evenly, but chuckled wickedly. “But who the bloody hell knows? A little less then a week might just be enough time to woo the lovely Miss Summers away from her intended, eh uncle?”
A/N: In the next chapter, I want to explore all of the reasons that Angel, Spike, Rupert and the others are so set on revenge by their actions.
Also, I might just write the bank robbery into the next chapter. When the robbery happens, that’s when Buffy’s life will be turned upside down!
Thanks for reading. Please review. Spufette
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Author's Chapter Notes:
First off, I want to thank everyone who reads this. Thank you, reviewers for your kind words.
Also, thank you to whoever nominated me at the 'Breathless Awards' under the category 'Fool For Love'. My Irish fiction 'Na Grach Croi' was nominated and it really touches me that someone would do that.
Thanks again to everyone.
spuf
Also, thank you to whoever nominated me at the 'Breathless Awards' under the category 'Fool For Love'. My Irish fiction 'Na Grach Croi' was nominated and it really touches me that someone would do that.
Thanks again to everyone.
spuf