“I got it Willow, thanks,” Buffy chuckled. “Yes, I think you’re right. A bath sounds like a marvelous idea. Then maybe I’ll even work up the nerve to venture out… somewhere. Or, you know, at least meditate outside to further relax.”
Willow chuckled, “Sounds like you’ve got yourself a plan.”
“Maybe we could take Ella for a walk?”
“Ring me when you’re ready.”
“Ring you…” Buffy shook her head and wrinkled her nose. “That sounds so Queen of England. I’ll just come and ask if you’re ready.”
“Thank you, Buffy.”
“For?”
“For not treating me like just the hired help.”
“Well, of course you’re not ‘just the help’. You’re my new friend here in England.”
Venturing down the hall, heading for her bedroom, Buffy started to hum. Being able to let out her pent up emotions had helped. Having a good cry with a sympathetic ear that did not turn into an enjoyable make out session followed by even more confusing feelings helped even more.
She was lost in her musings of a bubble bath, a nap and a walk with Ella that she had barely noticed William rounding the corner and coming at her until he was very nearly on top of her.
“Buffy,” he said, grabbing her arms to keep her from knocking into him.
She snapped her attention up, “Oh, what? I’m sorry I’m just – what?”
“Lost in your own world?” he asked with a slight smirk.
Damn that sexy smirk. “Yeah, I’m – what is it?”
“What are you doing today?”
She blinked, “Huh?”
“Are you all right? You’re a lot quicker than this Buffy.”
She shook her head to clear it. “I’m just…. I’m a little worn out I guess. I was going to take a bath and maybe go for a walk later with Ella and Willow. Why? What’s up?”
“I want to take you into town.”
Her eyes widened, “What?”
“You know, in town. Show you around, stuff like that.”
She eyed him suspiciously. “Why?”
He shrugged, “Why not?”
“Did you happen to hear –“
“Look, the thing is, you got me thinking this morning. We made a truce and all that, right?”
“Right,” she replied slowly.
“So, I’m taking it one step further. You’re cutting me a break, and now I’m going to cut you one. It’s struck me that you’ve given up quite a lot to be here, Buffy. That’s a damn brave thing you’ve done moving here to be with Ella and – well, Ella and you’re in this house day in and day out trying to be acclimated to this place, and never seeing outside this estate. I realize that it’s not fair to you. So, I want to take you out. Show you around. Once you have a general idea of where you’re going, maybe you’ll feel a bit better about having to stay here with me.”
She blinked up at him before nodding profusely. “Okay, okay. William, I don’t. . . I don’t hate you.”
“I know you don’t hate me. I do not think you’re capable of hating anyone,” he said, smiling gently down at her.
“You should smile more,” she told him without thinking. He was so handsome when he smiled. So cute and she could imagine that he would hate to hear that he was cute. However, he was. His smile lit up his whole face, including his eyes that had been lacking that spark he had had in them before. Smiling for William was definitely of the good. It made him less Mr. Rochester, and more Mr. Knightly.
“Should I?” he asked, a husky timbre to his voice. Was he flirting with her? It definitely appeared that he was.
“Yes, you should. It looks good on you,” she said resolutely and looked away his intense stare making her nervous.
He smiled wider. “So, what do you say, hmm? Take a bath and then accompany me out for the day?”
“You don’t have, you know, work to do?” she asked, and wanted to kick herself for asking that. She did not want to remind him that he was skipping out on work to take her out.
“I can leave it until later.”
“Do you need a bath too?”
He laughed, “No, I don’t.”
“Won’t the world spin off its axis if you don’t do work and play hooky?”
“It’ll keep until later.”
Buffy smiled, “Maybe I can make ‘later’ turn into tomorrow.”
He grinned. “Not bloody likely.”
Buffy tried to keep from glancing at William as they walked into town but ever since they had left the estate, it had been hard not to. First, he was not in a suit. He was still in a pair of dress pants and what she assumed was a Hugo Boss casual shirt. That term it self was an oxymoron with a navy blue cashmere sweater over the top. His hair lacked its slicked back appearance and she could see which side of the family Ella had gotten her curly hair from. He was as casually dressed as she had ever seen, he still looked as serious as ever. She could tell he had made the effort to look casual and it made her laugh.
“Do I have something on my nose,” William stopped walking and turned to face her as he caught her on the fiftieth glance of the day.
“What? No I was just,” she looked him up and down. “Do you own a T-Shirt?”
“Well, yes,” he looked at her as if she had lost her marbles completely. “Several actually.”
“Ok, let me rephrase. Do you ever wear any of them?”
“Of course,” he looked down at what he was wearing and then at her outfit. “Am I over dressed?”
“Well, I thought we were going for a walk into town not a polo game.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I would never wear this to a polo game it’s much to inf…” He stopped as he heard Buffy’s giggle.
“You actually go to polo games. I was joking William,” she could see how wounded he looked. Surely, he did not care what she thought. “You look nice, I mean handsome, you know what I mean.” His look had changed from wounded to something else entirely, something that made her ability to speak leave her completely. “You should get out of a suit more often.”
“Well, if you are offering,” he laughed as he started to walk again leaving Buffy speechless behind him.
The town was picture postcard perfect. Buffy knew this for a fact as she had bought the whole series of postcards two shops previous. She was having a great time. She had seen more of this town in two hours than she had seen in the whole two weeks she had been here. However, more than the sight seeing, she was enjoying William’s commentary.
“Over here is the sweet shop where I got caught for stealing.”
“William, I could never see you doing such a thing. How old were you?”
“Four.” They both laughed as they continued to walk.
They passed an old school building. It must have been playtime as children were playing out the front.
“Here is where I went to prep school before Eaton. Ella will go there too.”
William’s words hit her and she froze to the spot. The children in the yard were five, six years old. Ella was not even one. Buffy had been so busy just getting through day to day she had not had time to look one week into the future let alone a year and certainly not five.
“Ella’s going to school,” she repeated as her brain went into overload.
This was her life now, here in this village with Ella and William, not for the next week or year but for the rest of her life. Her life, the one she had chosen or at least was in process of choosing had been snatched from her. In its place was this a quaint English town, a stuck up Englishman who she could not decide between arguing with and sleeping with and a baby she could hardly look after for two hours let alone raise into a young woman.
Her head was swimming with all the possibilities that had been taken from her and the reality that had replaced it.
“Buffy, love, are you ok? You look pale.” She barley registered his voice.
She turned to him his blue eyes the last thing she saw before she passed out.