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Author's Chapter Notes:
Thank you, Klai, Amelia-Jane, jt, SarahandJamesFanatic, Devin and Kimber for your wonderful reviews. And to Jen, for betaing this story for me.



Remember that at the beginning of the story I placed some warnings? Well, I just want to warn you again that there's going to be a little William/other in this story. Nothing too graphic, but it begins in this chapter.
Chapter 10

Giles squinted a little when he opened the door, temporarily blinded by the sunlight that shone outside. Once his eyes began to get used to the light, he gasped. No, it couldn’t be!

“D-don Rodrigo?” he asked hesitatingly. No, Don Rodrigo was dead and he definitely didn’t have shocking white blond hair or blue eyes. That meant that this could only be… He moved away from the door and the man standing outside entered his office. “W-william? Is that you?” The lawyer could hardly believe what he was seeing; there in front of him was the boy he’d been looking for so long. Only he was not a boy anymore. He was a man, a man so alike in looks to his father that for a minute he’d thought it was him.

William chuckled as he responded, “Good Morning, Mr. Giles, I was afraid that you wouldn’t even remember me.”

“How could I forget you, boy? I have been looking for you for the last twelve years. Sit, sit.” He directed William to the small couch he had in his office. “Where have you been? Why did you run away?”

“Run away?” He snorted. “Hardly. A man from Campo Real, Mr. Snyder I think his name was, he said he’d been ordered by my father to take me to Galveston. Well, it turned out to be a setup and he took me to a ship and gave me to the captain as a present.”

“Snyder? Are you sure? I asked him about you and he told me he hadn’t seen you,” Giles said.

“As if he would admit that he’d kidnapped me. Get real, Mr. Giles.”

“Right, so what happened next?”

“Well, it turned out that Captain Roberts wasn’t so bad, he took me under his wing and taught me everything he knew. He refused to take me back here, though, so, for the last twelve years we’ve been roaming the Seven Seas and it wasn’t until now that the Captain died, that I could return to Galveston. I’m planning to settle here, I already bought a little cottage by the sea and I have decided that my next trip will be the last. I have almost enough money to retire now. And then I can plan my revenge against Snyder. I didn’t know what you or my father had thought of my disappearance, so I decided to come here rather than risk giving my father a heart attack if he saw me appearing after so long.”

‘He doesn’t know that Don Rodrigo died?’ Giles cleared his throat and took his eyeglasses off to polish them as he tried to find the words to tell him. “Hmm, your father… I’m not sure how to say this, except by just saying it… William, your father died the same day you disappeared. I-I even thought that was the reason behind your disappearance.”

“W-what?” William asked, his voice thick with the tears he was trying to hold back.

“He fell from his horse while he was riding to Galveston. Seems Snyder was the one that found him and he was so horribly disfigured by the fall that they had to seal the casket.”

“But, he…” William shook his head to clear his ideas—he needed to focus on what Mr. Giles had just told him—he’d have time to grieve later once he was alone. He tried to remember all that had happened that day, something wasn’t right with that scenario, and he just couldn’t discern what. “Snyder found him you say? At what time did that happen, do you remember?”

The lawyer seemed lost in thought for a minute and then nodded. “Well, it must have been early in the morning, because I got the message from doña Darla at early afternoon.”

“Hmmm, that sounds awfully suspicious, if you ask me. Snyder came to Angel’s room at mid-morning and said that doña Darla needed to talk to Angel, and then he told me that my father had requested that I joined him in Galveston. Did you know that Snyder knew that don Rodrigo was my father?”

“He knew? How could he know?”

“He claimed that my father told him.”

Giles raised an eyebrow disbelievingly. “Don Rodrigo never would have told him anything, especially that. He despised the man, he was the last person he would have told a secret of that nature. But how could he have found out about that?”

“Well, I imagine we will have to investigate a little to find out something else. And believe me, if he had something to do with my father’s death, my revenge will only be more gruesome than I had already planned it to be. He will learn that William the Bloody is not someone that turns the other cheek, but a force to reckon with.”

*~*~*

Later that same day

Aimée was beyond bored as she took a walk on the beach. Having to live in this insignificant town was pure torture for her. The heat, the people, it all bothered her. But the worst part was having to spend time with her mother and her precious sister. If she had to listen to her mother one more time going on and on over the wonderful marriage Elizabeth was going to have with Angel, she would literally scream.

A small smile graced her lips when she remembered that Angel would be arriving soon and he would wipe all the illusions that Elizabeth had been harboring regarding him when he asked for Aimée’s hand in marriage and not Elizabeth’s. Just knowing that almost made having to stay in this God forgotten town worthwhile. She really hoped that the old cockatoo didn’t convince Angel of marrying his sister. He seemed really besotted with her before she returned to Galveston, but one never knew with Darla De Alcazar.

She was sure that once they were married, it wouldn’t be difficult to convince Angel to move to Boston or maybe even Europe, anything but Campo Real or Galveston. The farther away they were from his mother, the better it was.

She was about to turn back and begin the return to her house, when she noticed someone entering the little cottage that stood nearby. She walked closer and cautiously peered through the window. And what she saw made her mouth water and her body heat in ways that she’d never experienced before. ‘He has to be the handsomest man I’ve seen,’ she thought as she took in the short white blond hair, the tanned expanse of his well toned torso; and it was then that he turned around as if he had felt her gaze upon him. She gasped in shock as she found herself looking into the blue ocean of his eyes. It was one thing to watch a half-naked man without him noticing and a completely different one to be discovered by said man while doing it. Afraid of what could happen if he came out of the cottage, she gathered her skirts and ran back to her house.

tbc





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