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Author's Chapter Notes:
I hope all of you had a great holiday season and I wish you a wonderful new year. Sorry for the delay in updating any of my stories, but RL hasn't been too nice to me lately.

A huge thank you to Im_bloody_English, Amelia-Jane, teasha, SarahandJamesFanatic, Kimber, MidnightGirl and Devin for reading and reviewing. It truly makes my day to read what you think of my story. *hint hint, nudge nudge* ;) Thank you to the lovely Im_bloody_English who edited this chapter for me and who keeps steering me in the right direction everytime I feel lost. And of course to MarzBar for the great beta job.*huggles*
Chapter 42

Spike was pacing the length of his new bedroom, thinking about his recent conversation with María and running different scenarios through his mind as to how his explanation to Buffy about his relationship with Aimée would turn out—and so far, it appeared that none would leave him in very good standing with her.

What bothered him the most was that he’d had so many opportunities to explain it to her beforehand and should have. He was well aware he should have. Bloody hell! He had a chance to do it earlier today after Buffy found her sister with her arms wrapped around his neck and he’d decided not to take it. He’d taken the coward’s way out and now he had to tell her. Tell her and face the consequences for his lack of using that opportunity. Face the very real possibility that she might not want to marry him anymore after she discovered the real nature of the relationship he’d had with her sister. Not that he’d allow her to break off their engagement, she was his and he was determined to marry her. He would do whatever was necessary to ensure she became his wife; he would go over whoever tried to stop him, even Buffy herself, or that dragon of a nana she had for that matter.

However unappealing the idea of marrying her without her consent was, to imagine a life where she wouldn’t be by his side was a thousand times worse. He would steal her away if need be. It wasn’t as if the idea hadn’t crossed his mind before and now he wanted to kick himself for not doing it when he’d found her that morning. It didn’t matter that she hadn’t been the one that had married his brother. If he’d only done that, he wouldn’t be in as much trouble as he was in now.

He ran a hand impatiently through his hair and sighed miserably, it would do him no good to keep speculating. Instead of being here in his room, he should be looking for Buffy and convincing her that regardless of his past relationship with her sister, she should still marry him. Yes, that was exactly what he should do. He was putting his coat on when he heard a knock on the front door. Hoping that his ladylove had come back from wherever she had run off to, he rushed into the anteroom only to find Aimée waiting for him instead.

“What the hell do you want, Aimée?” he asked more than a little annoyed by her presence. As if he didn’t have enough problems already.

“Why, darling, I thought it was obvious, I want you and only you,” she said, walking towards him, throwing her arms around his neck once he was within reach, clinging to him like a limpet—an extremely bothersome limpet—for the second time that day, while she batted her eyelashes coquettishly at him.

“Well, I don’t want you, so you can go now,” he responded with a bored tone, bringing his hands up to disentangle hers from his body, before he stepped away from her to put some much needed distance between them.

‘What did I ever see in her?’ he asked himself for the millionth time since he’d met Buffy. Aside from her beauty, which in his opinion was nowhere close to her sister’s, Aimée was vacuous, vain, manipulative and shallow. She was so completely different from her sister, as different as two sides of the same coin.

“William, darling, I know you’re still angry with me for marrying Angel, but I promise you I didn’t have a choice.” She pouted and stepped forward, placing her hands on his chest to slide them down sensuously while looking at him from beneath her lashes. “It’s you I love, darling, no one else. Let me show you just how much.”

As the redheaded girl’s hand inched closer towards his manhood, he felt nauseous at the idea of letting her show him anything. Taking hold of her hand, he tightened his fingers around it painfully.

Aimée gasped in pain under the crushing grip, raising tearful eyes up to meet his only to find disdain there. Only disdain, not love, not even the slightest hint of the adoration that used to tinge those beautiful blue eyes whenever he’d made love to her. She never expected him to treat her like this, but if that was what it took for him to forgive her and continue their relationship she was willing to endure it all. She would endure anything and everything so she could have him back in her arms again.

He tightened his grip further on her hand briefly before releasing it and then, as if he couldn’t bear to be close to her any longer, he pushed her away with such force that she stumbled backwards until the front door of the room stopped her. “Listen to me and listen to me well, you annoying bint, because I’m only going to say this once. I don’t care if you married Angel De Alcazar by choice or if you were forced into it. I don’t care because you’re nothing to me. I don’t love you. I never did and I most definitely didn’t come to Campo Real for you or have any intention of continuing whatever relationship we once had. So take that idea out of your head once and for all.”

She blinked stupidly, unable to believe what she was hearing. “Why else could you have come then?”

“Are you really this dense? You want to know why I came to Campo Real? I came here for your sister, I love her and I intend to marry her, no matter who I have to kill or what I have to go through to achieve it.”

“My sister? Please, like I’m going to believe that anyone would prefer my sister over me,” she scoffed, laughing humorlessly. There was no way she would ever believe that William could prefer her sister—or any other woman for that matter—over her. He must be doing this to make her jealous. Yes, that was it; he was trying to make her jealous by courting her sister. He was trying to make her pay for marrying Angel and not him. Of course he wasn’t aware that she wouldn’t give up on him so easily, but he would. Just as he would be hers again; it was only a matter of time.

“I would and as a matter of fact, I do prefer Buffy over you; I would have to be blind, dumb or insane to prefer anyone else over her.”

“Ha, even if you did prefer her, which I sincerely doubt, it’s not like you even know her or that she would deign to give you the time of day.”

“Oh, I think I know her quite well. Have you forgotten that I met her when I came looking for you at your house in Galveston?” He almost laughed out loud when he noticed that she indeed seemed to have forgotten about that, at least until now. “And she’s deigned on giving me so much more than just the time of day, she’s given me her word that she’ll marry me.”

“I don’t believe you. Even if there’s a remote chance that what you are saying is true, Elizabeth would never marry you, especially not after finding out that you and I were lovers.”

“She will marry me, make no mistake about that. If blood needs to be spilt for this marriage to take place then I will gladly wield the knife myself.” He narrowed his eyes at her. “And let me warn you, do not even try to poison her against me with your lies or I'll…”

“Or you’ll what, William? You can’t do anything to me, I’m Campo Real’s mistress and you’re less than nothing. And besides it’s too late now.”

“What do you mean it’s too late now?” he asked. She couldn’t mean she’d already told Buffy, could she?

“Well, let’s just say Elizabeth and I shared a most intimate conversation earlier today. It was very informative…for her.”

He quickly walked to where she stood taunting him and without a warning, he extended a hand to grab her by the throat, pinning her to the door. “What did you tell her?” he gritted, his eyes cold and menacing, all the while rejoicing inside at the fear that crossed her features for the first time since their meeting had begun. "Tell me!"

“I-I…” she choked, his grip to her throat too tight for her to say anything else.

Realizing she couldn’t speak under the constrictive hold to her throat, he loosened his grip just enough, allowing her to inhale before she went unconscious. She coughed and sputtered, desperately filling her lungs with air so as to regain her voice, watching him with eyes full of terror and hate. Yes, she finally understood the seriousness of the situation in which she’d been placed by visiting his room.

Tilting his head slightly to one side, he leaned his face closer to hers and spoke in a dangerously low tone, “You better start praying that your sister still wants to marry me after whatever you said to her, Aimée, because if she doesn’t…” he paused, a devilish smirk curling his lips. He watched her eyes widen further with fright as he made a show of reaching into his pocket to pull out his trusty pocket knife. “I will gladly plunge this knife into your cold heart.”

“You wouldn’t dare!” she said, bringing her hand over her heart as if to protect it.

“Just try me and we’ll see if I dare or not,” he replied, bringing the knife to rest over her heart, he twisted the tip until it broke her skin, forcing a small bead of blood to slowly grow under the point.

“You’ll regret this!” she exclaimed, her cheeks flushed from a mixture of her newfound anger and fear for him.

“The only thing I regret is getting involved with a woman that’s only good for one thing and that’s when you’re on your back with your mouth shut, in case you were wondering. Then again, you aren’t very good at that either, now are you?” He raised one eyebrow at her, as he finally released her throat. “Now, go! Don’t come back again if you know what’s good for you. And remember, if you do anything…anything at all that might jeopardize my relationship with your sister, nothing and no one will save you from my wrath. I’ll make your life a living hell and after I’m done with you, you’ll be begging me to put an end to your miserable life.”

With a gasp born of both outrage and fear for her life, she realized that he meant every word. She blindly reached for the knob behind her and opened the door, fleeing away from his room, while she vowed to herself that this was not over yet, not by a long shot. He might think he was infatuated with her sister now, but she knew better. He would be hers again. It would take time and a plan of course, but no matter what she had to do, he would come back to her.

*~*~*

Darla read the note Elizabeth had sent her and sighed, dreading that this was the result of whatever Aimée had told her sister during the conversation Cordelia had told her of. Hopefully things wouldn’t go further than that, because if they did… Well, she’d have to make sure that her daughter-in-law learned once and for all that no one messed with Darla De Alcazar’s plans without paying for it.

That would have to wait though, she needed to speak to William first and make sure that he agreed to play his part in her plan.

On her way to his room, she was nearly knocked over by a fleeing Aimee, looking flustered and distressed. She bit the inside of her cheek to stop the smile that threatened to bloom on her lips as she took in the disheveled appearance of her niece and her very evident discomfort at being discovered leaving a single man’s quarters. The girl was even more reckless and stupid than she’d given her credit for. Not that she had any doubts about it before, but she hadn’t expected the girl to dig her own grave as fast as she was.

“What are you doing in this wing, Aimée? I thought you were resting since you were feeling rather poorly earlier today,” she asked, her voice laced with false sweetness.

“I-I… just came to see if our new guest needed anything, Aunt Darla, as is the duty of any good chatelaine,” Aimée replied, looking everywhere but at the woman in front of her. As if what just happened with William wasn’t enough; she also had to find her not so dear mother-in-law outside his room.

“I see,” Darla replied, a smile that could only be considered as evil drawing in her mouth. “I’m delighted to see that you are taking your new duties as Campo Real’s mistress with true dedication, Aimée. Of course, I shall tell Angel of this as soon as I see him, so he can rejoice along with me that his bride is so mindful of his guest.”

“N-no, no, that would not be necessary,” Aimée said, blanching at the thought of Angel finding out that she had been alone with William in his room. Especially since she was sure her Aunt would make sure to inject enough malice in her comment to make it look at least twice as bad as it had been. Why did she ever think that it was a good idea to visit William in his room?

“Oh, but I think it is, darling.” Darla put her hand over the girl’s arm and patted it condescendingly. “Now go along to your room, you look like you could use a little rest before supper.”

“But—” Aimée tried to interject.

“But nothing, go to your room, rest and do not worry your pretty little head over anything.”

Knowing that there was no way to convince her mother-in-law that talking to Angel was not a good idea, Aimée nodded dejectedly and without a second glance at her Aunt’s now beaming face, she passed by her side and walked to her room.

Darla couldn’t hide her pleasure at finally putting her niece in her place. This was only the beginning; Aimée would soon discover what a bad idea it had been to try to meddle up with her plans.

*~*~*

Galveston

Buffy hid the horse behind some trees near the beach after leading it to a small creek so it could drink its fill of sweet water. They made good time in their trip and there was still enough daylight that if she hurried, she’d arrive at the Convent before sunset.

She hadn’t seen anyone on the way over to Galveston and hopefully, no one had seen her. Of course, that was partly because she’d been especially careful, avoiding the main road and using alternate paths instead for fear of seeing anyone. Then she steered well away from the center of town, taking a detour that led to the beach just to be sure.

Once she reached the back entrance of her house, she went through the garden into her house, giving silent thanks that all of the servants were now at Campo Real, otherwise it would have been very difficult—if not impossible—to avoid them.

She entered her room and sighed longingly when her eyes settled on her bed. She was exhausted, both physically and emotionally, but she couldn’t afford the time to risk stopping for rest now. She had to get to the Convent before anyone discovered that she wasn’t in Campo Real and came looking for her.

She took a bag from her wardrobe and quickly filled it with toiletries and a few clothes she knew she would eventually need. Next, she took all her savings out from their hiding spot underneath the mattress and after giving her bed one last longing glance, she walked over to her vanity.

Buffy stared at her image reflected on the mirror, she looked…haunted, which wasn’t all that surprising considering everything she’d been through that day.

What was she going to do with her life from now on? All her dreams and illusions lay crumpled on the floor along with the shattered pieces of her heart. She’d been so foolish to believe that William loved her, to believe everything that he’d said earlier that day. Never again. If there was one thing she could be certain of, it was that she would never believe in him or in anyone so blindly again.

tbc

I hadn't planned on including the confrontation between Spike and Aimée, at least not this soon, but my muse kept prodding me until I wrote it. And now I'm very curious as to what you thought about it.





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