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Author's Chapter Notes:
Thank you, Devin, Kimber, Amelia-Jane, Klai and Ashley Granchester for your kind reviews, you make me a very happy girl when I read them.



And thank you, Jen, for being so supportive and for helping me so much with each chapter.
Chapter 9

Boston, the next day

“You are so beautiful,” Angel said in earnest to Aimée, as he gazed into her green eyes while holding one of her hands in his.

She smiled sweetly at him, lowering her eyes with false modesty as she resisted the urge to roll her eyes at him. Why couldn’t men be a little more original when they paid compliments to her? It was always the same. Oh well, nothing she could do about that. At least Angel was by far one of her handsomest and richest suitors. After all there weren’t that many noble men that were willing to marry a girl who didn’t have a dowry.

“Oh, I am sure that’s not true, Angel. You must have met many beautiful women in Europe, all of them more beautiful than me.” She tried to pull her hand out of his, but he refused to relinquish it.

“No. I promise you every other woman pales in comparison to you, Aimée. In fact, as soon as we both get back to Galveston I would love to ask for your mother’s permission to court you.”

“Court me?” she asked. “But what about Elizabeth?”

“Elizabeth? You mean your sister? I have not seen your sister in years, why would you ask me about her?”

“I was under the impression that—” she began to say, stopping when she noticed his confusion. The so-called engagement between her sister and Angel must have been her mother and Aunt Darla’s decision then. This could actually work in her favor; especially now that she’d been summoned by her mother back to Galveston. “Never mind, I must have been confused.” She sighed, lowering her eyelashes and then looking at him, feigning a sadness that she really didn’t feel. “I would love to be courted by you, I-I like you, Angel, but we are cousins and I have no dowry, your mother will never accept a relationship between us.”

“Nonsense. Of course my mother will accept you and we are not cousins, not really anyway, you know that. And about not having a dowry, well, I really do not mind about that and I am sure my mother will agree with me.”

“Are you sure?” Aimée said, a hopeful smile gracing her features. She was so close to reaching her goal of finding a rich and powerful husband, that she could practically taste it.

“I am sure, my darling,” he said bringing her hand up to his mouth and kissing it.

*~*~*

Later that same day

"Do you really think he will propose marriage to you?" Willow asked, raising an eyebrow disbelievingly at Aimée after the girl related all that had transpired when Angel visited her earlier in the day.

"Of course he will. He has already asked for my permission to talk to mother. I have him eating from the palm of my hand. You will see, cousin, as soon as we go back to Galveston, he will ask me to be his wife."

"I never imagined that you would fall in love with him so fast," the redhead said, her romantic mind deciding that love and marriage had to go hand in hand.

"Ugh, you are so gullible!" Aimée rolled her eyes at her cousin. "As if I could have fallen in love with Angel when I just met him yesterday. I'll concede that he is charming and handsome, but at the same time he's so… hmm, let's just say that he is just too gentlemanly and predictable for my tastes. I would love to meet someone that would sweep me off my feet and show me what passion is like." She sighed. "But since I am never going to find that in the men of our class and I'm not about to stoop beneath our level, I imagine Angel will have to do. As long as he believes I do love him and is willing to marry me over my sister, I'll keep on with the charade."

"But what about your sister? Weren't they engaged to be married?"

"I think that engagement was just wishful thinking on Elizabeth and Aunt Darla's part. Angel was very confused when I asked him about her, so I'm pretty sure he does not even know about their plans to marry him to my sister, the prude, as soon as he arrives at Campo Real."

"And do you think that your Aunt Darla is going to accept that you marry Angel instead of Elizabeth, then? Seems to me she was pretty set in marrying them and, knowing her, she definitely would not be easy to convince."

"To tell you the truth, that's the only thing that I'm afraid of, Aunt Darla has never favored me much. Although, I am hoping that all these years away from the skirts of mommy dearest, Angel is now man enough to go over her wishes and let her know that he will marry me, and not my sister."

Willow decided not to tell her that maybe Angel would not want to marry her once he'd met her sister. It had been years since she'd seen Elizabeth, but she remembered that she was a beautiful girl, with long golden tresses. She was also sweet, good natured and innocent. She really hoped, for Angel's sake, that he didn't let Aimée's beauty blind him to the point that he couldn't see which of the two sisters would really be a better wife for him.

*~*~*

At Campo Real

Twelve years. Snyder still couldn’t believe he had been Campo Real’s Administrator for that long. Once he’d disposed of the only two persons that could actually threaten his position, it’d been nothing but smooth sailing for him.

It had been so easy to get rid of the patrón’s bastard, one look at him and the captain of The Satan had accepted his present gladly. With any luck that was the last time he’d seen William in his life. Hell! With a little more luck and maybe the boy had fell off the ship’s deck into the sea and became shark food.

As for don Rodrigo, well, even if he hadn’t died from his wounds as he’d hoped, he hadn’t really been a problem. Sheriff Travers had been awfully cooperative after he realized that Snyder was the new Administrator of Campo Real, and had provided an isolated cell for him at the Galveston’s Prison. Shortly after they moved him there they’d discovered that he’d lost all of his memories due to the blow to his head when he’d fell off the horse.

But now there was someone else that could threaten his position. Damned Angel De Alcazar! Why couldn’t he have stayed in Europe and let him run Campo Real? Doña Darla better keep her end of their deal or he’d have to tell her darling son a few hard truths about his mother.

*~*~*

Galveston

Rupert Giles took off his glasses to clean them as his mind traveled back to twelve years ago. He had tried by all the means available to him to find William with no results. It was as if the boy had disappeared from the face of the Earth. He had followed so many leads that had come out to be nothing.

Twelve years. A long time to feel guilty over not being there when the boy he’d swore himself to protect had needed him the most.

A knock on the front door of his office took Rupert Giles out of his dark thoughts. He put his glasses on and getting up from his chair he went to open the door.

tbc





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