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A/N: Thanks for all the great reviews - I really appreciate them and I hope you enjoy the next chapter :)

CHAPTER 14 - Unannounced Guests

Five days after Elizabeth realised her feelings for William, she set off to Cambridge to do her usual weekly shop. Being that it was Saturday and he was free, William had offered to go with her but she’d refused. True to his word, he hadn’t made any further advances towards her, except of a friendly nature, and she was finding that more of a strain than his previous actions.


William watched her go wishing there was something he could do to ease her still obvious tenseness…wishing he
could find some magic potion that would make her stop loving Connor and love him instead.

It seemed so unfair. She liked him, she desired him, but she loved someone else and no matter how much he lay in bed at night aching for her, he wouldn’t use that physical attraction to undermine her anymore. Not when she’d begged him not to.

He went into the kitchen to get himself a drink when Giles entered the room carrying an overnight case that he put on the floor. "Going somewhere, Rupert?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh, uh, yes, actually," the older man stammered uncomfortably as he removed his glasses and began to clean them furiously. "I’ve just remembered that a…a friend is in town for a couple of days and I…uh…I’m going to meet up with them and s-stay over for the night."

William watched the other man in amusement and was delighted at the blush that rose on his cheeks when he asked nonchalantly, "A female friend is it?"

Giles replaced his glasses and nodded. "Er…yes, actually…my friend is a woman," he admitted, unable to meet his colleague’s eyes for more than a second at time.

"Good for you, Rupert," William said with a smile. "Enjoy yourself tonight then."

Giles reddened further then cleared his throat loudly and picked up his bag. "Thank you." He glanced around the room again then back at William. "Have I missed Elizabeth?" William nodded and Giles sighed. "Would you mind telling her that I shan’t be home tonight?"

William nodded again and Giles turned to go then paused and looked back at the younger man. "You know, William, maybe you and Elizabeth could make use of this time alone tonight to…uh…get to know each other a little better," he suggested awkwardly.

William’s eyes widened in surprise then narrowed into a frown. What the hell was he saying? "I think know Elizabeth fairly well already, Rupert," he replied slowly.

Giles looked as if he were going to say more but then nodded and smiled slightly. Maybe he’d been wrong about the chemistry he’d thought he’d seen between the two. Heaven’s knew he wasn’t an expert on the subject of romance. "Of course," he agreed amicably. "See you tomorrow then."

"Yeah, goodbye," William responded absently, still frowning at the other man's implications. What an odd thing for him to say. It was almost as though he were trying to suggest that he and Elizabeth…

But that was ridiculous! Just a few days ago he was stating how happy she was with her fiancé.

Drink forgotten, William shook his head and decided he must be wanting Elizabeth so much now that he was beginning to read too much into the most vaguest of things. Obviously it was a side effect of his nightly frustrations and so he decided to make himself useful while getting rid of some of his excess energy and cut the grass as he’d promised Elizabeth he would.

As it was a relatively warm day, he jogged upstairs and entered his room then dug around in his wardrobe until he pulled out an old pair of black jeans and a black T-shirt. Donning them, he went downstairs and out into the garden to mow the lawn.

He was barely halfway through when there was a crunch from the mower and then a loud grinding noise. William switched it off then turned it on its side to see that the blade had caught on a stone and broken. With a tut of annoyance at the machine, he walked off to unplug it from the mains then came back and knelt down to begin removing the snapped blade. He hadn’t got very far when he heard the sound of a car pulling up on the gravel drive out front.

Checking his watch, he saw that it was still too early for Elizabeth to be returning from shopping and wondered if Rupert had forgotten something and come back. Standing up, he brushed the excess dirt off his hands before heading around the side of the house to investigate. As he rounded the corner, he came to a stop when he saw a reasonably tall, young woman getting out of a silver Vauxhall Vectra.

"Hi," she greeted with a friendly smile on her pretty face. "William, right?"

William stared back at her, confusion clouding his features that this stranger should know his name. "Yes," he replied slowly.

"I'm Dawn," she introduced herself brightly. "Elizabeth's sister."

William's eyes widened slightly at recognition of her name. Giles had mentioned that he had a second niece called Dawn who enjoyed travelling around the world but he'd not really gone into any detail and William had never pressed as his interest lay with the older man's other niece.

"Hello," he greeted then looked over to the car as a movement caught his eye and a tall, brown-haired young man got out of the driver’s side.

Dawn followed his gaze then smiled sweetly at the young man and held out her hand towards him. "This is my fiancé…Connor."

She wasn’t looking directly at William as she made this announcement, something for which he was extremely grateful because he was certain he must have been looking at her as if she were mad.

Later, he would reflect on the irony of how a huge, life changing revelation such as this would come to light in such a quiet, ordinary way. So ordinary in fact, that he seriously doubted his hearing for moment, because if Connor really had just been introduced as Dawn's fiancé and not Elizabeth's, it would've surely been accompanied by a fanfare of epic proportions, wouldn't it?

Not this strange light-headed, buzzing that he was experiencing, that was so loud in his own ears that he only vaguely heard Dawn say something about only having got back to England the night before and deciding to pay a surprise visit to her uncle and her sister.

"Are they inside?" she asked pinning him with her gaze again.

William stared blankly at her for a second before his brain finally processed her words. "Um…Rupert's away for the night visiting a friend and Elizabeth's out shopping," he supplied falteringly, knowing he sounded almost nervous but unable to do anything about it.

He couldn't seem to keep his eyes off of the man standing at Dawn's side. This was Connor. The man that he'd mentally raged about, envied completely and hated with a vengeance. The man who, he'd thought, was standing between him and the only woman in his life he'd ever truly loved.

The man who had just been introduced as the fiancé of said woman's little sister.

The friendliness of Dawn's initial greeting slowly faded, cool scrutiny appearing in its place as she saw William staring dazedly at Connor who was shifting uncomfortably under the other man's gaze. "Is there a problem?" she asked sharply.

Numbly, William shook his head as he desperately tried to get a grasp on the situation. "You're engagement," he blurted out suddenly, needing clarification that what he'd heard the first time was real. "How long…I mean, when did you…?"

Dawn frowned at his question, wondering why he looked so shaken. This didn't appear to be the composed and intellectual man that Elizabeth had described in detail during their weekly phone calls with each other. "Connor and I got engaged at Christmas," she told him coolly.

"Christmas?" William repeated dubiously. "But…I don't understand," he muttered to himself as he looked down at the ground briefly before raising his eyes to Dawn once more, his eyes narrowing slightly as he clarified harshly, "And Elizabeth knows about this?"

Dawn looked puzzled at the line of questioning he'd suddenly taken and nodded her head. "Of course she does. She helped us celebrate at mum and dad's a few weeks ago." She paused then added impatiently, "Look, I'm sure there's a reason behind all these questions, but really, jet lag's setting in and I just want to see my sister, so, do you know when Elizabeth will be back?"

"Back?" William echoed absently, his mind still reeling from the shock of what Dawn had unknowingly just revealed. Connor was frowning at him and he could tell that the other man didn't like the way he'd been questioning Dawn but there was so much here that just didn't make sense. So much that was muddled and confused and yet through it all, one thing was slowly becoming blatantly clear…

Elizabeth had lied to him.

Hard on the heels of that realisation was a surge of anger so intense that he had to clamp his mouth shut in order not to let out the string of expletives that rose to his lips lest he alienate Dawn and Connor even further.

Swallowing down his ire, his mind rapidly flew back over the last three weeks of his stay and suddenly William began to see things in a new light. Gile's not so subtle hint just that very morning. Elizabeth's own admission of desiring and wanting him but not acting on it for fear of losing her self-respect. She was trying to protect herself, she'd said. Couldn't have a relationship based purely on sex…

His heart tripped suddenly. Was that really her telling him she didn't love him, as he'd automatically thought…or had that been her thinking he didn't feel that way about her? And if so, did that mean that she did, in fact, love him after all?

Or was he finally having a mental breakdown and all this was merely a hallucination brought on by his frustrated desire having actually fried his brain?

He swallowed hard. Just the possibility that Elizabeth might feel the same as he, was enough to deflate his anger as quickly as it had arisen and allow hope to flare brightly in his chest.

Maybe he was just kidding himself, but what if she'd been going through the same agony as he? What if she'd realised she'd fallen for him on that first night but refused to acknowledge it, just as he'd done, thinking that it wasn't possible?

He heard his name being called and blinked rapidly as he focussed his attention on Dawn again who was staring at him with a concerned look. "You okay?" she asked with a slight frown. "You've gone a little pale and you keep fazing out on us."

"Sorry, I'm fine," he replied quietly then paused and looked from Dawn to Connor and back again as an idea began to take shape in his mind. An idea that he realised would need their help to come to fruition.

Naturally, after his recent little interrogation, he was sure that convincing them would be easier said than done, but, much as he hated the idea of discussing his private feelings and personal life with someone else, there was too much at stake for him to risk losing Elizabeth now that he suspected she might just love him in return.

"Listen," he said quietly to them both. "I know this may sound weird and I haven't really been…" He paused as he searched for the right words.

"Totally sane?" Dawn suggested dryly.

"Welcoming," William amended with a small smile before adding seriously, "But I really need to talk to you both before Elizabeth comes back."

He saw the look of concern that darkened Dawn's gaze and the way Connor's hand tightened supportively around hers and hurriedly reassured her, "No, nothing's wrong. Elizabeth is fine. It's just that…look, why don't we go inside? I'll make us all a drink and then we can talk."
xxxxxxxx
Half an hour later, Dawn was staring at him with a deep frown marring her pretty face. William had just finished telling them about his meeting Elizabeth that snowy night, his subsequent attempts to trace her and the joy of finding her again only to have it dashed when she'd lied about her engagement.

"I love her and I think she loves me," he finally told them with a sigh as he openly admitted his feelings. "But there's been so many misunderstandings and misconceptions between us…" He lifted his hands in mute explanation of the complexity of the situation. "If I went to Buffy now and told her I know she lied about her engagement and then tell her how I feel about her, I doubt that she'd believe me. She'll just think I'm saying it to try to get her back into bed. I don’t think she's got the self-confidence to trust either what she feels…or me. I need to get closer to her, to win her trust and I think I know the way." He paused and looked at them appealingly. "But I'm going need your help."

The engaged couple glanced at each other for a moment before they turned back and Connor said, "Go on, we're listening."

While William talked, Dawn and Connor paid rapt attention. Once or twice Dawn interrupted, questioning him sharply, but slowly her reticence evaporated and amusement took its place. "I'm not sure I should be agreeing to this," she told him, once they'd both promised to help. "And if you hadn't assured me that Buffy won't get hurt…"

"If she hadn't lied to me in the first place then none of this would be necessary," William pointed out, his tone grim. While he thought he could understand what had motivated Buffy, the thought of all the unhappiness she'd caused them both by her creation of a fictitious fiancé made him angry enough to believe that a little revenge of his own wouldn't do her any harm.

He stood up and took the empty mugs on the table over to the sink. Dawn joined him there and touched his arm to get his attention. "You do love her, don't you, William?" she asked seriously.

William stared back at her, his eyes conveying the truth of his words and depth of his feelings as he replied, "Yes, Dawn, I do." He gave her a slight smile. "I wouldn't be doing any of this otherwise."

The dark haired girl studied him a moment longer then smiled back and nodded. She prided herself on being a good judge of character and his sincerity and love would have been obvious to a blind person. She felt the last of her trepidation slip away deciding that her sister was a very lucky woman. "Good," she said at last. "I'm glad she's finally found someone like you, William. I think you'll make her very happy."

She walked off and William let out a heavy sigh hoping against hope that Buffy would give him a chance to prove her right.

TBC IN CHAPTER 15 - The Games People Play





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