Summer of 1770
"He’s a perfectly fine young man, as far as young men go. But, like I told you Elizabeth, boys and young men are evil. They like to prey on women, taking everything away from them until there is nothing there but an empty shell." Anya rambled on to her cousin as they sat in the drawing room while the rest of the house was being prepared for the party later that night. "This Xander fellow though, he is nice…a bit on the odd side but nice nonetheless."
"You are a bit odd yourself, Anya." Elizabeth giggled, leaning back against the coach. "So you are prefect for one another."
"We are not…going to get married, Elizabeth. Get those silly notions out of your head. He’s too different from me." There was a long pause before Anya spoke again. "I would let him kiss me if he wanted to do so."
Elizabeth’s eyes widened as she whipped her head around to look at her cousin. "Anya!" She gasped with surprise. "I cannot believe you just said that!"
"What?" Anya shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly. "I would. Like I just said to you Elizabeth, he’s nice and I fancy him a bit. So, I think that it would be all right if he wanted to kiss me."
"You are very strange cousin." Elizabeth told her before getting up from her place on the couch in the drawing room and made her way upstairs where the Rayne family was busy unpacking.
Cautiously, Elizabeth walked towards the room she knew William would be staying in because it was directly across from hers. When she reached the entrance of his room, she began to worry, biting her bottom lip like crazy. Raising her small fist, she rapped on the door lightly.
Seconds later the door slowly opened and William's head poked out. "‘Lisabeth!" He grinned at her brightly and grabbed her by the hand to lead her inside his bedroom. "I was wondering when you would come and see me."
"R-really?" Her heart rate sped up when she realized that his hand was still tightly holding hers.
"Well, yes of course." William told her matter-of-factly, sitting down on his bed and tugged her over to sit down beside him. "S’been too long since I’ve seen you."
"I know." The blush on her face turned a darker shade of pink at the smile he was showing her. She was being silly, why was she blushing so profusely at him? She wasn’t like this when they were children. Immediately she snatched her hand away from his and carefully placed it in her lap. "Both of our families have been busy."
William looked intently at the blushing girl that was sitting next to him. It was strange really, every time he looked at her or thought about her, he smiled and sort of fluttering feeling settled upon his chest. It was the same feeling that he was getting at this moment.
"Willow s’not here for the holiday." He said once he managed to get the feeling in his chest to calm down.
"Her parents have been making her take etiquette lessons and she has been too busy with them."
Elizabeth hadn’t seen her cousin in over a year and missed her companionship. She was tired of being locked up at home with only her little sister Dawn to keep her company. Of course, there were other girls that lived close by but they were upper class snobs who took pleasure of teasing people in lower classes. Elizabeth had the unfortunate pleasure of meeting a girl named Darla. She was a nasty one. She would scrunch up her nose at anything that was not English, she said she found it ‘distasteful.’ Elizabeth thanked her lucky stars that she was able to sneak away from the girl and for the remainder of the evening lay out on the hill behind her house, watching the stars.
"You miss her?" William asked her softly, watching the flicker of sadness come over her face.
"Yes." She whispered softly. "I have been kind of alone for awhile here. Mother has been busy with her friends and their whole social circle. Father works majority of the time. Dawn is too young to be a suitable companion."
"I am sorry." His hand reached out and took hers. He too felt the same loneliness as she did at times. Ethan was always out or cooped up in his office. His mother had lately been keeping herself locked up in her room, hiding away from Ethan and his wrath. Xander briefly came to visit every other spring but most of the time he was busy on the farm with his father.
The pair was interrupted when Fiona came bustling in, her cheeks tinged with a deep shade of red from running around the house. "Come now children, time for dinner. Hurry on downstairs now! Come on!" The nanny then hurried out of the room and back down the hall to where all the new guests were waiting downstairs.
"I don’t want to go." Elizabeth pouted, her lower lip jutting out in a childish manner.
William laughed at the girl and tugged her off the bed and began to lead her down the hallway. "And why is that?"
"Parties are always dull and boring here." The girl began to rant as they made their way slowly down the hallway towards the main staircase, wanting to prolong the moment between them. "Mother invites all of her chattering friends who don’t know the pleasure of taking a breath because they talk so much. Then those women bring their husbands who all smoke like a chimney and make our library smell like cigars and brandy. They also bring along their children, most of them are younger and like to squeal their heads off. And the ones that are my age are nothing but snobs who like making other people miserable." Elizabeth sighed as they finally managed to reach the stairs and looked down upon the crowd.
There were sounds of laughter accompanied by the melody of a string quartet. Everything was glamorous and extravagant; all the women were dressed in large ballroom gowns and jewelry while the men were decked out in their best suits, sipping from expensive glasses. The whole of downstairs had been made into a huge ballroom where some of the partygoers had the room to dance about the area. The pair could barely make out any familiar faces among the throngs of people. Elizabeth grasped onto William’s hand tighter as she pulled him down the stairs with her.
Elizabeth’s face twisted in anger when she got sight of Mrs. Abrams coming their way and dragging her no good son Parker behind her by the hand. Mrs. Abrams was nothing but a gossip whore who loved to push her way into people’s business. She was persistent and never gave up until she got what she wanted. She was very thin woman with an equally thin face. She had a distracting large mole on her cheek that Elizabeth could never stop staring at whenever they encountered one another. Her eyes were dark and penetrating, as was her attitude; she could cut you down to size with just few, wonderfully chosen words.
As the woman got closer Elizabeth plastered a huge smile upon her face, "Hello, Mrs. Abrams, good to see you again."
Mrs. Abrams turned her nose up slightly at William and then turned to Elizabeth, giving her a faint smile. "Well Elizabeth, I must say you do clean up nicely. You look lovely." She drew her attention back over at William and stuck up her nose again, her demeanor changing. "And who is this?"
"This is William Rayne! His family is staying with us for the summer holiday!" Elizabeth was practically beaming as she introduced her good friend, hoping that Mrs. Abrams would be impressed but the lack of change of emotion on the older woman’s face showed that it didn’t work.
Mrs. Abrams pursed her lips as her eyes disapprovingly ran over William. "Oh yes, I heard about you." She hissed, turning her attention back to the girl next to him. William wanted to smack her across the face from the way she looked at him like he was nothing but dirt. The Rayne boy held back the desire too because he knew it would upset Elizabeth and embarrass her. "Elizabeth dear, look who I brought to see you!"
Mrs. Abrams tugged Parker around her to face Elizabeth with a look of hope in her eyes. The blonde girl wanted to die when she came face to face with Parker. She hated him with a passion. He was always trying to get her to kiss him. He would whisper terrible things in her ear when no one was around. Then when she would not accept his offer he would make fun of her and call her names before going off to chat up another girl like Darla and her friends. He was disgusting.
"Hello Elizabeth." He said with a breathy voice that she never heard him use before and then took her hand in his and kissed it softly. As soon as his lips left her hand, she snatched her hand away from him in an angry jerk. "It has been awhile. A year perhaps?"
"Yes, unfortunately." She hissed underneath her breath. Next to her, she heard William chuckle and looked over at him with a small smile.
"Would you mind if I asked you to dance Elizabeth?" He asked in such a polite manner that Elizabeth almost believed it to be sincere. However, she knew that he was only acting this way because his mother was only two feet behind him and if she weren’t, he would be grabbing her hand and whisking her away to empty hallway where he would whisper to her again.
William dropped her hand as if telling her she had permission to leave him. She looked over at him and he just gave her a sad smile, telling her with his eyes that it was okay. She smiled back at him but instead of going off with Parker, she took his hand back in hers. "No, thank you Parker." She shoved their entwined hands in front of Parker’s face. "I am spending my time with William."
With a bounce in her step, Elizabeth walked through the ballroom while still holding onto William’s hand. She loved standing up to Parker, it usually gave her such pride and what was better this time because his mother was standing right behind him. Elizabeth would do anything to avoid spending any kind of time with Parker.
"Enjoyed that did you?" William chuckled at her as he watched the look of satisfaction play across his features.
"Maybe." She grinned tugging him towards the dinning room; "Parker is incredibly horrible. I cannot stand him."
"I could see that." As they sat down at the dinning table, William looked out of the dinning room and through the windows to the shimmering lake that was beyond the house at the end of a large hill. A thought crept through his mind and he leaned forward hesitantly towards Elizabeth and whispered, "once we are done here…would you like to go…do you want to step out for a spell and get away from the festivities?"
Elizabeth smiled at the sound of uncertainty in his voice that showed his nervousness in asking her. A slight blush rose to her cheeks when her eyes steadily met his and gave him a quick nod before turning her head away with slight childlike embarrassment. She squirmed in her chair as the rest of the guests sat down for their dinner and the courses were being served. Looking up across the table sat Parker with an irritating gleam in his eyes that she wanted to erase. His mother was talking candidly to Joyce about the futures for their children and Elizabeth wanted to die right then and there as she barely made out their conversation.
"I think it will be a perfect match." Mrs. Abrams said with a firm nod of the head, sipping delicately from her wineglass. "Perfect. Don’t you think?"
"I suppose so." Joyce said, a tone of skepticism laced in her voice. "I am sure that your Parker would be wonderful match for my Elizabeth but I do not want to commit to anything as of yet. I think I should keep my options open for her. I also do not think that your lovely Parker could handle her. She is such a free spirit, unlike most girls her age."
Mrs. Abrams shook her head at her companion then took another sip from glass. Elizabeth was entranced on how Mrs. Abrams lips seemed to take the shape of a fish every time she took a drink from her glass. "Nothing that a couple of years in finishing school won’t help. I sent my eldest girl Mary there and she turned out perfectly. She married a thriving businessman in England, quite a lovely man."
Joyce’s eyebrows knitted together as if she was in deep thought about something. A look of distress then fell upon her aged face and took a long drink from her glass. "I should consider it…the idea of finishing school for her. She’s so free spirited and shall I say…a tad bit…wild and that could lose her chances for finding her a perfect suitor. I shall think about it."
Mrs. Abrams beamed as she leaned forward in her seat towards Joyce with a look of interest on her face and delight. "Well, well, this is quite an interesting development. If you make the choice to send her to finishing school I shall recommend you to the school I sent Mary to in England, it is very lovely. Mary did not want to leave there when her time there was finished."
The women continued to chat animatedly amongst themselves but Elizabeth stopped caring about the subject. She could not believe that her mother would even think about sending her away to a stuffy finishing school where she would have to wear books on top of her head and learn how to be a ‘proper lady.’ Elizabeth would rather kiss Parker Abrams on the mouth than go off to finishing school.
" ‘Lisabeth?" William’s voice tore her away from her musings and brought her attention to him. "Anything wrong? You have not touched your food yet?"
Elizabeth had been so wrapped up in her thoughts that she hadn’t noticed that her food had been brought to her. Sending him a reassuring smile, the eldest Summers girl picked up her fork and began to pick through her food. She would occasionally pick up conversations from around the table. She could hear Anya prattle away to Xander about some strange nonsense about a girl named Martha. Elizabeth had no idea her cousin could talk so much and that fast. Xander somehow brought out the talkative side in her. Jenny was also in a deep discussion with Rupert, about business with Ethan and their lives in general. The woman who use to have so much light and now she almost seemed like a shadow of what she use to be. She was thinner from what she once was; she seemed just like skin and bones with pale skin stretched across. It seemed that Ethan’s wrath was finally starting to get to her physically.
Dinner seemed like an eternity to the young girl and she was truly, truly happy when her last course was taken away from her and everyone started to get up from their seats and move back to main area. Elizabeth started to get up but William placed his hand on her shoulder and held her in place.
"Wait." He whispered to her, his blue eyes watching as everyone left the room that didn’t notice the pair that still remained in their seats. Once they had left, William took her hand and pulled her out of her seat. "Come on, we’re goin’ outside."
Elizabeth held on tight as he led her outside and down the hill behind her house. "Where are we going William?"
"Down to the lake of course." He replied with a mischievous grin on his lips and wanted to burst out in laughter by the shocked expression on her face. "You all right there, ‘Lisabeth?"
Elizabeth bit her bottom lip in apprehensiveness and a worried blush crept upon her cheeks. "I do not think we should go down there. My father will not like it. He does not let me go down to the lake without a proper escort." She told him as she disentangled his hand from hers.
William stared at her with disbelief for a couple of beats before breaking out in beaming laughter. "Are you fibbing?" He managed to get out between laughter filled gasps of breath.
The girl pouted and crossed her arms over her chest; he’s already making fun of me again, she thought as William finally managed to catch his breath. "T’isn’t funny, William. Do not make fun of me."
William shook his head at her and giving her a reassuring smile before capturing her hand back in his. "Come on now. No one is going to know. Will be our little secret."
Elizabeth frowned as she allowed him to pull her down the hill towards the dark lake. Her father wouldn’t like this. He especially wouldn’t be pleased with the fact that she went with William…alone. It wasn’t that Rupert didn’t love William –he had mentioned several times to his wife that he thought of William as the son he never had. It was the fact that Rupert didn’t trust any boy who had relations with his eldest daughter. Rupert had told her many times that all boys had terrible intentions towards young girls and it wasn’t proper of a young lady such as herself to go off alone with them.
"We’re here." He whispered, squeezing her hand lightly before letting it go. Elizabeth slightly frowned at the loss of contact and her eyes widened when she saw him start to remove his jacket and then his navy colored waistcoat.
"What are you doing!" She gasped; covering her eyes in embarrassment as a dark blush crept upon her cheeks.
She heard him chuckle at her before taking both of her hands and pulled them away from her eyes. "Not taking my clothes off ‘Lisabeth, just getting comfortable." He told her softly before sitting down at the edge of the lake, removing his shoes and stockings and settling his bare feet into the cold waters. Noticing that she hadn’t moved to sit beside him, he looked over his shoulder and furrowed his dark eyebrows at her. She was still standing where he had left her with her hands clasped tightly in front of her and her head ducked as she tried to hide the deep blush on her cheeks. "You coming or not? Cause if not, you might as well go back up to the boring party and listen to your mother and Parker’s mum chatter on and on about the latest gossip. And if you want to stay, I suggest you take off those stockings and slippers of yours and stick your feet in the water."
Elizabeth nibbled on her bottom lip in hesitation before quickly removing her stockings and new slippers that her mother had bought her yesterday and plopped herself down next to William, hiking her skirts up as she stuck her pale feet into the water. A shiver wracked down her spine as her feet came in contact with the surprisingly chilly water. "It’s cold."
"I know." He whispered, swirling his feet in the dark water. "How have you been?"
Elizabeth bit the inside of her cheek as she thought about her answer. "I suppose I’ve been alright. I suppose a little bit of lonely. Mother is always busy with her new friends while your father keeps mine…" She trailed off when she noticed the body next to her flinch at the mention of Ethan. "He’s been hurting you again hasn’t he?"
William let out a shaky breath, running his hands down the front of his face. "N-not as m-much as he use to. I get by. I avoid him as much as I c-can and it w-works." He stuttered and looked at her with uncertain eyes. "It’s my mum that he has been taking his anger out on lately."
"She doesn’t look as well as she use to."
"No, she doesn’t." He let out a long, lingering breath while bright eyes stayed focused on the dismal waters in front of them. "Ethan has been treating her…he’s…he’s been hitting her again." Next to him, Elizabeth gasped and he flinched at the sound. "Every other night, he will come home, drunk off of his arse. Then they’ll start fighting, and it ends with him…" William could feel tears well up in his eyes as his mother’s screams of pain and suffering from last week came back to him. Ethan would have killed William if he knew that he was awake and listening to him, so William could do nothing about her pain. "He’s been drinking a lot. A boy on my street told me that his father saw Ethan at the local brothel a couple of times." Tears slipped down his cheeks as he remembered.
"I am so sorry William." She whimpered with sympathy, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and hugged him tightly to her. He clung to her as he cried silently. He felt like he hadn’t cried in an eternity. The last couple of years he avoided crying, feeling shame when he did so. He didn’t feel shame when he was with her though. It actually felt like a relief to finally show his pain. It wasn’t until several minutes later that William’s tears finally died, he quickly removed himself from her and wiped his eyes.
"M’sorry, got your pretty gown all wet with my tears. Sorry." He mumbled underneath his breath, his head bowed so that he could hide his face from her. She couldn’t help but smile at his sudden shyness and apologetic manner.
"It is okay." She giggled at him, squeezing his shoulder in assurance. "I am fine. As long as you feel better."
He finally managed to get enough courage took look her in the eyes. Her golden hair seemed to shine in the moonlight and she had the biggest smile that he had ever seen. A rosy color tainted her cheeks and her hazel eyes were sparkling. Somehow his eyes managed to draw themselves towards her lips. He hadn’t been around a lot of girls in his fourteen years but he was sure that none of them had the same lips she did. As he continued to stare at her lips, a sudden thought sprang towards the front recesses of his mind.
"El-Elizabeth? C-can I ask you a question?"
"You already have William!" She tittered at her own silly joke hoping that he would laugh along with her but he didn’t. He just continued to stare at her.
"N-no. N-not that." He stuttered nervously, now wringing his hands in his lap. "S-something different."
"What is it?"
"W-would it be…" He took a deep breath, trying to calm his nerves. He closed his eyes as he took another breath. When he was finally relaxed he looked in her in the eyes. "Would it be too bold or horrible to ask you if I could…if I could…kiss you?"
Elizabeth’s eyes widened with shock and surprise. Her mouth dropped open and formed in the shape of a small ‘o’. She squirmed in her seat. When Parker always had asked her to kiss him…well, he really hadn’t asked, he attempted to. He had grabbed her face in his hands and tried placing his lips on hers but she always wrestled away in the knick of time.
She smiled bashfully at William. He was nice and really sweet. He had an appealing smile and she fancied the way he would look at her when they were alone.
She smiled coyly at him once again as her eyes met his. "I w-wouldn’t mind that, William."
The look of worry in his eyes and face immediately melted away and he smiled brightly with relief and excitement. "Thank goodness. I would have felt embarrassed if you had said no."
Elizabeth laughed good-heartily at him but then a look of apprehensiveness painted her face. "H-have you ever done this before."
William blushed and shook his head. "My cousin Tobey, he talked about it once. Have you…have you done it before?"
"No. I have seen my parents kiss a couple of times when they think I am not looking though."
"Oh all right." He nodded his head as he slowly scooted closer to her then turned his body to face hers. His hands reached out and took hers and then locked her eyes with his. "You sure ‘bout this?"
A twinkle was in Elizabeth’s as she replied with an enthusiastic, "Yes!"
William took in a deep breath as he leaned towards her. His inexperienced mouth met hers and lingered. William closed his eyes, as he let new feelings settle in him. Slowly, one of his hands managed enough courage to cup her cheek. He slightly leaned back away from her and saw as her eyes fluttered open. Biting his bottom lip, he closed his eyes once again and leaned forward to kiss her for the second time. This time he let his lips caress hers instead of keeping still like before as he tried to let her know the feelings he was experiencing at that moment.
Elizabeth felt something tug in her chest and a fluttering feeling in her stomach as he continued to kiss her. He had become bolder with her by having his thumb delicately run across her cheek while his other hand was locked at her waist, refusing to let go. She somehow felt so much lighter and had to brace her hand on William’s shoulder to make sure that she stayed grounded. Elizabeth fumbled with someplace to put her other hand. She became nervous and tensed up in his arms but calmed when he ran his knuckles down the side of her face and she subconsciously wrapped her other hand around his neck, toying with the small hairs at the nape of his neck.
Needing air, William slowly broke away from her softness. He was relieved to see the dizzied smile on her lips and hazy look in her eyes. "That was…that was…"
"…wonderful." She finished for him with a sparkle of her eyes. "I’ve never felt anything like that before."
"Me either."
Elizabeth giggled and twirled the small hairs at the back of his neck. "Do you—"
"ELIZABETH! WILLIAM! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" Fiona’s voice boomed out angrily at them.
To be continued…
Holly-Tree by SunnyD
[Reviews - 29]
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Chapter or Story |
Chapter or Story | 
Chapter or Story
Has been viewed 1692 times
- Text Size +
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Chapter or Story |
Chapter or Story | Chapter or Story - Text Size +