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Summer of 1770



William groaned as his mother frantically fiddled with the cravat that was tied tightly around his neck. He hated this thing. His mother was out to make him feel like an imbecile. He wouldn’t have to dress up so properly if Parker and his family weren’t there.

"Mum, this looks ridiculous. You know I disgust wearing such annoying rubbish!" He groaned, trying to claw the cravat off of his neck. Frail hands quickly stilled his fretting. William’s eyes looked up and saw his mother smiling gently at him. Her hollowed face was softened from the daylight peeking in through the drawn curtains and he stopped his fidgeting.

"Stop that." Her warm chuckle washed over him pleasantly and could almost see the shadow that had been hovering her over the past years fade away in that moment. "You’ll get use to it eventually, William. Don’t fret." She gently squeezed his hands and moved them away from the article of clothing tied around his neck. "It’ll only be for a short while and then after that you can take it off."

He furrowed his eyebrows with annoyance as his hands twitched with desperation to tear the cravat away. "Why do I have to do this? Is it necessary that I spend time with that ponce and his family?"

Jenny shook her head and kissed her son on the forehead before caressing his cheek. "I told you to stop using language like that William. Should’ve never let you spend that spring with your cousin on the farm." She scolded him lightly, still smiling brightly at him.

"Sorry, mum. I’ll try better." His hands finished buttoning up his dark waistcoat and slowly as possible, pulled on his matching jacket.

Looking at his mother, she was now slumped in the plus chair that sat in the corner by the window. Her fragile hand covered her eyes as she rubbed her temples. From her posture, she looked so tired and as if she was about ready to collapse.

"Mum?" Her gaze focused its attention back on her son. "Are you all right? You do not look so well."

The edge of Jenny’s mouth quirked up in a sad smile. "It is all right, William. I’ll be find. Just need to rest is all. Don’t worry…go have fun."

"That is going to be hard." William groaned and before he left went over to his mother, kissing her on the cheek before he strolled out of the room where the other men were waiting downstairs. Xander met him halfway down the hall and gave his cousin a pat on the back with a reassuring smile to go along with it. He wasn’t looking forward to this either. When William had left early from breakfast to finish getting read, Xander had the displeasure of meeting Parker’s friends. They were horrible. They put on a show for him they did with their fake smiles and gripping handshakes. Then as soon as he turned away from them, they began to laugh and make fun of him.

"I am telling you right now, cousin." Xander whispered as they journeyed down the stairs. "If that Abrams chap looks at me the wrong way. I am just going to have to…"

"I know what you mean." The boy next to him grumbled, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his coat. His mother hated it when he did that, she said it wasn’t a very gentleman thing to do. "Wanted to wring his neck during breakfast this morning."

"Feeling was mutual, Will."

Mr. Summers, Mr. Abrams and the rest of the young were all waiting patiently at the bottom of the stairs. William heard Parker and one of his friends’ laugh quietly at him and whisper to one another. William hated that ponce and couldn’t wait to get out in the open air and do something sinisterly evil to him. That would be great. Parker and the friend next to him then turned their attention to Xander and started to point and giggle like two little girls. Holding back his anger, William then turned his attention towards Mr. Summers who was now solely focused on him at the moment.

"William." Rupert smiled warmly, clasping the young man on the back. "You look quite strapping today. Please, let us go then."



Gripping the reins tightly in his hands, William would feel the muscles of the horse shifting underneath him. The last few hours had been excruciating for him and Xander. Mr. Summers and Mr. Abrams had been caught up in their own little world of business and law, while Parker and his insipid friends had done nothing but ridicule Xander and him the whole entire time.

"You think anyone would miss him if I decided to murder him?" Xander quipped as his horse fell in step next his cousins. In front of them rode Parker and two of his friends, Benjamin and Gabriel.

"Not me." William snorted as Parker turned his dark eyes to the pair behind him. "Go ahead."

"You girls going to ride behind us the entire time!" Parker shouted while Ben snickered at them. "Or are you going to decide to be real men and ride with us?"

William could feel a smirk rising to his lips, "I would rather spare myself from the agonizing torture of spending time with you, Parker!" Beside him Xander chuckled and could hardly contain the laughter from spilling out his mouth in uncontrollable giggles. William elbowed him hard in the side but couldn’t help himself from smiling as well.

Parker and both of his friends immediately halted their horses in their trek. Parker’s gazed at the other boy with such disdain that William felt like holes were being burned into his skull. "You want to say that to me again, Rayne?"

William looked over at Xander with a shrug of his shoulders and then dismounted his horse. "Actually I do." He snickered, walking over to Parker’s horse and took the reins in his hand, smirking up at the other boy.



~*~



She hated these little white gloves. What was the point of them? They didn’t seem to serve a purpose at all, just merely a decoration. Something to make a woman look more feminine and delicate, like fragile china dolls. Joyce had insisted that she wear them this afternoon. They had been sitting in the house all afternoon and the gloves served no purpose whatsoever. It was quite stupid.

"Elizabeth! Stop that!" Joyce scolded with a slight slap at the Elizabeth’s fidgeting hands. "You are going to dirty them."

Elizabeth knitted her eyebrows in annoyance at her mother. She was nitpicking about everything she was doing. Everything was wrong and nothing was right.

"Sorry." She mumbled underneath her breath, trying hard not to listen to Harmony whine over how she missed going to Paris last summer because of her father to Anya. Her mother, who sat beside her on the settee, was wrapped in fascination over Mrs. Abrams tales of last Christmas when they had a gathering at their mansion. Unfortunately, Jenny didn’t want to join them, mentioning something about not getting enough sleep last night.

Bored to tears, Elizabeth easily slipped away from the group without anyone noticing. A self-satisfied grin on her lips as she hopped proudly up the stairs and strode across the hallway on her way back to her bedroom. She was stopped dead in her tracks when a cry of pain echoed down the empty hall from Jenny’s room. Picking up her pace, the young girl ran towards the room and threw open the door to see Jenny trying to lift herself up off the floor.

"Mrs. Rayne!" Quickly Elizabeth helped the older woman on her feet. Her bright eyes filled with worry at the feel of Jenny’s jutting bones and cold skin. "Are you all right?"

"Just fine, dear." Jenny flushed with embarrassment at the girl’s worry for her. She quickly brushed away Elizabeth’s hands and sat back down in her rocker. "Don’t fret about me. Just the side effects of lack of sleep and old age."

A small smile tugged at the edge of Jenny’s lips. Almost a shadow of one. A sharp shiver trickled down Elizabeth’s spine at it. Jenny then reached out and took Elizabeth’s hand in hers.

"No need to worry Elizabeth." An amused chuckle escaped her thin lips. "You remind me of William. Always worrying he is. S’why I love him so much." She leaned back in her chair and began to rock slowly. The chair light creaking every time it moved forward. "He is crazy ‘bout you. My William. Since that first summer, he never stopped talking about you. It is always sweet to hear. This light always sparks in his eyes when he says your name." Jenny’s frail hand extended towards the young girl. Hesitantly, Elizabeth took her hand and was brought closer to the rocking chair. "You’ve become a beautiful young woman Elizabeth, and I know for a fact that you will become an even more beautiful woman. William is going to be a lucky boy."

"I do not understand." Her face contorted into a look of confusion. What was she saying? Elizabeth didn’t understand.

Jenny chuckled once more and cupped the girl’s cheek and smiled warmly at her. "You’ll see." Her eyes then drew their attention to the door and her face took on a look of worry. "What happened."

Elizabeth then saw William hovering in the doorway. Her gloved hand covered her mouth in shock and fear raced through her system just by looking at him. Large, dark bruises covered his right eye and his left cheek while his hair stood up on end and his waistcoat torn along with his shirt. And through all that damage, William still had a large smirk painted on his lips like it all didn’t matter.

"I had a…misunderstanding…with Parker." His eyes drifted over towards Elizabeth and beamed. "Don’t worry ‘Lisabeth. M’fine." He took the gloved hand that covered her mouth and squeezed it.

"William Matthew Rayne!" Jenny growled, rising from her seat. "How could you be so foolish?"

William’s confident façade faded and ducked his head in shame. "M’sorry mum."

Jenny could feel her anger die away looking at her son’s doleful expression. With a heavy sigh, she ran her hand through his curled hair. "We will discuss this later. You should feel lucky that your father isn’t here yet."

"I know."

Leaning back in her chair she gave the younger pair a wave of her hand. "Run along. I am tired and would like to take a nap before dinner tonight."

Not waiting to be told twice, William took Elizabeth’s hand as they ran down the hall and into her room, slamming the door behind them. "William?" She asked, her hands fidgeting with her gloves once more as he was cleaning his dirtied face with her water basin. "We shouldn’t be here…alone, I mean. You know how my father does not like it and I don’t think when your mother told us to ‘run along’ she meant to my room, I think she meant more to downstairs where everyone else is."

William set down the cloth he was using and then took her by the hand brought her over to her bed. "I know." He murmured, his thumb tracing patterns across her hand. "Can we…stay…for awhile?"

She smiled brightly at him. "So tell me why you got into a scuffle with Parker?"

"Felt like. His friends were teasing Xander and I…so I let ‘im have it." He chuckled as he remembered how it felt as his knuckles had smashed Parker’s jaw.

Elizabeth smirked and giggled with delight. "I wish I could have been there to see it."

Rubbing her hand with his thumb, William gently leaned forward and brushed his mouth across hers in a chaste kiss. "Couldn’t help myself." She blushed and he kissed her again. "And don’t worry about Parker…you’ll see him in his bruised and battered state at dinner tonight. So try to keep your excitement under control till then."

"Full of wit this afternoon, aren’t you?" She tittered, covering her mouth with her hand again to keep her laughter at bay. When Elizabeth was finally calm, she removed the irritating garment from her hand and cupped his cheek instead. He blushed a bright red and smiled bashfully at her.

"Aren’t you precious, my son!" The pair drew their heads towards the hissing voice to see Ethan looming in Elizabeth’s doorway with a wry smile. His clothes rumpled from lustful activities with one of the whores from the local brothel. "Daddy’s home."



To Be Continued…





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