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Winter of 1773

CLANK!

CLANK!

"Spike."

CLANK!

"Spike, can you hear me!"

CLANK!

"Spike!"

CLANK!

"William!"

The young man working beside the burning coals jumped out of fright, "Jesus!" He hissed as his fingers gently brushed over the coals and lightly singed his skin. "Do you just enjoy scaring me half to death? It's a recurring theme with you."

"I must admit, it has been becoming a pastime of mine." Oz soon spotted the aged rocking chair that was sitting in the corner of the blacksmith shop. "I see we ended up with Widow Crabtree's rocker again. She wants you to fix it?"

"The creak is still there." William shook his burnt hand and crouched down beside the chair. "I have not 'ad the heart to tell 'er that I am not skilled in carpentry and the fact that I am a blacksmith."

"Xander will look at it I am quite sure." Oz watched as his friend went back to his work. William pulled the sword out from the coals, the tip glowing of it a deep orange, before sticking it into a barrel nearby that was filled with water, the sound of a sharp hissing and crackling soon followed. Watching with satisfaction, William snatched his cigarette that was sitting nearby and took a quick drag from it before taking the sword out of the barrel. Oz just shook his head. "We do have those nice and expensive cigars in the back, which I am certain, are better than what you have there."

"I'll pass." He leaned against the nearby wall and crossed his arms. "Besides, would never enjoy or touch anything that ponce Warren hands me." He held out the well-crafted weapon in front of himself for inspection and scowled slightly. "And besides, that lovely gift of cigars was to make sure I do not kick his bloody, no good, arse up and down the main street again."

"I still say you overreacted."

"And I say that the bloke had it comin' to 'im. He was making ill advances towards my Fred and didn't know how to keep some of his thoughts and hands to 'imself."

"You made both of his eyes swell up, broke his arm and then sent him flying through Liam's pub window." Oz raised an eyebrow at him with a look of amusement on his face.

William had always known Oz through Xander, but never knew him that much to define their relationship as a really 'close' one. William rarely visited the farm when he had been living with his parents because Ethan didn't find it proper. So, if William wanted to see Xander, then Xander would have to go to their home. It wasn't until William moved into the Harris' home that he had really gotten to know the red head. Once they had both finished their schooling last year, they both took an apprenticeship from the local blacksmith. Of course, the owner was never there so the young men had to run the shop themselves.

"Like I said to you before Oz, Warren 'ad it comin'."

Oz shook his head and then took the sword from him and slashed it through the air. "It's beautiful." He smiled, testing it out again.

"It should be. I was paid a lot to make it so." He took another drag from his cigarette and then began to gather his things. "Now that I have finished it, I am off. I am supposed to help out Aunt Helena this afternoon."

"Having all those kids finally caught up with her." Oz chuckled, gathering his things up as well.

"I suppose so." William snatched his coat from a nearby hook on the wall. "I will see you tomorrow, mate."

"Goodbye, Spike."

William smirked at him and tipped his head at him before heading out of the shop out into the countryside. Today, he couldn't take his horse with him into town like he usually did. Xander, of course, had picked a perfect time to go and visit Anya in New York, which left William without transportation. Xander had been visiting the girl off and on for the past two years. Of course there were occasions where she would come down to the farm and spend a couple of days with them. She never liked to come for a long period of time though; she said it was because of 'the abundance of small children,' and also her bunny phobia. There was also the occasion where she would bring Willow with her, which was always a delight.

However, seeing the redhead had always brought William's thoughts to Elizabeth. Dawn told him what had happened to her and William had been trying to contact Elizabeth over the years but she hadn't responded to his letters. He had been giving them to Dawn to send to her but she never received a word from Elizabeth about him.

The Harris' porch loomed not to far off into the distance, where a small girl was sitting patiently on the steps. It was their routine everyday. He would return home and she was always there waiting for him. Her small pixie face looking out into the countryside, waiting for him as patiently as a three year old could.

She finally spotted him and giggled with happiness, running towards him. Her cubby arms were spread wide open for him.

"Hello there beautiful." He scooped her up into his arms and set her on his shoulders. "How are things with you, my lovely?"

Tara blushed, resting her forehead against the top of his head. "O-Okay."

He only smiled and then noticed her clenched hand that was resting on his shoulder and something was held inside of it. "What is that in your hand, poppet?"

"A tw-tw-twinkwet." William grinned and kissed the hand lightly at her pronunciation of the word 'trinket.' She was adorable, "for Winnie."

"Whose it from? Not you, I imagine."

"Th-that scawy Warren told me to gi-give it to her." She opened up her hand and looked down at the small object in her hand with curiosity and then scrunched her nose up at it. "He swaid he had it specially mwade for 'er."

William growled silently as he thought of the slug and scoundrel Warren Meers. He had a reputation of being inappropriate to all the girls in town. Ever since he had heard what he did to Katrina from another schoolmate named Andrew, William made it his duty to make sure that Warren never touched any of his girls. Then suddenly, at the local town meeting last month, Warren started making advances towards Winifred. Then last week, Warren had the audacity to touch Fred unsuitably as she was walking home. She had come home crying and into William's arms and after some prodding of Andrew he managed to find out what happened. William then immediately marched back into town and into Liam's pub where Warren usually spent his evenings and continued to beat him into a bloody pulp, finishing him off by throwing him through the window.

"The ponce needs to learn that when I say I would kill him if 'e ever came near Fred again that I actually mean it." He muttered, patting the small girl on the leg and she giggled at him.

"I told 'im that but he didn't listen to me. Called me 'silly girl.'" She pouted, pressing her cheek against the top of his head. "Mommy got a mwessage from Xander, he comin' home tonight with that Anya girl and Willow. I like Will-Willow, she's funny."

Tara was a strange little girl. She was majority of the time, very quiet and shy. Even to her own family she was bashful. Aunt Helena always said that Tara talked more to him than she did to anyone else, that she opened up to him more for some reason. 'The girl sees you as her older brother,' Helena always said, 'you're her favorite, William.'

"That she is." He moved her off of his shoulders and into his arms, kissing her temple lightly. "And don't listen to that Warren bloke; you are no silly girl, poppet."

"What am I then?"

He grinned as he touched her forehead to his. "You're my special girl."

Tara giggled as William climbed up the porch and she wiggled out of his arms, landing softly onto the front porch. She took his hand in hers and led him inside. "Mommy is cwooking a wuvly dinner."

Helena's gaze drew away from her oldest daughter preparing dinner to the sound of the front door banging shut. She adjusted her 5-month-old Jesse on her hip as she approached her nephew, shaking her head.

"How many times have I told you William Matthew, no slamming of the door! Don't want your uncle to have to repair it once more, he has a bad enough back as it is." The older woman smiled, kissing her nephew on the cheek. "I am glad that you're home though, I was starting to get worried about you."

"Don't have to worry about little old me, Auntie." He grinned, squeezing her shoulder lightly before taking his jacket off and hanging it up beside the door. "And if your son had not taken Braden from me to New York then I would have been home earlier. It's a long walk."

He kissed her hair gently and smiled. She –despite what she thought- was his second mother. Helena had been nothing but warm and gentle towards him since the day he came out of Jenny's womb those 17-years-ago. And over the past three years, Uncle Henry –who was probably outside tending to the fields at the moment- had taught William to be a man and hadn't failed where Ethan had.

William wondered if Xander was aware how blessed he was to have the family he did.

"Sorry dear," She caressed his hair before going back to the small kitchen nestled in the corner of the farmhouse, continuing to prepare dinner. "You know how much he fancies that Anya girl."

"I know."

He unfortunately knew about it all too well. The last time Anya had stayed at the farm, she had snuck into the loft of the old barn –which was too small to be used anymore for the farm animals and so William and Xander shared together. The pair had started to get a bit too intimate for William's liking and was forced to leave the room, and instead slept outside in the slowly growing wheat field. The noises the couple had made burned his ears and the images of them both together were branded in his brain.

These images and thoughts of course brought a longing. Constantly, he thought of Elizabeth and that summer where he kissed her for the first time; his first kiss. He longed to see her again and for her kiss.

Of course there were times where he had a fancy for other girls. There was the brief crush for Cecily Addams, the minister's daughter, but that of course ended badly and ended up breaking his heart. She found him beneath her–she never explained why-, even though technically he was born into a higher social class than she was.

Then there was Faith Winters who was well known by all the villagers to be the daughter of a whore. Their relationship was nothing but pure physical attraction and nothing more. She was gorgeous and wanted William -at the time a young man at the age of 15- and after being recently rejected by Cecily, how could he deny her? Eventually, he came to find out she did it all for the attention of one young man named Liam, known to all as Angel. It worked and eventually Angel began to court her, even though they were both incredibly unfaithful to one another. William knew this because as of 2 months ago, Faith had been making unladylike gestures towards him. He had been ignoring her best that he could; William had learned his lesson the first time around.

No girl could compare to the burning and soulful love that he held for Elizabeth.

"You look tired, dear." Helena noticed with concern. "Why don't you rest for awhile until supper is ready and then I'll have Winnie go and wake you."

William let himself yawn freely. He was supposed to help her with dinner but was incredibly tired from working; he didn't think he could do anything productive. Luckily, Aunt Helena was a very observant woman.

"Thank you." He yawned once again with a small smile on his face. "You are quite a woman Auntie."

"I know." She chuckled, drawing her attention back to her cooking.

Tara ran up to her cousin and grabbed his hand tightly. "I fweel twired. I want to sweep too." She beamed at him with a look of admiration in her eyes.

"Come on, precious." He plucked her up into his arms and headed out the door and up towards the loft where they both fell easily into bed and quickly fell asleep, curled up next to one another.

He had only been asleep for merely an hour when a hand locked down on William's shoulder and began to shake him awake. William groaned as he slowly opened his eyes to see a mass of white that sitting on top of someone's head.

"Will?"

It was Xander's voice that woke him up fully and he sat up in his bed quickly, staring at his cousin with wide eyes before bursting out in laughter.

"What is that thing on your head, mate!" He managed to squeeze in midst-laughter, not being able take his eyes off of the wig.

Xander bit his bottom lip as his eyes strayed to the white mass of hair. "Anya."

"Don't you laugh at him William." Anya scolded, waltzing into the room as she admired her love's new look. "He looks fabulous. It is the latest style in England."

Tara had woken up as soon as William had and curled up into his lap, sucking her thumb as she clung onto him tightly. He stroked her hair softly before rolling his eyes at Anya. "Anya, I hope you realize that Xander is 17 not 57."

"Ignore him Xander. I think you look positively wonderful." She giggled and leaned over to whisper in his ear. "I hope to bring you many pleasures in the eve."

Xander's eyes felt like they were about to pop out of their sockets as she floated out of the loft and back to the carriage they had arrived in and where Willow was finishing unloading their things along with the help of Fred.

"I cannot believe that she talked you into wearing that ridiculous—"

"She approves of it."

"Well, we both know that the girl is one odd bird."

Tara finally noticed the other presence in the room and took her head out from William's shoulder. "Who is that?" She whispered to her cousin.

"That's your brother, poppet."

She sneaked a look at Xander before burying her face back into William's shoulder and started to giggle. "Funny."

William kissed her temple. "Do you have any other surprises that I should be aware of?"

"You may think you are clever but you're really not." Xander muttered, sitting down on William's bed and took the white wig off of his head.

"How was New York?"

Xander moaned and fell back on the bed, covering his eyes with his arm. "Horrible."

"Her family didn't approve of a future marriage between the both of you?" Tara had fallen back asleep in his lap and William couldn't help but smile at her.

"Of course not." He grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest after he sat up in bed. "I should not have expected anything else. What proper, educated family would want their daughter –their pride and joy- to end up with the son of a farmer?"

"Well, let me tell you cousin…if they cannot see past their money and see how much their daughter practically worships you no matter what your station, then they are snobs." William clamped a hand onto the brunette's shoulder and squeezed it reassuringly.

"Thank you."

It was after dinner that William managed to sneak away from everyone else and head out towards his uncle's fields with his tools in hand. He had hoped that his Uncle had not cleared away the firewood William had set out the day before. The sun was still out but dusk was slowly creeping in and William had little time left for what he set out to do.

Pulling his coat tighter around him, he set down his supplies and made up his fire. The evenings here could become very bitter at times especially during the winter. Every morning he would wake up and on his way into town would find frost and dew sprayed on the grass.

William could feel the cold wetness that saturated the ground and then looking back up at his subject, he started from where he last left off.

"It's beautiful."

He looked over his shoulder and was surprised to find Willow standing behind him with her hands clasped behind her back while peering at his sketch.

"Thank you for the compliment, Red, but it is horrible." He looked down at the beginnings of his drawing of the fields and the forest in front of him. "Art was never my forte and never will be."

She smiled shyly at him. "Oz came by and called on you but no one could find you."

"Red, you know just as well as I do that Oz did not actually come for me…it was mostly for you. He fancies you."

She blushed and tried to hide her face with her hair like she use to do as a child. Her hair was so long that it enveloped her entire face. She was a sweet little thing. It was plain to see why Oz was so smitten with her.

"It cannot be."

"Why not?"

"Because…all other young men…they find my intelligence to be off putting. I am not as interesting and not as beautiful as my cousins." Her green eyes were wide and her face was a deep blush that was the color of her hair.

"Well," William took her hands in his and squeezed them. "That is their problem isn't it? Their loss if they cannot see how lovely and magnificent you are. I would go after you and make you mine if I could."

She smiled shyly through her lashes. "Why haven't you?"

He tucked a strand of her crimson hair behind her ear and grinned. "Because then our friend Oz would have to kill me and I value my life too much."

He squeezed her hand for the final time and then continued on with his work. He had thought Willow had left him alone until she sat down next to him on the grass, watching the sun fade into the horizon. She sighed with a look of amazement as she watched the sky be painted into shades of pink and purple.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

Willow bit her lip and her turned gaze from the sky towards his face. "I received a letter from her today." She looked over at him again to try and read the emotion on his face. His head was bowed and his eyes closed. "She has finished her schooling in England and is set to come home next month."

"Did she ask about me?" He muttered softly.

"I am sorry to report no…she did not." Willow reached out to pat him comfortingly on the back. "She did mention…other things."

"What?" His eyes weren't on the ground anymore but locked directly on her. She blushed again from the intensity of his gaze. "What did she write?"

"It was about her parents." Her hands twisted in her lap. "They have decided not make Parker her future suitor. Uncle Rupert's business plans with the Abrams fell apart. Unfortunately, they have chosen someone else to take his place."

"Who?" William felt his heart clench in his chest and start to crumble.

Willow bit her lip. He was getting irate, she could tell. "Sh-She said his name i-is Riley Finn. His father was a judge in London and then c-came here and started his own practice. It has become widely popular in New York. Mr. Finn also owns a large plantation down towards the south. He produces a nice amount of cotton every year. Uncle Rupert thinks they will make a perfect match and they will be meeting for the first time at The Mask he is throwing next month for her homecoming. They have written numerous occasions—"

"Willow!" His voice cut and rough as his hands clenched and unclenched, trying to fight backs his anger and jealousy. "No more please."

"I was rambling too much wasn't I? I tend to ramble whenever I feel nervous. It's not something that I do on purpose and I cannot stop the words that may come out. And I—"

"Willow." He wrapped his fingers around her shoulders, doing his best not to hold her too tightly and scare her off. He clenched his jaw. "When did you say she was arriving home?"

She bit her lip as she tried to figure out the look on his face. He no longer looked angry but like he had just gotten away with something bad. "What are you thinking, William? Why is that look on your face?"

"Nothing." He grinned, packing up his things. "Just have a plan s'all. Nothing you need to worry about." He flashed her one more smile before walking back to the house.

"William!" She yelled after him. She huffed when she tried to lift her skirts high enough so that she was able to catch up to him. "I do not understand. Please, tell me that you are not going to do something evil at Elizabeth's ball?"

"I am just going to go s'all."

"Do you realize what horrors will be in her social future if you arrive uninvited, especially with the troubled reputation of your family's name? No one has been looking kindly onto the Rayne household for the longest time." Her feet were aching in her shoes; she found it extremely hard to keep up with him with these heavy skirts weighing her down. She reached out and grabbed at his arm.

"Her parents like me. I am sure they will not mind t'all." He sighed. "'Sides it is a Mask so I will be wearing a disguise. My face will be covered and no one in her precious social circle will know it is me."

"I still do not think that this is a wonderful…"

"Willow, Red…" His hands were on her shoulders now and he was looking her directly in the eye. "Trust me."

To be continued…





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