STAKE YOUR CLAIM
Chapter 21: ‘1898’
Spike Giles was in the middle of mending the eastern fence of his ranch. ‘Bloody thing always breaks, same time, every fucking year,’ he mumbled as he held one end of the wood up to meet the other. ‘I swear to God,’ he continued his grumbling, ‘if I didn’t know better, I’d think that Will and Hank came out here same time, every year, just to muck up this part of the fence. Just to piss their old man off.’
He began to hammer the wood pieces together when he caught sight of a rider, on a familiar palomino horse, coming nearer to him by the second. The female rider’s honey blonde hair flew behind her in the wind as she neared him.
‘Oh, great,’ he mumbled as he tossed the hammer down on the ground next to him, and lit a cigarette, ‘Sarah and her Mum must be at it again.’
Once the young woman had reached her Father, she slid off of her horse, Cloud II, and stood up to him, a scowl on her lovely face.
Sarah Anya Giles was the image of her Mother, Buffy Giles, right down to her green eyes. She was taller then her Mum, of course, fifteen-year-old Sarah was. But, then so were Sarah’s younger brothers, Alexander, who was twelve and even the twin terrors, James and Joshua who had just turned nine-years-old. Only little Cynthia Anne, the baby at near seven was still shorter then their petite Mum, Buffy.
At the moment, green-eyed, honey blonde haired and every bit as stubborn as her Mother, Sarah Giles was glaring at her Dad, William ‘Spike’ Giles.
“You need to talk to Mama,” she ordered firmly as she flopped down on a huge rock by the broken fence, “and I mean immediately, Papa.”
Spike sighed and plopped down on the rock next to the one his oldest daughter occupied. “What now, Dutchess,” he asked in frustration, taking a drag from his smoke.
He had called his darling daughter, Dutchess since the day she was born, leaving the pet name of Princess for his wife, Buffy, as always. “Your Mum on you again, about the University in California?”
Sarah gave him a sorrowful little pout.
‘Christ,’ Spike thought with a chuckle, ‘she’s more like her Mother every day. Right down to the pout.’
“Papa,” Sarah began dramatically, “you just have to convince Mama that I do not want to go out to the wilds of California, to school that is. I am 15, almost 16 and well ready to settle down with…”
Spike raised his left, scarred brow, a habit he had never lost, “ready to what, Dutchess?” He asked with a smirk.
“You know, Daddy,” his daughter whimpered.
‘Oh,’ he thought, ‘so it’s Daddy now. Must be about the Osbourne boy in town.’
“Go ahead, darlin’ Sarah,” he chuckled as he lit another cigarette.
“You smoke too much,” Sarah said suddenly, with a frown.
‘Yup,’ Spike thought, ‘just like her Mum.’ “Sarah?” he asked evenly, a hint for his daughter to go on with her story.
“Well, Daddy,” she stammered, “you know that Daniel Osbourne and I, we have been serious about each other for nearly a year now and…”
Spike couldn’t help it, he broke out into a huge howl of laughter.
“This is hardly funny, Papa!” Sarah scowled again, “just because Mama is jealous, can’t stand the thought of her daughter marrying long before she did. After all, Daniel and I cannot help it that Mama was a spinster school teacher, nearly 20 when she came out here and, perhaps a bit stale in her ways…”
Spike eyed his daughter, thoughtfully, then tossed his cigarette to the ground. “So,” he drawled, his brows scrunched together in thought, “you really think your Mum is just being stubborn because she was a spinster?”
Sarah didn’t hesitate, she nodded at her Father with a smug smirk on her mouth.
‘Where the hell did she get that smirk?’ Spike asked himself, then… “Sarah, you’re almost 16, I think it’s time you had a little history lesson,” he began soberly. “One that they don’t teach you in your little readers at school.”
The daughter looked at her Father as if he had grown two heads, “if this is about Holden Webster and his train robber gang, Papa, I will just scream!” Sarah shook her honey blonde head and sighed, “we read about that in grade school, so please, just…”
Spike chuckled and shook his own graying head, “no Dutchess,” he laughed, “not just about ‘that’ but about your Mum, in general.”
Sarah gave her Father a ‘huh’ look, but nodded her head and settled on the rock to listen to him, for once, anyway.
“Your Mum,” Spike began hesitantly, “your Mum was really something when she got to the Wyoming Territory.” He half closed his blue eyes in remembrance of that epic day when his wife stepped off the Union Pacific and into his life.
“She certainly was no spinster school teacher, that was for sure,” he chuckled. “In fact, Sarah, my dear, your Mum was a young widow.” He nodded at his stunned daughter, “she was engaged at 16, married by 17 and widowed by 18.”
Sarah looked as she did when she discovered that there was really no Santa Claus… “Oh, Papa,” she cried sympathetically, “I’m so sorry that Mama did not love you first and…”
Spike laughed loudly, “your Mum’s first marriage was never any threat to me, Sarah,” he assured her. “It was an unhappy arrangement, could be why she’s not too keen on you marrying so young. Your Mum and her first husband were more friends then lovers, but that’s all we will say on it. It’s up to Mum to tell you everything, someday.”
Sarah nodded, but frowned again at her Father, “still,” she insisted stubbornly, “Daniel and I are ‘more’ then friends. We have been devoted to each other for years. After all, Papa, you and his Father, Daniel Sr., are best friends, right?”
Spike could not dispute this, he and the elder Daniel Osbourne had been friends for years. “Yes, Dutchess, we are, but I’m not sure that even my good friend Daniel would be too happy about his son marrying a fifteen-year-old girl.”
His daughter shook her head, “no, not now, we plan to marry next October, when I’m sixteen and ready.”
Spike raised that brow again, “ready to marry Dutchess?” She seemed to think about this for a minute.
“Uncle Connor and Aunt Dawn were not even eighteen when they married, Papa,” she pointed out with a victorious smile.
“True,” Spike agreed, “but your Uncle Connor had seen some ‘harsh’ truths by the time he whisked off to Tennessee and married the Bit, then spirited her back up here to Wyoming. Your Auntie Dawn, too. She had been out here, seen some things, done some things to grow up a bit.”
Sarah sighed dreamily, “yeah,” she acknowledged, “Uncle Conn and Aunt Dawn, they tried to run off and get married. Everybody knows that romantic story.”
‘Oh brother,’ Spike sighed inwardly. “No, Sarah,” he vocalized, “it wasn’t quite that romantic as you’d like to think. Your Uncle and Aunt were not near ready to marry, your Mum and I, your Grandad and Gran Jennifer, they knew it too. It was that little stunt, led to your Mum goin’ off, half cocked to the school house that day. Got her caught up by Holden Webster and that brother of his.”
Sarah snorted, very unladylike, “oh, please, Papa,” she hissed, “not the old, Mama gets taken by the Webster gang, goes up to the bluffs and then you rescue her. I hear that one again and I’ll take a gun to…”
Spike had heard quite enough, thank you, “Sarah Anya Giles,” he said harshly, “I’ll hear no talk of you’ll do this or that. You might think of your Mum’s horrible experience as a bit of a Holiday or something, but it was far more then that. You little brats at the Cheyenne School House never got the full story of those awful hours that Webster and his bunch of bloody bastards took my Buffy from me!”
Sarah stared at her Father, stunned by his outburst (though God knows why she should be!) and horrified by his cursing.
“Papa!” she scolded, “Mama would be horrified to hear you speak that way in front of me.”
Spike snorted himself this time, “hardly,” he growled at his daughter. “Oh Sarah, you just aren’t ready to marry and there’s a million reasons why. To start, those readers in school, the town lore, do they tell you what really happened that time when Webster took your Mother? Do they tell you that she fought him off, kept him from raping her, with the help of his own sister on Mum’s side? Then, when we did get your Mum back, thank God, after I’d taken her to Grandad’s ranch, I went back and helped massacre the whole damn bunch of them. Christ Sarah, I put the bullet through Holden Webster’s head myself.”
His daughter looked horrified, apparently, the readers about the local history had conveniently left out some very important details.
“It’s more then just that, Sarah,” Spike continued strongly, “your Mum came out here to get a new start in life.”
“It’s just,” Sarah hesitated, carefully choosing her next words wisely, “that Mama is so darn set in her ways, so stodgey and all.”
Spike bolted up from the rock and stared at his daughter, shocked. “Set in her ways? Stodgey?” he choked. “Sarah, your Mum hasn’t a stodgey, set bone in her body. She came out here, a young widow, to start a new life. Do you think it was easy for her? She could have had any man she wanted back in Tennessee, even if she was a widow. Your Grandad Hank told me so, a hundred times and I know it’s true. Mum came here, thank God, to find a new life and take a chance. She came here, to me, Sarah, to fill my empty life with love and a future for us all. If she hadn’t…”
He felt his throat tighten up and it was suddenly hard to breathe, “if your Mum hadn’t come here to me. I’d be lost, Sarah, without your Mum.” His daughter gave him a look, a Buffy look, he realized, ‘Jesus, she looks just like her Mum.’
“Sarah, your Mum just wants you to have a chance in life, a real chance to experience some of the world. See the world, or at least some of this Country. Berkeley University, in California, it’s supposed to be right up there with Harvard and Yale. Your Mum was so pleased when the school said it would take a look at you. Think of it, Sarah, a Summers/Giles female, at a major University? Can’t you see why your Mum wants this for you. Or, at least for you to check it out, the school and all. We could all go out to California, Mum, me, your brothers and sister. Take a nice holiday, God knows your Mum deserves it. Your Uncle Angel and Aunt Winnefred would love it if we stopped by Salinas and saw them at their farm. I know Mum wants to stop and see the Harris brood by Sunnydale and view the Winery they’ve set up there.”
Sarah scrunched up her face again, “why did Uncle Xander and Aunt Anya take Beth and Zach to California years ago, Papa?” she asked, abruptly changing the subject, Spike noticed.
“Well, Dutchess,” Spike stammered, “it’s something your Mum should probably explain to you. But for now, we’ll just say that Xander and Anya thought it best for Beth and Zach to grow up in a new place. Near killed your Mum, though,” he sighed, “she adored Anya, admired Xander. However, they’ve kept in contact, and like I said, it would be nice to take a Holiday, stop by to see them and their brats out there. Mean the the world to your Mum.”
Sarah seemed to ponder this scenario and smiled softly. “Besides,” Spike added, lighting another cigarette, “Daniel will be here, when you get back. He’ll wait, Sarah, I am sure of it.”
“In the meantime,” Spike stood up from the rock and picked up the hammer, “you get on back to the house. Tell your Mum that I’ll be home in an hour or so.”
He turned to complete his task, then glanced back at his oldest daughter when he heard a sniffle from her. She had risen from her rock too and stood staring off at the house her father had built her mother, years before.
“She really is something, isn’t she Papa? Mama I mean.” Sarah smiled at her Father proudly.
“That she is,” he nodded, “best thing that ever happened to me,” he added with a grin. “Now, get home and tell your Mum I’ll be in soon. In fact,” Spike stopped his work and thought for a moment.
“You go on home, tell your Mum that I told you to gather up your siblings and head on over to Grandpa’s place. I want to have a night alone with your Mum. Take the Cook with you, your Mum and me, we want to be alone.” He chuckled heartily and went back to work on the fence.
“I’ll tell Mama,” Sarah responded with a giggle, “I’m sure she won’t object, Daddy.”
‘Following is the first official archive of the Elizabeth ‘Buffy’ Summers-Giles and William ‘Spike’ Giles issue:
Buffy and Spike Giles: Married December 4th, 1881
William Rupert Giles (never to be called Jr.!) Born August 20th, 1882
Hank Summers Giles : Born August 20th, 1882
Sarah Anya Giles: Born September 9th, 1883
Baby Giles: Lost to Us April, 1884
Alexander Giles: Born February 7th, 1886
James Henry Giles: Born September 23rd, 1888
Joshua Warren Giles: Born September 23rd, 1888
Cynthia Anne Giles: Born January 11th, 1892
A/N: There is definitely more. Just hope everyone wants to read it! Thank you so much for your loyalty, everyone! Please review. Luv, Spuf
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