A/N: Look at me posting every week! Let's see if I can do this until the end of this fic. I can tell you all now that this story will have more than 20 chapters. Not much more though, I don't want to make it too long. I hope you enjoy this one :) Wish you all a great weekend!

Disclaimer: Same as chapter 1-3.

There was a loud knock on the door to their room. Anna and John were resting from their last activities. Their bodies still warm but the rhythm of their breathing and heartbeat had come back to normal; his face resting on top of her chest while she breathed in the scent of his sweaty hair.

'I am knocking!' William's voice made itself known. 'Just as you asked!' the boy shouted.

'Oh goodness,' John sighed with a chuckled as he sat up, untangling his arm from around her body, and Anna brought the sheets up to her neck.

'Don't let him come in yet,' she told him as he grabbed his nightclothes from the floor, putting them back on.

'Don't worry,' he smiled at her, standing to put his bottoms on and she watched as he turned his back to her; a radiant smile blossoming on her face as she bit her lower lip, taking in her husband's backside. 'I'm sure he's just...' John turned around and caught her staring. He grinned pleased and leaned toward her in bed. 'You naughty girl,' he whispered kissing her forehead. 'I'm sure he's just hungry.'

'I'll be ready in a minute.'

'No rush. I can fix him something.' He smiled one more time before leaving the room.

'Where's Anna?' William tried to peek through the door, managing to have a glimpse of her in bed, covered with the sheets. 'Hello Anna!' the boy waved before his father closed the door, and a moment after he faced him with a serious look. 'Are you ill, pa? Both of you?'

'Of course we aren't, son. ' John patted his son's head.

'Why are you wearing your nightclothes. And why is Anna in bed at this time of the day? I know the day is dark and all but it's barely six.'

John shook his head smiling. 'When people get married they stay in bed longer their first day. It's tradition. And I thought you were to stay at Mrs. Oliver's until I came to get you.'

The boy just shrugged his shoulders. 'If it's tradition then you must do it.' William nodded lifting his brow. 'Bad luck not to.'

'Exactly.' John chuckled. 'Are you hungry?'

'Yes, I could eat a cow and its young ones!'

'I'm afraid cheese and a slice of bread will have to do, lad.'

'Better that than nothing. But...' William pursed his lips.

'But what?'

'It's just...when Anna does it it tastes better, I tell you.'

'Oh it does? Maybe she has some kind of magic spell over the cheese.' John laughed. Oh god, how wonderful was to feel this happy and light. So in love.

'I reckon it's because her hands don't know she's not a lady anymore. Or maybe she's a witch. Just like her ma.'

'What are you talking about now?' John stopped his cheese slicing and looked pointedly at his son.

'Elsie Hughes herself. Knows the future and all, reads handlines and did some voodoo...' the boy traced an invisible picture on the tabletop with his finger. 'Back in the day.'

'William Bates, you shall never say that again, do you hear me?!' John scolded the boy. 'I'll pull your ear off if you do.'

The boy cringed. 'But Maggie...'

'Maggie?! Of course. Listen here, lad, if you want no trouble,' John held William's shoulders between his hands. 'You won't repeat what you said about Elsie ever again to anyone, not even to yourself. And you won't listen what Maggie has to say. When she speaks you walk past her as if you are deaf. I don't want you near that woman! Do you understand?'

'I'm sorry, pa.' the boy pouted and John sighed, feeling badly for the harsh way he had spoken to his son, but sometimes children only listen in fear. He caressed William's shoulders then and pinched his cheek lightly.

'Son...what you said, voodoo, that's bad stuff. Stuff that could cause trouble for all of us, do you understand?'

'Yes, pa.' the boy nodded.

'And Elsie never did such thing. That's a pack of lies from big mouthed Maggie. And your mouth is just as big...you will put someone in trouble one day.' John rose and placed the cheese on the bread. 'Take it and go fetch your cousins. Go.' The boy left running, eating a piece of his bread.

'Is that true?' Anna's voice made him jump and he turned around to face her. 'Elsie did voodoo or witchcraft, or whatever that's called?'

'No, love.' John approached her, resting his hands on her hips. 'Maggie,' he sighed, ' you don't know her, and I don't want you to, but she feeds on gossip and lies. And worst of all she lures the children to…well, bad things. That's why she tells them these stories.'

'Bad things? What bad things?' she frowned.

John took a deep breath. 'She's...she's a prostitute, and she gets the children to steal for her and and such.'

'I don't think I've ever seen her.' Anna looked at him intrigued.

'You probably have but it's good she's never bothered you. I don't want you near her. She's trouble.'

She shook her head. 'I've never seen a prostitute...I've only read about...and I shouldn't have.'

John gave her a small smile, almost fearing to spoil her innocent soul. 'Yes, you have. You just didn't know they were what they are. Those who linger in the shadows, dirty, some with crying children by their side...' he furrowed his brow. 'They are fallen women too.'

Anna widen her eyes in shock. 'I've spoken to them?'

'Anna...they are people, just like you and me. Women that have fallen for many reasons, and they have little ones to feed. They have no other option. Some...some even have husbands who send them out for money, there's nothing they can do.'

'But...they...'

'Anna, listen. This is reality. Those women were always there, even when you were hidden in your castle. They won't bite you.' He smiled tenderly. 'But Maggie...Maggie bites. She bites and kills with her poison tongue.'

She thought for a moment, trying to understand this world she was living in now. And here was I thinking I knew everything about these people. I know nothing at all...there's so much more to learn….'How can you sleep knowing that those women are out there doing what they do?' she spoke at last, his hands still strong on her hips.

'Anna, here, we sleep well knowing that our wives, our children are safe, fed, with a roof over their heads. Here we make the most to keep away from that life, that's even more miserable than ours...that's what we do. We share blessings, we help our neighbours and we sleep. That's what we do.'

She nodded, her eyes unsure. Maybe... 'Is Thelma a prostitute?' Thelma, a woman that always walked in the shadows with her two babes holding her hand, but that always greeted Anna with a smile on her face. She liked Thelma, they talked sometimes when Anna was hanging clothes at the back of the building they lived in.

'Yes, she is.' John sighed and Anna nodded again.

'Alright.' Anna said decisively. 'I should get started with dinner before the children arrive.'

'You do that and I'll see where they've wandered...William is taking too long.' John kissed her forehead and went to the bedroom to change to his day clothes.

Some stew from yesterday would be warmed up for dinner and bread and oranges would have to be enough for tonight.

XXXXXX

The children were all together in the bottom bunk bed, their eyes starving for the story that John was telling them. There was a fierce dragon and a knight on a white horse, ready to save the princess from her prison in the castle tower.

'Why aren't the knights wizards as well? It would be so much easier to kill the dragon.' William commented.

'Because wizards and witches are bad, they would never save a princess.' Elsa replied, rather annoyed.

'Well...not if the wizard was also a knight.' William answered back, rolling his eyes.

'Susssh.' George demanded and John continued his add animated storytelling with a broad smile on his face.

A few paragraphs more, and 'The end!' John said.

'One more! Please uncle.' Elsa begged.

'Isn't it too late for one more story, little lady?' John caressed the girls curls. Elsa's hair was just like his when he was a little boy. Dark and wavy, wild and shining, but only after Anna had brushed it delicately with all the patience in the world.

'Well...' It was Anna's time for begging for a story now. 'Just one more? I didn't really catch the first one,' she smiled at him, her hair still damp from washing.

'Alright then, if the ladies want one more story, that's what they'll get,' John said and Anna sat on his lap.

'The gentlemen want another one too!' William remarked wrapping an arm around his cousin.

'Alright, alright.' John cleared his throat. 'Ladies...and gentlemen, what about a story about fairies?'

'Oh I'm sure we'll love that one!' Anna giggled as his hand pinched her teasing at her back.

'So...once upon a time...'

XXXXXX

'If I had any doubt it has now vanished away,' Anna said as she slipped under the covers.

'About what?' Her husband was washing his face from the water pitcher and bowl in the corner of their room.

'That William's gift for storytelling comes from you,' she smiled.

'Well...it's a different sort of storytelling, I reckon. I tell stories for children to fall asleep, now William, he tells tales that can keep you up all night.'

'Different tales, same talent…your face is all wet!' she squealed when John nuzzled his still damp face in the crook of her neck. 'Mr Bates!'

'I thought you said you loved me no matter what,' he teased her, kissing her earlobe.

'You silly beggar.'

John chuckled leaning against the headboard and running a hand through his hair. 'You know...it has been almost an year since I last slept in a proper bed. I had forgotten how good it feels...mostly for your back. Same for you?' he looked over at her and she was sitting up, with a delicious smile on her lips.

'I haven't slept properly since yesterday so I don't know,' she giggled, straddling him.

'What are you doing?' he asked grinning, immediately grazing at her sides. A question he knew too well the answer for. 'You temptress,' he whispered. How can a dream this perfect be reality?

'I'm afraid you have left me insatiable, Mr Bates. After everything we shared...I just want more of you,' she told him, leaning down and wrapping her arms around his neck, pulling him to her lips.

'Maybe that was my plan all along,' he confessed when they broke apart. His desire growing against her. 'To make an addiction of myself. Something that you would crave more than breathing.' His hand playing with her loose hair.

'Your plan worked. I just hope that mine works as well.'

'And what's your plan?' John felt her rubbing against his hardness and he sighed almost painfully as his hand worked her nightdress out of the way, pulling at the hems until the fabric was gathered around her middle.

'For us to live a lifetime together as fiercely as we are now.'

'I wouldn't worry about that, my love. If anything I will love you even more.'

She smiled. 'All I want is to be your last.'

'My last?'

'The last woman you have in your life.'

He looked at her tenderly. 'My darling. You already are my last, and you were my first. The first woman I have ever loved. I could never have imagined that I would love so immensely, not even when I fell for you. When I first saw you I could never have imagined...that a time like this would come.' He could feel the warmth between their bodies now, and how much he craved her.

'I loved you when I first saw you. When we first met. Do you know that?' She kissed him.

'I know now. And my heart was yours then, I know it now too.'

XXXXXX

Sunday was grey again. The clouds had gathered and the rain had been pouring since early hours. John awoke to find himself adrift in the waves of Anna's golden hair. His nose pressed against the skin of her neck and her back to him. He hadn't dreamed of her that night, but why did he need such a thing now? He had her right beside him. Her smell invading his senses. The feel of her naked silken skin pressed against his. There was no better sensation on earth. Almost as wonderful as feeling her body responding to his. Or when they moved together in perfect harmony.

He stretched then, just a little. The last he wanted now was to wake her up. The air was cold and beneath the sheets their bare bodies were at a perfect temperature. He didn't want to get up. The children, though. They weren't just a couple. They had children who needed them and the time for a sleep-in with his wife had been yesterday, not today.

So he sat up, scratching his head sleepily and yawning. His wife hadn't moved. She laid there undefeated, as if her sleep was something she had been fighting for, and indeed that was the case. Neither had gotten much sleep since the night before their wedding.

Slowly, John stood from the bed. His naked skin shivering against the chilly air of the morning. Oh God. It's freezing, he thought while he gathered his clothes and dressed up for the day. He washed his face and shaved his beard. 'Bloody thing. How can it grow so much overnight?' he whispered into the small mirror, trying his best not to cut himself in the candlelight with his new and sharp blade.

Before he left the room, he leaned down toward Anna and placed a tender kiss on her forehead. Her mouth was slightly opened and her body still. Her lids were moving though...she was dreaming. He smiled.

It was nearly seven o'clock, and John was quite impressed that he had managed to sleep for so long. Usually he would be up around five. Years of early work had made his body used to the light of dawn and he actually enjoyed it. Waking up before the sun and seeing its first rays hitting the rooftops. That was something quite magical to him. Something that it would often take him back to his young years, when he was no older than his son, running around the streets, shining shoes and picking cotton from the ground.

He smiled, shaking his head as he put some water in the kettle. Youth makes the hardships of life so much more simpler, even better. You may be held back in your life but as a child with a child's imagination, you are free. When do those feelings go away? Feelings of conquest and dreams of greatness? Maybe they vanish at their own pace, until one day they are completely forgotten.

'Pa?'

'William?' John turned around to face his son, who was sitting on his top bunk. 'You can sleep a bit more if you want, it's Sunday.'

'Don't want to. Had a hell of a dream, I had.' William rubbed his fists against his eyes.

'Did you now?' John smiled as the boy made his way down his bed silently, careful not to wake his cousins.

'There was this fairy but she was a bad fairy. Kept telling me to swear.' William down sat at the table. The water was boiling.

'I'm afraid that fairy follows you around when you are awake as well.' John chuckled.

The boy frowned his brow. 'Pa, I have one question and I reckon is a difficult one.

'Oh my. You ask me and I'll see if I'm wise enough to answer.'

'When do you know you are not a child no more?'

John faced his son with a surprised look. For a moment there was silence. 'Have you been wandering in on my thoughts now?'

William gave him a confused look.

'Nevermind that.' John shook his head. 'I think it's when you face your responsibilities with courage. When you can take all the consequences from your acts, no matter what they are. And when you know what kind of man you really are. The kind of man you are proud of.'

William nodded accepting his father's answer, even though for his young self, this reply was still a bit complicated to understand.

John's reply hadn't been wrong, not at all. In fact, all that he said is what makes an adult out of a child, but that was not exactly William's question in this case. Maybe the boy didn't word it correctly. For his answer would be simpler, and so much more precise. One day, William would ask this question again but he wouldn't find the answer in his father.

'Do you want a slice of bread?' John asked his son.

'And tea, please.' William said.

'Yes, sir!' They both smiled at each other.

'What's with the tray?' the boy asked, eating his crusty piece of bread.

'It's just...for Anna.' John said a bit sheepishly. 'Remember when you told me that I have to treat my wife kindly?'

'I do remember that, yes. I think she would enjoy some flowers as well.'

John looked at his son as the boy's wise words struck him. Flowers yes! Anna would like flowers… He looked around for a moment, thinking. 'You stay as silent as a mouse, William. Don't wake up anyone, alright?'

'That's fine, I'll be here chewing my bread.'

'You do that lad.' John held the boy's face between his hands and kissed the top of his head. 'Good boy.' With that he was out of the door in search for whatever flowers he could find.

XXXXXX

Anna yawned beneath the covers as John rested the tray in the edge of the bed.

'What's this?' she asked, smiling widely at the sight before her.

'Just...a little something I prepared.' He stood watching her reaction. The old tray had two big slices of bread, two pieces of cheese and a mug with tea, and of course, a small glass with five little daisies. He frowned at the flowers. 'I couldn't find better ones...the heavy rain ruined most of them.'

'And is that why you are all wet?' Anna looked at him from head to toe. He wasn't drenched but she could see that he had caught enough rain to make him sick.

'It started raining all of a sudden. It wasn't when I left the house. It was worth it though, just to see that beautiful smile in your face.'

'John, you didn't have to. The last thing we need now is for you to get ill,' she told him as he sat down next to her.

'I've caught enough rain and cold in my life. It won't be that that will kill me.' He moved a golden strand of hair away from her face.

'I love it. And the flowers are beautiful! For everything that they mean.' She couldn't help but place a quick kiss on his lips. 'I am starving!'

John admired her as she ate. Devouring the two pieces of bread in a minute. She asked him to eat with her but he told her he had already eaten, that all he wanted now was to watch her as she did so. She smiled at him as his eyes burned into her and she nearly choke when she took a sip from her tea.

'Are you alright?' he tapped her back.

'If you would stop staring so hard...' she coughed, her usual smile playing in her features.

'Can't a husband admire his wife anymore?!' He teased her, placing a kiss on her hair when she regained her normal breathing once again. 'I've learn something that has made me think... when I was out after the flowers,' he said a moment later.

'What was that?' Anna asked as she tried another sip at her tea.

'Mr Lewis died last night.' Mr Lewis, an old man who lived right next to them.

'Oh my! That is a shame...'

'It is a shame yes...leaves no one in the world to cry for him,' John sighed.

'Didn't he have anyone?'

'Not a soul. He preferred to pay for...' John stopped himself from saying it in the crude way of things. 'for the comforts of women rather than settle down and have a family.'

'Oh, I see.'

'He had a good life for a man of his kind.' He lifted his brow, a grin on his face. 'The ones who will cry for him are the women he used without paying. They will be angry...' He stopped himself again when he saw Anna's confused eyes looking at him. 'He was not a man who was good with his money.'

'I never seen much of him,' she said, eating a slice of cheese.

'Yes...since the last woman who came to his door to shout at him last year we haven't seen much of him.'

'I see...and why has that made you think?'

'Well...Elsie needs a place to stay, doesn't she? I was thinking that maybe she could stay there now.'

'Who's the owner of that place?'

'I am.' She looked at him surprised. 'Remember my father was a handyman? He had some of his stuff there, it was part of this house. Actually, he wanted to put a door connecting the two but we never did that. Father had a big heart and he lent it to Mr Lewis for as long as he needed it. Rent free...until last night, I suppose.'

'And he never paid you anything?'

'Mr Lewis and father played together as boys, he would never charge a friend rent. And now I could give it to Elsie, I mean...if you want. You don't have to answer just yet.'

'I already know my answer,' she looked down, taking a deep breath. 'And it's yes. I think that's a good idea. Elsie can't just stay at Laura's forever. She needs a place of her own.'

'I agree! And...if she's nearer you, she can always give you a hand when you need it.'

'Are you saying I can't manage, Mr Bates?' She shot him a serious look, trying to mask a playful grin on her lips.

'I would never say such thing but...' he bit his bottom lip shyly. 'if everything goes as nature allows, soon you will be carrying my child,' slowly, he caressed her stomach over the sheets. 'and you will be needing help. More of us to deal with,' he smiled, and Anna looked up at him, her eyes soft and a placid smile on her lips. She brought her hand to his face and caressed his cheek before placing a small kiss on his lips.

'Now you eat everything and get dressed,' he said a moment after. 'I'm sure Elsie would love to hear it from you.' He kissed her lips once again and stayed with her until the noise of the children came from the front room.

That afternoon Anna would tell the good news to Elsie and soon she would be living right next door, like the family they were. And although life had so much more in store for them, for now, they would make the most of these peaceful times. The time to face storms is when you see the darkness on the horizon and feel the strong winds against your face...neither were felt...not yet.

Next Chapter: All Hallow's Eve festivities in the rookery*. A month goes by and Elsie finally moves next door.

*Rookery is the name given to English slums. Thanks to Terriejane, who teaches me lots of wonderful things, now I know the proper term :D

Thank you for reading :)