CHAPTER 10 - EDNA
Spike took a couple more bites of his very rare steak and continued the story.
"As I told you, once we got to Hollywood, I took a few little side ventures up to this area to check it out. Mostly when the gang was busy with some big Hollywood parties they'd get themselves invited to. You know Darla and Angel, in particular; they could dress the part of belonging to the whole Hollywood scene; all that foppery and finery. Dru, too could look the part; as long as she didn't open her mouth, that is," he said with a sad little smile.
"Okay, so anyway, they'd ingratiate themselves in some scene or another, get invited to lots of parties over weeks and months until they were totally accepted. Angel passed himself off as an independently wealthy, Irish businessman who had made his fortune in steel or something like that. Darla played the part of his wife, and Drusilla as her sister," Spike said.
Buffy stopped eating, listening to this part of Angel's life she'd never heard before.
"I went to one or two of their parties, but honestly, it just turned my stomach. All those people playing at pretending to be something they weren't. Or wanted to be. Reminded me too much of those stupid parties I use to feel so out of place at back home; before I was turned," Spike said, his mouth turned up, scornfully, at the memory.
"Besides, bad-ass vampire here! Didn't want to play footsies and make nice with my next meal, just wanted to get on with the festivities, if you know what I mean."
Buffy nodded. She knew exactly what kind of vampire Spike had been.
"But not them three; played the part, went to the parties and gave them, too. Then, finally, when they tired of a certain group of dandies, they'd go to one final party scene, get them into some small room or wine cellar and go to town! They were sort of like the Charles Manson and gang of their day," Spike said.
Buffy shuddered, she also knew what kind of vampire Angel had been, but had tried hard not to think about it for a long time.
"So's when they would be having a period of party-going, I would just tell them I was going to go do my own thing and wound up coming up here," Spike said, with a shrug. "Oh, I mentioned that they all dressed the part. Well, even I had to do a little bit of that. Dress for the age, the times, the area, you know what I mean?"
Buffy nodded, trying to imagine what a prospective landowner would have looked like back in the earlier part of the 20th century.
"And still, Spike, you've told me all this, but not about Edna," Buffy said, just as Edna reappeared.
"How is my favorite Valentine's Day couple doing with their dinner?" she asked them, smiling.
"Fine!" Buffy and Spike answered at the same time.
"Can I bring you anything else? Another bottle of champagne?" she asked.
"Could I please have a glass of water?" asked Buffy.
"Why sure you can, dear," Edna answered, then turned towards Spike.
"Master William? Anything else, anything at all you need?"
"No thank you, Edna. I'm doing just fine," he replied, with a smile.
"Ok, then. I'll be right back with Elizabeth's water," she said and hurried out.
Spike and Buffy were quiet during that time, knowing that any conversation they would start would likely be interrupted momentarily.
Edna was back in a minute with the glass of water.
As soon as she left, Buffy looked at Spike, pointedly.
"Okay, okay, Slayer. I'm getting there," he said, laughing at her persistence to not let go of something; but then again, that was what he loved about her; one of the many things.
"Edna's husband came to this country from Ireland in 1930. He lived in New York for about 9 years, working at various jobs, but didn't want to stay there. He, like my brother had heard about the money to be made in California. However, before he went west he wanted to find a wife. He didn't have any luck in New York, the Irish girls there, becoming more independent that the girls back home; they worked, had their own money, etc. So, Lawrence McKennitt, that was his name, went back to Ireland to find a bride. That's where he met Edna Brannagan, a lovely, lively 18 year old young woman who was taken with the 35 year old man who told her stories of America, in particular, California," Spike said.
"He was a lot older than her," Buffy said, "though I suppose there have always been girls who liked the older man," Buffy commented.
"Good for me, huh?" Spike asked.
"What?"
Spike just looked at her. Pointedly; eyebrow arching.
"Oh, yeah, good for you, Spike!" Buffy said, rolling her eyes; catching on, none-too-quickly. Nobody would ever accuse her of being a quick study, she thought.
"Where was I?" Spike asked.
"Lawrence and Edna," Buffy answered.
"Okay, so Lawrence courts Edna for about a year, marries her, then brings her over to America. With a small dowry from her parents, they head west to Julian, after hearing of the new gold rush from one of my investors. They decided to buy one of the former restaurants and the small hotel next door. Edna figured that it would a good thing to keep this area family friendly for the investors and their workmen, so the town didn't turn into a rough place.
Buffy was finished eating; she pushed her plate away.
"Good?" Spike asked.
"Delicious!" Buffy answered, handing him her champagne glass for a refill.
Spike poured her and himself some more, "We could use another bottle, looks like," he said.
Just then Edna came in with a chocolate cake, frosted in white, with a blood-red heart in the middle, with their names, William and Elizabeth written in the middle in white.
"What's this?" Spike asked.
"Oh, just a little something for my favorite couple," Edna said, setting down two plates, clean forks, and a serving knife.
"May I cut you a piece?" she asked.
"Please," Buffy said, handing her the plate.
"Master William?"
"Sure, why not? Did you make this?" he asked.
"Of course. Make all my own cakes here, just like always," Edna answered.
"Can I get you anything else?"
"How about another bottle of champagne?" Spike said.
"Oh, no. I don't think I can, should," Buffy said, "how about some coffee, instead?"
"Bring Elizabeth and I two coffees, but I'll take that bottle of champagne to go, if that's allowed," Spike said.
"Of course it's allowed Master William, for you anything. I'll be right back with the coffees," Edna said, leaving the room.
"Ummmm! Chocolate cake, looks yummy," Buffy said, smiling.
Spike smiled back at her, just looking at her, enjoying her company, sitting there, smiling, relaxed, something so normal; something so hard for her to have.
Edna came back with the two coffees, cream, and sugar. She left after setting them down, bidding them to enjoy their desserts and coffees.
"How'd you meet her, Spike?" Buffy said, nodding her head toward Edna, as she retreated back to the kitchen.
"Back when I first came here, I only came at night, of course. Not the easiest thing to do, but I managed, somehow," Spike said.
"I pretty much hated having anything to do with humans, except as a means to an end, of course. Not like Angel and them. Didn't want to get to know them, didn't want to do anything except use them for what I needed."
"Of course, having to deal in property and gold changed the amount I had to deal with them, even indirectly, quite a bit."
"I was up here, on my property one night. I use to sleep in a cave up there. Anyway, I decided to come down to town one night; something I'd never done before. So, I'm walking through the town and I hear an argument between two men, then I hear a woman scream. I don't know what made me go to investigate, usually I didn't care to involve myself in the problems of humans, but tonight I did."
"Lawrence had thrown out a drunk customer who had apparently made a lewd remark about Edna, and now the drunk had come back with a knife. He had already cut Lawrence in the arm, I could smell the blood, you know. Anyway, they're out behind the restaurant, Lawrence is on the ground and the drunk is advancing," Spike said.
"What happened then?" Buffy said, fork with cake suspended in mid-air.
"I reach the guy, just as he's about to gut Lawrence, and throw him off him, pummeling him until he's almost dead."
"I must have vamped out during the fight, I usually almost always did, back then. Lawrence didn't see it, but when I looked up, back towards the restaurant, Edna was in the window. I...I think she must have seen me vamp out."
"Anyway, Lawrence is okay, then. Edna comes out to take care of him and I start to take off," Spike said.
"What happened," Buffy asked.
"Lawrence stops Edna from attending to him, and comes after me."
"What's your name, young fellow?" Lawrence asks me.
I'm dumbfounded. I haven't had a voluntary conversation with a human in decades, not to mention; helped one of them. I tried to keep going, but something makes me stop.
"Sp, William, William Worthington," I say, almost stumbling on my given name.
"Well, William Worthington, I want extend my most humble thanks for you kindly coming to my aid back there. Fellow came in earlier and insulted my dear, lovely wife Edna with his dirty mouth and lascivious, boorish behavior," Lawrence had said. "Then came back with a knife an hour later."
"No problem," I had told him, again, trying to leave, to get back to my cave.
"Master Worthington, the Mrs. and I would be honored if you'd join us for a glass of wine or would you like to be our guest for dinner?" he'd asked me, almost pleading.
"I don't know why I accepted his offer. I really don't. Maybe I was just lonely for somebody else's company besides my own. Didn't have much doings with Angel and them during that time."
"So I come back to the restaurant; this very restaurant with Lawrence. This time, to the front of it, to the porch. They've closed up for the night and invite me in, but I don't want to go inside, so Edna brings Lawrence and me couple a bottles of wine and glasses out to the porch."
"I'm wondering if she had seen me vamp. She looked kind of strangely at me, but not in a scared manner, only questioningly, know what I mean?" Spike asked.
Buffy nodded, completely enthralled by his story.
"She thanked me for saving Lawrence, then went back inside. That was the only time I spoke to her or had direct contact with her for the next 25 years. Except for once, two years later." Spike said.
"So Lawrence asks me about myself. He knew by my name, that I owned the land; through his friend, the investor, who had first told him and Edna about Julian. He asks me where I'm staying and I just tell him I'm pitching a tent while I'm up here. Lawrence suggests that I build myself a house on some of the property that I own. Gives me names of contractors, tells me he'll help me...Up until that point, I'd never really considered doing such a thing. Never lived in a place I owned. Usually we'd just kill someone and take over livin' in the place. Never had I thought about having something like a house; of my own. But that night, it somehow seemed to make sense and suddenly, more than anything I'd ever wanted, I wanted to build a house, here in this area, a place of my own, a place..." Spike stopped, smiling at Buffy who was staring at him.
Spike hadn't realized that he'd reached across the table taking her hand when he had let the last sentences' words drop away, but not the yearning in them.
She looked down at his hand. His hand, soft, strong; scared by many battles. She put her other hand on top of his, tracing its shape, the shape of his fingers, his nails.
"Go on," she encouraged.
"So, with Lawrence and his help in setting up the contractors, etc., I start having my house built. In the meantime Edna becomes pregnant with their first and only child and I'm spending more time here than I should," Spike says.
"Why? Why more time than you should?"
"Well, remember how I'd said that I never told another person about this place, except for you and Clem?"
Buffy nodded.
"Well, it would seem that what I assumed to be my 'unmissed absences' weren't entirely unnoticed by Angel, Darla, and Dru," Spike said, a hard edge creeping into his voice.
"What happened?" Buffy asked, with a feeling of dread.
"After I returned to Hollywood, Angel said we were all going to go to San Francisco for a while. I didn't want to leave, but couldn't very well oppose him. Back then, I just did what he wanted me to. One, I was afraid of him, and two, I, they, well...they were still the only family that I had."
"So, I didn't think anything of it. The house was already being built and Lawrence had the money to hire the workers and all that, so I really didn't need to be there."
"Angel tells me to take the girls up to San Francisco and that he'll join me in a few days. And he does, and for next two years we're living up there and I don't have any idea what's happening in Julian. I'd given Lawrence carte blanche to make decisions in my absence, so I didn't worry, although I did want to see how things were going.
"So, a couple of years pass; mere minutes in a vampire's life. Anyway, Angel decides to go back to England for a while with Darla. Dru and I were living on our own at the time and we were fighting. She was off half the time carrying on with some demon or other. So, she decides she's going to go with Angel and Darla. Didn't even tell me. By the time I find out they're gone it's a couple of months later. I'm overjoyed! Finally, a chance to come back up here, check how things are going, see the house for the first time."
"So I get back here, this is early 1943, or there abouts. The first thing I do is to go to the site where my home is supposed to be. What do you think I find?" Spike asked bitterly, as he took a long drink of the champagne.
"I don't know, what?" Buffy asked, fearing what he was going to tell her.
"I find that 'my house' is not much more than a foundation and a few walls, which don't seem to be holding up. Looks like work hasn't been done in all the time I've been gone."
"I'm furious with Lawrence! I feel betrayed, stupid that I trusted a human, I'm sure that he must have taken my money and kept if for his self. I vow to find him and kill him, Edna, and any offspring they have!" Spike said.
"What happened next," Buffy asked.
"Well, I go into town; over here. The first thing I notice is that this restaurant is boarded up with a 'Closed by Order of the Town of Julian,' sign in front. Next door at the hotel they owned, I see a 'Foreclosure,' sign on the front lawn."
"Well, I forget all about my anger and go running over to the hotel and bang on the door. A bedraggled woman who looks like a much, much older version of Edna answers the door carrying a little tyke, not much more than 18 months old, on her hip."
"I yell at her, 'Where's Lawrence? Where's Edna? Where are the people who use to own the restaurant and this place?' I demand of this woman," Spike recounted.
Shocked, she takes a good long look at me and I at her.
"Master Worthington?" she asks of me, voice shaking.
"Edna? I ask, almost too shocked for any words."
"She burst out crying as she inviteed me into her once bustling hotel foyer. Over the next three hours or so, she told me that Lawrence was dead, and how he'd died. Immediately, I recognize what killed him; a vampire. Not only that, but more specifically; who killed him."
"Angel?" Buffy whispered.
Spike nodded, "I was sick to the depths of my non-soul. I'd know his modus operandi anywhere! Obviously, I had must've left some small hint of where I'd been for him to find. Either that or he followed me, but I didn't think so."
"Edna told me how this one gentleman came to stay for a while at their hotel, slept all day, stayed up all night, would engaging them in interesting talk during the night, and kept asking about land, about the old gold rush. Asked who was selling land, all sorts of things. She said that Lawrence didn't trust him - this fellow, so that he kept being evasive. In fact, Lawrence stopped work on my place, waiting for this fellow to leave."
"Unfortunately, the day that he was suppose to leave, is the day that Lawrence was viciously killed. And of course, the stranger disappeared," Spike said, bitterly.
"So, Lawrence is killed and Edna is without support?" Buffy asked, then added, "What happened to the money you'd given Lawrence, for your place?"
"That's the thing that really had me! Edna put that money aside. She was losing everything she had, the restaurant, the hotel, everything. And all this time, she had money that she could have used. But she didn't. She didn't know how to get in touch with me, if I was dead or alive, but she didn't touch it, went into bankruptcy, instead," Spike said, shaking his head.
"So you helped her out?" Buffy asked.
Spike nodded, "Yeah. What else was I supposed to do? Couldn't let her and the little one starve, now could I? So, yeah, paid off her restaurant and her hotel. Then I put aside some money so that her son, Lawrence Jr., could go to college one day."
"I felt guilty. If I'd never left some sort of trail...something that let Angel know that I'd either been here or was interested in the place, then he would never have come up here, would have never killed Lawrence," Spike said, sadly.
"Did she know what killed him?" Buffy asked.
"Not sure, but she described the way he was killed, so there was no doubt in my mind whose handiwork it was. It was like Angel leaving me a postcard, almost. And that was what I think he intended to do. He'd somehow found out that I had been here and wanted to let me know that he still had 'power' over me, that I would not go behind his back and live any kind of life without his knowledge and approval."
"So, you never saw her again after that?" Buffy asked.
"You mean my grandfather didn't see her again?" Spike said, smiling, "no, I sent her money through a solicitor, but I didn't want to see her again. It was too painful. That and the fact that as the years went on, she aged, but I didn't."
"By the time I did decide to come back here, decide to start building again, I sent a telegram that William Worthington I had died back in England. Then his son, William Worthington II, my father, started having a relationship with Edna and her son, who was by then out of college. Did I mention that he became a solicitor? A lawyer? In fact, he's been mine and my father's for years."
"So, every 40-50 years, I have to change generational Williams'. After a couple of decades, I wait 20 years or so, then the son comes up here to take over the house building and improving and looking after Edna."
"So where's Edna's son, now?" Buffy asked.
"He's in San Diego now, used to practice back east. Did I tell you what Edna did? She gave her son William as a middle name after I'd paid off her loans. He always sort of thought of me as his Godfather. Can you imagine that, Buffy? An evil vampire for a Godfather?" Spike laughed.
"But that's not what you were to her, or to him," Buffy said.
"No, but in reality, that is what I was mostly during that time. It was only when I was here, that I was...more than that; for them," he said.
"They believed in you, and you didn't break their belief," she said.
"How could I? I'd already brought misery into their lives, changed their lives forever and they didn't even know it."
"It wasn't your fault," Buffy said, reaching across the table for his hand.
"Wasn't it? Really?" he said, pulling his hand away.
"I don't think so," she answered.
They were silent for a few minutes, thinking and drinking their coffees. Edna entered the room carrying a large bag.
"What's this then?" Spike asked.
"Oh, just some goodies for you and Elizabeth to take up to your place," she said, giggling.
"A couple of bottles of champagne, cake, and some leftovers from all the dinners we cooked tonight. I mean, not customer's leftovers, but fresh from the kitchen. Also gave you some eggs, milk, and coffee for tomorrow morning," Edna said, handing the oversize bag to Spike.
"That's very nice of you, dear," he said to her, fondly, "what would I do without you?"
"I think that's the other way around, Master William," she replied.
Buffy stood up, "Do you have a washroom around?" she asked.
"Up on the second floor, just walk to the back of the store and you'll see them," Edna said.
"Okay...William, I'll meet you by the front door in about 5 minutes or so, okay?" Buffy said.
"Uh-hmmm, okay," Spike answered.
END OF CHAPTER 10
Spike took a couple more bites of his very rare steak and continued the story.
"As I told you, once we got to Hollywood, I took a few little side ventures up to this area to check it out. Mostly when the gang was busy with some big Hollywood parties they'd get themselves invited to. You know Darla and Angel, in particular; they could dress the part of belonging to the whole Hollywood scene; all that foppery and finery. Dru, too could look the part; as long as she didn't open her mouth, that is," he said with a sad little smile.
"Okay, so anyway, they'd ingratiate themselves in some scene or another, get invited to lots of parties over weeks and months until they were totally accepted. Angel passed himself off as an independently wealthy, Irish businessman who had made his fortune in steel or something like that. Darla played the part of his wife, and Drusilla as her sister," Spike said.
Buffy stopped eating, listening to this part of Angel's life she'd never heard before.
"I went to one or two of their parties, but honestly, it just turned my stomach. All those people playing at pretending to be something they weren't. Or wanted to be. Reminded me too much of those stupid parties I use to feel so out of place at back home; before I was turned," Spike said, his mouth turned up, scornfully, at the memory.
"Besides, bad-ass vampire here! Didn't want to play footsies and make nice with my next meal, just wanted to get on with the festivities, if you know what I mean."
Buffy nodded. She knew exactly what kind of vampire Spike had been.
"But not them three; played the part, went to the parties and gave them, too. Then, finally, when they tired of a certain group of dandies, they'd go to one final party scene, get them into some small room or wine cellar and go to town! They were sort of like the Charles Manson and gang of their day," Spike said.
Buffy shuddered, she also knew what kind of vampire Angel had been, but had tried hard not to think about it for a long time.
"So's when they would be having a period of party-going, I would just tell them I was going to go do my own thing and wound up coming up here," Spike said, with a shrug. "Oh, I mentioned that they all dressed the part. Well, even I had to do a little bit of that. Dress for the age, the times, the area, you know what I mean?"
Buffy nodded, trying to imagine what a prospective landowner would have looked like back in the earlier part of the 20th century.
"And still, Spike, you've told me all this, but not about Edna," Buffy said, just as Edna reappeared.
"How is my favorite Valentine's Day couple doing with their dinner?" she asked them, smiling.
"Fine!" Buffy and Spike answered at the same time.
"Can I bring you anything else? Another bottle of champagne?" she asked.
"Could I please have a glass of water?" asked Buffy.
"Why sure you can, dear," Edna answered, then turned towards Spike.
"Master William? Anything else, anything at all you need?"
"No thank you, Edna. I'm doing just fine," he replied, with a smile.
"Ok, then. I'll be right back with Elizabeth's water," she said and hurried out.
Spike and Buffy were quiet during that time, knowing that any conversation they would start would likely be interrupted momentarily.
Edna was back in a minute with the glass of water.
As soon as she left, Buffy looked at Spike, pointedly.
"Okay, okay, Slayer. I'm getting there," he said, laughing at her persistence to not let go of something; but then again, that was what he loved about her; one of the many things.
"Edna's husband came to this country from Ireland in 1930. He lived in New York for about 9 years, working at various jobs, but didn't want to stay there. He, like my brother had heard about the money to be made in California. However, before he went west he wanted to find a wife. He didn't have any luck in New York, the Irish girls there, becoming more independent that the girls back home; they worked, had their own money, etc. So, Lawrence McKennitt, that was his name, went back to Ireland to find a bride. That's where he met Edna Brannagan, a lovely, lively 18 year old young woman who was taken with the 35 year old man who told her stories of America, in particular, California," Spike said.
"He was a lot older than her," Buffy said, "though I suppose there have always been girls who liked the older man," Buffy commented.
"Good for me, huh?" Spike asked.
"What?"
Spike just looked at her. Pointedly; eyebrow arching.
"Oh, yeah, good for you, Spike!" Buffy said, rolling her eyes; catching on, none-too-quickly. Nobody would ever accuse her of being a quick study, she thought.
"Where was I?" Spike asked.
"Lawrence and Edna," Buffy answered.
"Okay, so Lawrence courts Edna for about a year, marries her, then brings her over to America. With a small dowry from her parents, they head west to Julian, after hearing of the new gold rush from one of my investors. They decided to buy one of the former restaurants and the small hotel next door. Edna figured that it would a good thing to keep this area family friendly for the investors and their workmen, so the town didn't turn into a rough place.
Buffy was finished eating; she pushed her plate away.
"Good?" Spike asked.
"Delicious!" Buffy answered, handing him her champagne glass for a refill.
Spike poured her and himself some more, "We could use another bottle, looks like," he said.
Just then Edna came in with a chocolate cake, frosted in white, with a blood-red heart in the middle, with their names, William and Elizabeth written in the middle in white.
"What's this?" Spike asked.
"Oh, just a little something for my favorite couple," Edna said, setting down two plates, clean forks, and a serving knife.
"May I cut you a piece?" she asked.
"Please," Buffy said, handing her the plate.
"Master William?"
"Sure, why not? Did you make this?" he asked.
"Of course. Make all my own cakes here, just like always," Edna answered.
"Can I get you anything else?"
"How about another bottle of champagne?" Spike said.
"Oh, no. I don't think I can, should," Buffy said, "how about some coffee, instead?"
"Bring Elizabeth and I two coffees, but I'll take that bottle of champagne to go, if that's allowed," Spike said.
"Of course it's allowed Master William, for you anything. I'll be right back with the coffees," Edna said, leaving the room.
"Ummmm! Chocolate cake, looks yummy," Buffy said, smiling.
Spike smiled back at her, just looking at her, enjoying her company, sitting there, smiling, relaxed, something so normal; something so hard for her to have.
Edna came back with the two coffees, cream, and sugar. She left after setting them down, bidding them to enjoy their desserts and coffees.
"How'd you meet her, Spike?" Buffy said, nodding her head toward Edna, as she retreated back to the kitchen.
"Back when I first came here, I only came at night, of course. Not the easiest thing to do, but I managed, somehow," Spike said.
"I pretty much hated having anything to do with humans, except as a means to an end, of course. Not like Angel and them. Didn't want to get to know them, didn't want to do anything except use them for what I needed."
"Of course, having to deal in property and gold changed the amount I had to deal with them, even indirectly, quite a bit."
"I was up here, on my property one night. I use to sleep in a cave up there. Anyway, I decided to come down to town one night; something I'd never done before. So, I'm walking through the town and I hear an argument between two men, then I hear a woman scream. I don't know what made me go to investigate, usually I didn't care to involve myself in the problems of humans, but tonight I did."
"Lawrence had thrown out a drunk customer who had apparently made a lewd remark about Edna, and now the drunk had come back with a knife. He had already cut Lawrence in the arm, I could smell the blood, you know. Anyway, they're out behind the restaurant, Lawrence is on the ground and the drunk is advancing," Spike said.
"What happened then?" Buffy said, fork with cake suspended in mid-air.
"I reach the guy, just as he's about to gut Lawrence, and throw him off him, pummeling him until he's almost dead."
"I must have vamped out during the fight, I usually almost always did, back then. Lawrence didn't see it, but when I looked up, back towards the restaurant, Edna was in the window. I...I think she must have seen me vamp out."
"Anyway, Lawrence is okay, then. Edna comes out to take care of him and I start to take off," Spike said.
"What happened," Buffy asked.
"Lawrence stops Edna from attending to him, and comes after me."
"What's your name, young fellow?" Lawrence asks me.
I'm dumbfounded. I haven't had a voluntary conversation with a human in decades, not to mention; helped one of them. I tried to keep going, but something makes me stop.
"Sp, William, William Worthington," I say, almost stumbling on my given name.
"Well, William Worthington, I want extend my most humble thanks for you kindly coming to my aid back there. Fellow came in earlier and insulted my dear, lovely wife Edna with his dirty mouth and lascivious, boorish behavior," Lawrence had said. "Then came back with a knife an hour later."
"No problem," I had told him, again, trying to leave, to get back to my cave.
"Master Worthington, the Mrs. and I would be honored if you'd join us for a glass of wine or would you like to be our guest for dinner?" he'd asked me, almost pleading.
"I don't know why I accepted his offer. I really don't. Maybe I was just lonely for somebody else's company besides my own. Didn't have much doings with Angel and them during that time."
"So I come back to the restaurant; this very restaurant with Lawrence. This time, to the front of it, to the porch. They've closed up for the night and invite me in, but I don't want to go inside, so Edna brings Lawrence and me couple a bottles of wine and glasses out to the porch."
"I'm wondering if she had seen me vamp. She looked kind of strangely at me, but not in a scared manner, only questioningly, know what I mean?" Spike asked.
Buffy nodded, completely enthralled by his story.
"She thanked me for saving Lawrence, then went back inside. That was the only time I spoke to her or had direct contact with her for the next 25 years. Except for once, two years later." Spike said.
"So Lawrence asks me about myself. He knew by my name, that I owned the land; through his friend, the investor, who had first told him and Edna about Julian. He asks me where I'm staying and I just tell him I'm pitching a tent while I'm up here. Lawrence suggests that I build myself a house on some of the property that I own. Gives me names of contractors, tells me he'll help me...Up until that point, I'd never really considered doing such a thing. Never lived in a place I owned. Usually we'd just kill someone and take over livin' in the place. Never had I thought about having something like a house; of my own. But that night, it somehow seemed to make sense and suddenly, more than anything I'd ever wanted, I wanted to build a house, here in this area, a place of my own, a place..." Spike stopped, smiling at Buffy who was staring at him.
Spike hadn't realized that he'd reached across the table taking her hand when he had let the last sentences' words drop away, but not the yearning in them.
She looked down at his hand. His hand, soft, strong; scared by many battles. She put her other hand on top of his, tracing its shape, the shape of his fingers, his nails.
"Go on," she encouraged.
"So, with Lawrence and his help in setting up the contractors, etc., I start having my house built. In the meantime Edna becomes pregnant with their first and only child and I'm spending more time here than I should," Spike says.
"Why? Why more time than you should?"
"Well, remember how I'd said that I never told another person about this place, except for you and Clem?"
Buffy nodded.
"Well, it would seem that what I assumed to be my 'unmissed absences' weren't entirely unnoticed by Angel, Darla, and Dru," Spike said, a hard edge creeping into his voice.
"What happened?" Buffy asked, with a feeling of dread.
"After I returned to Hollywood, Angel said we were all going to go to San Francisco for a while. I didn't want to leave, but couldn't very well oppose him. Back then, I just did what he wanted me to. One, I was afraid of him, and two, I, they, well...they were still the only family that I had."
"So, I didn't think anything of it. The house was already being built and Lawrence had the money to hire the workers and all that, so I really didn't need to be there."
"Angel tells me to take the girls up to San Francisco and that he'll join me in a few days. And he does, and for next two years we're living up there and I don't have any idea what's happening in Julian. I'd given Lawrence carte blanche to make decisions in my absence, so I didn't worry, although I did want to see how things were going.
"So, a couple of years pass; mere minutes in a vampire's life. Anyway, Angel decides to go back to England for a while with Darla. Dru and I were living on our own at the time and we were fighting. She was off half the time carrying on with some demon or other. So, she decides she's going to go with Angel and Darla. Didn't even tell me. By the time I find out they're gone it's a couple of months later. I'm overjoyed! Finally, a chance to come back up here, check how things are going, see the house for the first time."
"So I get back here, this is early 1943, or there abouts. The first thing I do is to go to the site where my home is supposed to be. What do you think I find?" Spike asked bitterly, as he took a long drink of the champagne.
"I don't know, what?" Buffy asked, fearing what he was going to tell her.
"I find that 'my house' is not much more than a foundation and a few walls, which don't seem to be holding up. Looks like work hasn't been done in all the time I've been gone."
"I'm furious with Lawrence! I feel betrayed, stupid that I trusted a human, I'm sure that he must have taken my money and kept if for his self. I vow to find him and kill him, Edna, and any offspring they have!" Spike said.
"What happened next," Buffy asked.
"Well, I go into town; over here. The first thing I notice is that this restaurant is boarded up with a 'Closed by Order of the Town of Julian,' sign in front. Next door at the hotel they owned, I see a 'Foreclosure,' sign on the front lawn."
"Well, I forget all about my anger and go running over to the hotel and bang on the door. A bedraggled woman who looks like a much, much older version of Edna answers the door carrying a little tyke, not much more than 18 months old, on her hip."
"I yell at her, 'Where's Lawrence? Where's Edna? Where are the people who use to own the restaurant and this place?' I demand of this woman," Spike recounted.
Shocked, she takes a good long look at me and I at her.
"Master Worthington?" she asks of me, voice shaking.
"Edna? I ask, almost too shocked for any words."
"She burst out crying as she inviteed me into her once bustling hotel foyer. Over the next three hours or so, she told me that Lawrence was dead, and how he'd died. Immediately, I recognize what killed him; a vampire. Not only that, but more specifically; who killed him."
"Angel?" Buffy whispered.
Spike nodded, "I was sick to the depths of my non-soul. I'd know his modus operandi anywhere! Obviously, I had must've left some small hint of where I'd been for him to find. Either that or he followed me, but I didn't think so."
"Edna told me how this one gentleman came to stay for a while at their hotel, slept all day, stayed up all night, would engaging them in interesting talk during the night, and kept asking about land, about the old gold rush. Asked who was selling land, all sorts of things. She said that Lawrence didn't trust him - this fellow, so that he kept being evasive. In fact, Lawrence stopped work on my place, waiting for this fellow to leave."
"Unfortunately, the day that he was suppose to leave, is the day that Lawrence was viciously killed. And of course, the stranger disappeared," Spike said, bitterly.
"So, Lawrence is killed and Edna is without support?" Buffy asked, then added, "What happened to the money you'd given Lawrence, for your place?"
"That's the thing that really had me! Edna put that money aside. She was losing everything she had, the restaurant, the hotel, everything. And all this time, she had money that she could have used. But she didn't. She didn't know how to get in touch with me, if I was dead or alive, but she didn't touch it, went into bankruptcy, instead," Spike said, shaking his head.
"So you helped her out?" Buffy asked.
Spike nodded, "Yeah. What else was I supposed to do? Couldn't let her and the little one starve, now could I? So, yeah, paid off her restaurant and her hotel. Then I put aside some money so that her son, Lawrence Jr., could go to college one day."
"I felt guilty. If I'd never left some sort of trail...something that let Angel know that I'd either been here or was interested in the place, then he would never have come up here, would have never killed Lawrence," Spike said, sadly.
"Did she know what killed him?" Buffy asked.
"Not sure, but she described the way he was killed, so there was no doubt in my mind whose handiwork it was. It was like Angel leaving me a postcard, almost. And that was what I think he intended to do. He'd somehow found out that I had been here and wanted to let me know that he still had 'power' over me, that I would not go behind his back and live any kind of life without his knowledge and approval."
"So, you never saw her again after that?" Buffy asked.
"You mean my grandfather didn't see her again?" Spike said, smiling, "no, I sent her money through a solicitor, but I didn't want to see her again. It was too painful. That and the fact that as the years went on, she aged, but I didn't."
"By the time I did decide to come back here, decide to start building again, I sent a telegram that William Worthington I had died back in England. Then his son, William Worthington II, my father, started having a relationship with Edna and her son, who was by then out of college. Did I mention that he became a solicitor? A lawyer? In fact, he's been mine and my father's for years."
"So, every 40-50 years, I have to change generational Williams'. After a couple of decades, I wait 20 years or so, then the son comes up here to take over the house building and improving and looking after Edna."
"So where's Edna's son, now?" Buffy asked.
"He's in San Diego now, used to practice back east. Did I tell you what Edna did? She gave her son William as a middle name after I'd paid off her loans. He always sort of thought of me as his Godfather. Can you imagine that, Buffy? An evil vampire for a Godfather?" Spike laughed.
"But that's not what you were to her, or to him," Buffy said.
"No, but in reality, that is what I was mostly during that time. It was only when I was here, that I was...more than that; for them," he said.
"They believed in you, and you didn't break their belief," she said.
"How could I? I'd already brought misery into their lives, changed their lives forever and they didn't even know it."
"It wasn't your fault," Buffy said, reaching across the table for his hand.
"Wasn't it? Really?" he said, pulling his hand away.
"I don't think so," she answered.
They were silent for a few minutes, thinking and drinking their coffees. Edna entered the room carrying a large bag.
"What's this then?" Spike asked.
"Oh, just some goodies for you and Elizabeth to take up to your place," she said, giggling.
"A couple of bottles of champagne, cake, and some leftovers from all the dinners we cooked tonight. I mean, not customer's leftovers, but fresh from the kitchen. Also gave you some eggs, milk, and coffee for tomorrow morning," Edna said, handing the oversize bag to Spike.
"That's very nice of you, dear," he said to her, fondly, "what would I do without you?"
"I think that's the other way around, Master William," she replied.
Buffy stood up, "Do you have a washroom around?" she asked.
"Up on the second floor, just walk to the back of the store and you'll see them," Edna said.
"Okay...William, I'll meet you by the front door in about 5 minutes or so, okay?" Buffy said.
"Uh-hmmm, okay," Spike answered.
END OF CHAPTER 10