A/N thank you storyteller, James Lee, Lozzi1403, and Bunny for reviewing the last chapter.
Different Sides Of The Track
Buffy shifted Dawn's weight in her arms, and opened the front door to her house, just enough so she could see who was outside, before opening the door fully, and greeting the person who was standing there.
"Good Morning." she said, looking at the man before her, smiling.
"'Ello pet." He said, smiling sincerely at her.
Buffy looked over the man standing in front of her. He was pretty tall, well, compared to how short she was, and had short light brown hair, high cheekbones, and a nice smile on his face. He was gorgeous, and Buffy didn't notice she had been staring a bit until he waved a hand in front of her face to get her attention.
She shook her head, "Sorry, can I help you with something?"
"Actually yeah, I'm looking for a place to rest, and your house seemed to be the only one for miles." He said, looking sheepish, as if he didn't really want to be asking anyone for any favors of any kind, "I was just wondering if you wouldn't mind me staying here for a couple of hours maybe."
She smiled sweetly, "Of course I don't mind," she told him, moving back so that he could come in.
He looked at her, and then stepped into the house looking around, "My name's William, by the way." He told her glancing at her.
"Buffy." She replied.
"What?"
She rolled her eyes, used to this type of reaction. "My name, it's Buffy."
He raised an eyebrow, then chuckled, "Never heard that one before, nice to meet you, Buffy." He said, as if testing how it sounded when he said it. He then noticed Dawn in Buffy's arms, and smiled at the child.
"Hey there 'lil bit." He said, and Dawn giggled. He looked back up at Buffy, "She's cute, what's her name?"
"Dawn."
"Well, it's nice to meet you too Dawn." He said taking her little hand in his, and shaking it slightly. This caused Buffy to smile, and Dawn to giggle again and reach for his hair, grabbing a fist full of it. She yanked on in hard, and William yelped.
Buffy looked at him apologetically, "Sorry she likes to pull hair." She said, to him, then to Dawn she said, sternly, "Dawnie, let go of the William's hair."
Dawn pouted, but let go anyway, and Buffy apologized again to William as he rubbed his head, "Sorry about that."
"It's no problem at all, my sister used to do that all the time, they always go for the hair." He said, tapping Dawn on the nose lightly. She giggled again.
Smiling, Buffy again shifted Dawn's weight and showed William to the kitchen. He looked around, finding it weird that Buffy seemed to be the only one here. He had expected more than a woman and a child when he had seen the house. What kind of a man would leave two beautiful girls like those two alone in a house? Not any man William thought he would be able to stand.
"Would you like anything to eat?" Buffy asked from behind him, and he shook his head.
"No thanks, not really hungry, though I was wondering. My horse's outside, would you mind if I put him in the barn?" he asked, again having that sheepish look on his face.
"I wouldn't mind at all. I could even help if you wanted." She said, but he shook his head again.
"No, that's ok, I can get it, besides, you have to hold the 'lil bit." He said, opening the back door, and walking out back to his horse.
Buffy sighed, and quickly went upstairs to see what Gunn was doing. She found his door closed, and when she knocked there was no answer, she tried again, but still there was no response.
"Charles?" she asked, opening the door a little and peeking in.
He looked up at her, "Are they gone?" he asked.
Buffy shook her head, "No, he's just going to be staying for a couple of hours though, needs to rest. I'm really sorry Charles, but you're going to have to stay hidden."
"S'ok, I can deal with that."
She nodded, "I'll be up when he's gone."
Closing the door, Buffy hurried back down stairs, just as William reentered through the back door. He looked at her, and then sat down.
"So Buffy, do you live here all alone?" he asked.
"Pretty much, unless you count Dawn here." She answered, sitting down across from him, Dawn on her lap.
William thought about this for a second, until Buffy spoke up, drawing him out of his thoughts of why someone like her would be living all alone.
"What brings you to this part of Virginia, 'cause I've got to say, I don't get many visitors here." She said.
He hesitated, "Well, my father kind of got mad at me for letting one of his slaves get away a couple of days ago, and he sent me up here looking for him. Can't say it's what I want to be doing though, I'd much rather be up here on vacation then looking for some nigger."
Buffy tensed at the way he talked about the black he was looking for, and he must've noticed it.
"Something wrong pet?" he asked.
"No, nothing's wrong." She thought about Gunn upstairs, it was, though very unlikely, possible that Charles was the slave he was talking about, and if he found out that he was staying here, Buffy would be in big trouble, and Charles would be sent back to a plantation. "Are you sure you don't want anything? I've still got some berries from earlier."
"I'm fine." He said, though he was a bit hungry, he didn't want to take much from her.
Buffy yawned, and he looked at her funny, "Long day, or am I just that boring?" he asked, and she laughed.
"No, not at all, just a bit tired, didn't get much sleep last night." She said, rubbing her eyes with one hand.
"Why's that?"
"Xander stopped by late last night, and we were talking, then Dawn, here, woke up and I had to see here." She said, ok, not the whole truth, but she couldn't tell a person looking for a slave that she had received one to hide just the night before.
"Wait, Xander Harris?" Will asked.
"Yeah, you know him? I mean I know he had friends, but I haven't met many of them." She said.
"Yeah, met him on the road this morning, he was the one who told me that there were house ahead, and that I should keep going. Gave me some water too, he's a good guy."
"Yeah, Xander's always come across that way to most everyone, though some people don't like that he jokes all the time." She said, "But when he comes over, it's like a glimpse of heaven for me. He's always nice with Dawn, and helps even when I tell him not too."
"Well, I can't see anyone not wanting to help you." William said, and Buffy looked up at him.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, you live here all alone, with a child nonetheless, it would seem that you would have to do everything around here. Care for that cow I saw out in the barn, that dog that jumped me while I was putting my horse in-"
Buffy cut him off, "Oh, he didn't hurt you did he? Boomer can get a little excited around people he doesn't know-"
"I'm fine, pet. He just wanted to say hello. And did you say Boomer? I've never heard anyone call a dog that."
"Well, it was the first thing that came out of Dawn's mouth when she saw him, and the name kind of, well, stuck."
William looked at Dawn as she played with a berry that was on the table, "She can talk?" He asked.
"When she wants too. When she gets excited she mumbles, or babbles, sometimes I get real words, other times, well, I get nothing, or can't understand." Buffy said, "I'm always trying though, I think I've got a small understanding of what she means most of the time."
"Well good on you, took me a year or two to figure out what my sis was trying to say." He said, "And it was a pretty simple thing too."
Buffy smiled at him, "You mentioned you have a horse?"
"I do. His name's PenDragon." William said, "You know much about horses?"
"Not to much," She replied truthfully, "But I do know some things about how to clean them, and I can ride."
"Good for you. Back in Georgia not many of the girls can ride, they're all to busy with the house work, and flirting with the guys to think that that could be important." He said, "I think it is, 'cause you never know when you're going to need to know how to do something like that, or get away..."
Buffy looked at him, "Get away?"
"Well, you never know. Highwaymen, animals, there are a number of situations where if you have a horse, and can stay on, you can get out ok. Also there's that whole little situation with the slaves escaping." He told her, "A number of them have escorts, or so I've heard...." Buffy tensed up again, but he didn't seem to notice this time, "....And some are given horses to ride. Of course, that could be just rumor, but I'm not all that sure, I guest I've just heard things from my father and brother."
"Then again, I've also heard a lot of them just walk, and hide out in houses. I don't know much, but I have been learning over the past couple of days about what some people do to hide those niggers."
Buffy blinked, he knew quite a bit about how the slaves escaped, and how they seemed to get to where ever they were going. She hoped this conversation wasn't going to stay on this track, that wouldn't be good at all. She decided to change the subject.
"So, what did you do back in Georgia?" she asked.
"I took care of the plantation when my father and brother were away, but when they were there, I mostly cared for my mother and sister, didn't want them to get involved with any of whatever my father was doing." He told her.
"You keep mentioning your sister, how old is she?"
"About five or six now. She's quite a handful, always keeping the slaves from their work by trying to help, then getting in the way."
"She tries to help?" Buffy asked, she wasn't exactly sure how life was down in the more southern states.
"Yeah, I mean, me and my mum do too. We're still not sure why my father has slaves, our plantation's not that big, and he's just lazy. I'd rather be doing all the work myself than watching all those niggers do it, I rather think it's not fair." William said, before he realized he had been telling her pretty much everything about him, even things he wasn't sure people would hear without giving him a hard time.
Buffy smiled, "I think it's nice that you help them out, but why don't you just tell your father that you'd do that for him?"
""Cause I'd get it for that. My father's a strong believer in slaves, hence me being up here, looking for one, figured I'd better not make him mad by not doing it. I'll probably not find him, and go home, and he'll take a fit. It'd be better that way, that way the poor nigger wont have to come back to a place like that." He said, finding that it didn't feel weird telling her about his father, and what he was doing here, why he was doing it, or how he felt about doing it. Actually it felt good getting some of it off of his chest, seeing as if he said it to anyone but someone he barely knew, he'd be yelled at for being so stupid.
Buffy smiled, this guy wasn't so bad, he didn't seem to believe in slavery at all, except, it seemed as if he might have grown up thinking it was ok, then when he got older started asking questions about how it was ok for a black to work for his entire life for free, and how everyone insisted on paying his for half the work.
"So, what, you completely disagree with your father about the way things are at your house, with the slaves and everything." She asked.
"Yeah, pretty much, I figure they're people to, why can't they be like us."
Buffy's smile grew, he wasn't a back guy at all. He understood, she though, pretty much how she did about what society was like. Unfair to blacks. But she wasn't ready to take the risk of telling him Charles was there, or how she felt about it. Though he seemed to be antislavery, he still might be sexist like many of the men she knew.
"What about you? How do you view what we're talking about? Never really heard anyone but my brother and father's view on these things."
She looked at him confused, "You're asking me?"
"Yeah, why wouldn't I?" he asked, looking just as confused as she was about her confusion.
"I don't know, it's just, never mind..."
"No, really, why would you be confused about me asking your opinion?" he asked, still looking confused.
"No one really asks me what I think about anything. It's normally, women don't have opinions, or if they do, it doesn't matter." She explained, realizing now how stupid that sounded.
"Really? I think everyone's opinion matters, even yours luv, no matter if you're a man or a women, where'd you get the idea that it would matter?"
She shook her head, "Nowhere."
"Alright then, so what do you think?"
She blinked, he really wanted to hear? "Well, I think it's wrong to have other's work for you with no rewards, or anything like that. Sure, they get a home and everything, but they never get paid, and a white man with a home who works half as hard for half as long does. It's not fair to keep one person as a slave because their skin is darker then their own." She said.
William looked at her, he hadn't heard anyone speak about the subject like she did. She spoke about it differently than anyone he had ever known, and seeing where he grew up, that wasn't a view most people took on the matter.
"You are right, you know. Maybe I'll just give up that search of mine, maybe even move out of my father's house, seeing as I can't do anything there. Maybe help in other ways, I don't know." He was amazed at how she felt so strongly about this, and was surprised that, to his knowledge, she wasn't doing anything to help her cause.
Different Sides Of The Track
Buffy shifted Dawn's weight in her arms, and opened the front door to her house, just enough so she could see who was outside, before opening the door fully, and greeting the person who was standing there.
"Good Morning." she said, looking at the man before her, smiling.
"'Ello pet." He said, smiling sincerely at her.
Buffy looked over the man standing in front of her. He was pretty tall, well, compared to how short she was, and had short light brown hair, high cheekbones, and a nice smile on his face. He was gorgeous, and Buffy didn't notice she had been staring a bit until he waved a hand in front of her face to get her attention.
She shook her head, "Sorry, can I help you with something?"
"Actually yeah, I'm looking for a place to rest, and your house seemed to be the only one for miles." He said, looking sheepish, as if he didn't really want to be asking anyone for any favors of any kind, "I was just wondering if you wouldn't mind me staying here for a couple of hours maybe."
She smiled sweetly, "Of course I don't mind," she told him, moving back so that he could come in.
He looked at her, and then stepped into the house looking around, "My name's William, by the way." He told her glancing at her.
"Buffy." She replied.
"What?"
She rolled her eyes, used to this type of reaction. "My name, it's Buffy."
He raised an eyebrow, then chuckled, "Never heard that one before, nice to meet you, Buffy." He said, as if testing how it sounded when he said it. He then noticed Dawn in Buffy's arms, and smiled at the child.
"Hey there 'lil bit." He said, and Dawn giggled. He looked back up at Buffy, "She's cute, what's her name?"
"Dawn."
"Well, it's nice to meet you too Dawn." He said taking her little hand in his, and shaking it slightly. This caused Buffy to smile, and Dawn to giggle again and reach for his hair, grabbing a fist full of it. She yanked on in hard, and William yelped.
Buffy looked at him apologetically, "Sorry she likes to pull hair." She said, to him, then to Dawn she said, sternly, "Dawnie, let go of the William's hair."
Dawn pouted, but let go anyway, and Buffy apologized again to William as he rubbed his head, "Sorry about that."
"It's no problem at all, my sister used to do that all the time, they always go for the hair." He said, tapping Dawn on the nose lightly. She giggled again.
Smiling, Buffy again shifted Dawn's weight and showed William to the kitchen. He looked around, finding it weird that Buffy seemed to be the only one here. He had expected more than a woman and a child when he had seen the house. What kind of a man would leave two beautiful girls like those two alone in a house? Not any man William thought he would be able to stand.
"Would you like anything to eat?" Buffy asked from behind him, and he shook his head.
"No thanks, not really hungry, though I was wondering. My horse's outside, would you mind if I put him in the barn?" he asked, again having that sheepish look on his face.
"I wouldn't mind at all. I could even help if you wanted." She said, but he shook his head again.
"No, that's ok, I can get it, besides, you have to hold the 'lil bit." He said, opening the back door, and walking out back to his horse.
Buffy sighed, and quickly went upstairs to see what Gunn was doing. She found his door closed, and when she knocked there was no answer, she tried again, but still there was no response.
"Charles?" she asked, opening the door a little and peeking in.
He looked up at her, "Are they gone?" he asked.
Buffy shook her head, "No, he's just going to be staying for a couple of hours though, needs to rest. I'm really sorry Charles, but you're going to have to stay hidden."
"S'ok, I can deal with that."
She nodded, "I'll be up when he's gone."
Closing the door, Buffy hurried back down stairs, just as William reentered through the back door. He looked at her, and then sat down.
"So Buffy, do you live here all alone?" he asked.
"Pretty much, unless you count Dawn here." She answered, sitting down across from him, Dawn on her lap.
William thought about this for a second, until Buffy spoke up, drawing him out of his thoughts of why someone like her would be living all alone.
"What brings you to this part of Virginia, 'cause I've got to say, I don't get many visitors here." She said.
He hesitated, "Well, my father kind of got mad at me for letting one of his slaves get away a couple of days ago, and he sent me up here looking for him. Can't say it's what I want to be doing though, I'd much rather be up here on vacation then looking for some nigger."
Buffy tensed at the way he talked about the black he was looking for, and he must've noticed it.
"Something wrong pet?" he asked.
"No, nothing's wrong." She thought about Gunn upstairs, it was, though very unlikely, possible that Charles was the slave he was talking about, and if he found out that he was staying here, Buffy would be in big trouble, and Charles would be sent back to a plantation. "Are you sure you don't want anything? I've still got some berries from earlier."
"I'm fine." He said, though he was a bit hungry, he didn't want to take much from her.
Buffy yawned, and he looked at her funny, "Long day, or am I just that boring?" he asked, and she laughed.
"No, not at all, just a bit tired, didn't get much sleep last night." She said, rubbing her eyes with one hand.
"Why's that?"
"Xander stopped by late last night, and we were talking, then Dawn, here, woke up and I had to see here." She said, ok, not the whole truth, but she couldn't tell a person looking for a slave that she had received one to hide just the night before.
"Wait, Xander Harris?" Will asked.
"Yeah, you know him? I mean I know he had friends, but I haven't met many of them." She said.
"Yeah, met him on the road this morning, he was the one who told me that there were house ahead, and that I should keep going. Gave me some water too, he's a good guy."
"Yeah, Xander's always come across that way to most everyone, though some people don't like that he jokes all the time." She said, "But when he comes over, it's like a glimpse of heaven for me. He's always nice with Dawn, and helps even when I tell him not too."
"Well, I can't see anyone not wanting to help you." William said, and Buffy looked up at him.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, you live here all alone, with a child nonetheless, it would seem that you would have to do everything around here. Care for that cow I saw out in the barn, that dog that jumped me while I was putting my horse in-"
Buffy cut him off, "Oh, he didn't hurt you did he? Boomer can get a little excited around people he doesn't know-"
"I'm fine, pet. He just wanted to say hello. And did you say Boomer? I've never heard anyone call a dog that."
"Well, it was the first thing that came out of Dawn's mouth when she saw him, and the name kind of, well, stuck."
William looked at Dawn as she played with a berry that was on the table, "She can talk?" He asked.
"When she wants too. When she gets excited she mumbles, or babbles, sometimes I get real words, other times, well, I get nothing, or can't understand." Buffy said, "I'm always trying though, I think I've got a small understanding of what she means most of the time."
"Well good on you, took me a year or two to figure out what my sis was trying to say." He said, "And it was a pretty simple thing too."
Buffy smiled at him, "You mentioned you have a horse?"
"I do. His name's PenDragon." William said, "You know much about horses?"
"Not to much," She replied truthfully, "But I do know some things about how to clean them, and I can ride."
"Good for you. Back in Georgia not many of the girls can ride, they're all to busy with the house work, and flirting with the guys to think that that could be important." He said, "I think it is, 'cause you never know when you're going to need to know how to do something like that, or get away..."
Buffy looked at him, "Get away?"
"Well, you never know. Highwaymen, animals, there are a number of situations where if you have a horse, and can stay on, you can get out ok. Also there's that whole little situation with the slaves escaping." He told her, "A number of them have escorts, or so I've heard...." Buffy tensed up again, but he didn't seem to notice this time, "....And some are given horses to ride. Of course, that could be just rumor, but I'm not all that sure, I guest I've just heard things from my father and brother."
"Then again, I've also heard a lot of them just walk, and hide out in houses. I don't know much, but I have been learning over the past couple of days about what some people do to hide those niggers."
Buffy blinked, he knew quite a bit about how the slaves escaped, and how they seemed to get to where ever they were going. She hoped this conversation wasn't going to stay on this track, that wouldn't be good at all. She decided to change the subject.
"So, what did you do back in Georgia?" she asked.
"I took care of the plantation when my father and brother were away, but when they were there, I mostly cared for my mother and sister, didn't want them to get involved with any of whatever my father was doing." He told her.
"You keep mentioning your sister, how old is she?"
"About five or six now. She's quite a handful, always keeping the slaves from their work by trying to help, then getting in the way."
"She tries to help?" Buffy asked, she wasn't exactly sure how life was down in the more southern states.
"Yeah, I mean, me and my mum do too. We're still not sure why my father has slaves, our plantation's not that big, and he's just lazy. I'd rather be doing all the work myself than watching all those niggers do it, I rather think it's not fair." William said, before he realized he had been telling her pretty much everything about him, even things he wasn't sure people would hear without giving him a hard time.
Buffy smiled, "I think it's nice that you help them out, but why don't you just tell your father that you'd do that for him?"
""Cause I'd get it for that. My father's a strong believer in slaves, hence me being up here, looking for one, figured I'd better not make him mad by not doing it. I'll probably not find him, and go home, and he'll take a fit. It'd be better that way, that way the poor nigger wont have to come back to a place like that." He said, finding that it didn't feel weird telling her about his father, and what he was doing here, why he was doing it, or how he felt about doing it. Actually it felt good getting some of it off of his chest, seeing as if he said it to anyone but someone he barely knew, he'd be yelled at for being so stupid.
Buffy smiled, this guy wasn't so bad, he didn't seem to believe in slavery at all, except, it seemed as if he might have grown up thinking it was ok, then when he got older started asking questions about how it was ok for a black to work for his entire life for free, and how everyone insisted on paying his for half the work.
"So, what, you completely disagree with your father about the way things are at your house, with the slaves and everything." She asked.
"Yeah, pretty much, I figure they're people to, why can't they be like us."
Buffy's smile grew, he wasn't a back guy at all. He understood, she though, pretty much how she did about what society was like. Unfair to blacks. But she wasn't ready to take the risk of telling him Charles was there, or how she felt about it. Though he seemed to be antislavery, he still might be sexist like many of the men she knew.
"What about you? How do you view what we're talking about? Never really heard anyone but my brother and father's view on these things."
She looked at him confused, "You're asking me?"
"Yeah, why wouldn't I?" he asked, looking just as confused as she was about her confusion.
"I don't know, it's just, never mind..."
"No, really, why would you be confused about me asking your opinion?" he asked, still looking confused.
"No one really asks me what I think about anything. It's normally, women don't have opinions, or if they do, it doesn't matter." She explained, realizing now how stupid that sounded.
"Really? I think everyone's opinion matters, even yours luv, no matter if you're a man or a women, where'd you get the idea that it would matter?"
She shook her head, "Nowhere."
"Alright then, so what do you think?"
She blinked, he really wanted to hear? "Well, I think it's wrong to have other's work for you with no rewards, or anything like that. Sure, they get a home and everything, but they never get paid, and a white man with a home who works half as hard for half as long does. It's not fair to keep one person as a slave because their skin is darker then their own." She said.
William looked at her, he hadn't heard anyone speak about the subject like she did. She spoke about it differently than anyone he had ever known, and seeing where he grew up, that wasn't a view most people took on the matter.
"You are right, you know. Maybe I'll just give up that search of mine, maybe even move out of my father's house, seeing as I can't do anything there. Maybe help in other ways, I don't know." He was amazed at how she felt so strongly about this, and was surprised that, to his knowledge, she wasn't doing anything to help her cause.