1860 – London, England – Spring
Spike was watching Drusilla again. It was close to when Angelus and Darla turn her world cruelly upside down, but they weren't around yet. Now she looked exactly like he remembered her, but there was something missing and he wasn't sure what it was. Over the last couple of years he has watched her less than he had been. He even started taking Willow out again and they had some jolly good times, but he still always came back to watch Dru. He noticed that something was missing about a year ago and he had been trying to place what that something was ever since. The deficiency wasn't with Drusilla herself; she was fine. So he didn't know where this lacking could be.
It took him nine months to figure out that the lacking was something within himself, but he still didn't know what was missing. He stared at Drusilla while she talked with one of her sisters and tried to figure it out. He still loved her, wanted to protect her, but then he caught just a slight tid bit of conversation and it told him everything.
"I think James wants to ask Dad for your hand in marriage," Aubrianna whispered to Drusilla as they walked past him.
Drusilla giggled. "You think someone is really interested in me?"
The fact that Spike didn't go off in a jealous rage told him all that he needed to know. He loved Drusilla but he wasn't in love with her anymore. But that still left him with a quandary. Should he save her and her family or not? He didn't have an answer for himself. And whenever he couldn't answer something he went to Willow, but in this case he didn't need to. He already knew her answer. She'd keep history the same. So he had his answer. He wasn't going to interfere.
"He'll be at the Marshall's party tonight, perhaps he'll ask you to dance," Aubrianna said conspiratorially.
"I refuse to get my hopes up," Drusilla said back.
XxXx
Willow dressed in her best dress. Spike was taking her to a party tonight. Granted she highly suspected that Drusilla was going to be there given his amount of enthusiasm about it, but it was the first party they would have attended in years and she so missed them. She hoped he wasn't so distracted that he wouldn't play a couple of games with her. They liked making up stories about the guests and betting on who was further from the truth. The one more farfetched would win so it was always a good time. But if she had to, she'd corner some unsuspecting young thing into entertaining her for the evening while Spike followed Drusilla around like a love-sick puppy.
When they arrived, Spike surprised the hell out of her by producing an invitation instead of having to sneak in through the servant's entrance. Once they were inside she turned on him and said, "You didn't tell me we were invited. That ruins all the fun."
Spike gave her grin that oozed deviousness, "We weren't. I picked the invite up from the Harvey's porch. They're out of town more often then in, but they still get invited everywhere."
She smiled at him with a wide grin where her tongue was stuck between her teeth. "That's genius, we should have been doing that for years. We would've got kicked out of less parties."
He guided her into one of the more crowded rooms. "I only just thought of it today."
"What's the point of this party anyway?" Willow asked as they passed by several other guests.
"It's the Marshall's youngest daughter's coming out party," Spike said grabbing two glasses of champagne off the tray of a passing waiter. He handed a glass to Willow and then offered her his arm again. "Her name is Tessa and she just turned fifteen."
It occurred to Willow that she was fairly sure that Drusilla never had a coming out party. Her parents probably never wanted to display the daughter with the visions. She knew her sisters had coming out parties. She had watched Spike watch them.
Tonight though he didn't have to watch from outside. He was indoors, right in the thick of things. She wondered if he would have the nerve to ask Drusilla to dance. It might effect history, but she could see him doing it and tempting the fates. And she was going to keep her nose completely out of it. All she could do was watch the wreckage. She loved him. There was no way she could tie his hands, no matter what the consequences.
She tried not to think about it but just being back in time changed things. They took jobs that rightfully belonged to other people. They took up apartments that should shelter others. The money they used, the clothes they wore, the people they interacted with... all of it was effecting history. She just wished she knew to what degree. Even when they were homeless and lived on the streets they were begging money and stealing food that they had no right to. The changes were going to happen whether Willow liked it or not. All she could do was try to minimize the damage. But in this case she wasn't even going to do that. Because she loved Spike and she would do whatever he decided to do. Even if it meant she lost him in the end.
Spike pointed to the most outrageously dressed couple in the room. "What do you think their story is?"
Willow took a good look at the couple, squinting her eyes and sizing them up, however her head wasn't in the game yet. "I think they're poor and stole their clothes and came in through the servant's entrance just to have a good meal and some free alcohol."
"No way, look at the way her hair is done. It took two servants half the day to do that. I think they have money... loads of it, but absolutely no taste to go with that money. And he's old while she's young, I'll bet that she was poor and he rescued the poor delicate young thing from a life of poverty and starvation." Spike however seemed to be thinking just fine and was more than ready to play. "You do realize that even if I'm spot on I'm still going to win this round because you didn't even try."
"Fine, but we should still go over and find out how those two crazy kids met and see if you were even within range," Willow said, taking a sip of her drink. "Part of the game is still finding out the truth."
"In a minute," Spike leaned close and whispered in her ear, "First I want to find a secluded little corner and take advantage of the fact that you don't wear as much under your dress as the other ladies."
Willow blushed scarlet, "Spike, I'm not trying to get kicked out of a party we have an invitation to." She hit him in the chest with the back of her hand. "We should wait 'til everyone is a lot more drunk than they are now."
He kissed her on the cheek. "You had me worried for a second. Thought you had gone and replaced my girl with someone else."
For a moment the bubble was back and it was just Willow and Spike with nary a shadow of Drusilla to be seen and Willow smiled. "Never. Let's go talk to Mr. and Mrs. Loud."
Spike smiled at her. "Let's."
While they were walking over to the couple in question Willow thought that they were doomed when she caught sight of Drusilla entering the room with her sisters. But Spike merely paused, noticed her, and then continued them on their path. Willow was so stunned that when they got to the gentleman and lady in their sights she nearly forgot her lines.
The method was divide and conquer and when Willow regained her senses she took the lady by the elbow and started to guide her away, she couldn't have been more than sixteen or seventeen years old now that Willow was up close looking at her. "You simply must tell me who made you this dress."
Seeming to be very relieved to be away from her husband the lady, or more accurately to Willow's mind, girl, smiled sweetly. "My husband had it made for me. I always feel overdone in these things. And my hair is so old-fashioned. I should be wearing a bonnet like you are. I'm Mabel."
"I'm Waverly," Willow said, giving the name she always used at parties.
"I've never seen you at any of the Marshall's parties before, are you new in town?" Mabel asked.
"Very, I'm surprised we even got an invitation. This was our first in London." Willow guided the girl to halfway across the room before settling them in front of the fire. "If you want, I could have my Henry talk to your husband about getting you some bonnets. He's very suave."
"I doubt he could change Joseph's mind about how I'm to be presented, but he's welcome to try. Joseph is very set in his ways. I'm lucky to have hoops under my skirt." Mabel swayed to make it evident that there were indeed hoops under her skirt.
"I don't mean to pry, but was your marriage arranged?" Willow asked starting to get to the questions about whether or not Spike's story was accurate.
Mabel's face fell. "I would have thought that was obvious."
"I don't like to assume anything," Willow said as she glanced over to see what Spike was doing. He was still talking to Joseph, much to her surprise. She expected that he would have gone after Drusilla by now. Drusilla was still in the room, she was standing next to the stairs all by herself practically hidden by other guests. There was no way that Spike could see her. "New topic, I'm surprised that Henry and I got an invitation to such a nice party. We aren't exactly made of money, though we've had some success investing in water closets."
"There's a variety of different kinds of people here," Mabel said. "Some are new money and some are old."
"Which are you and Joseph?" Willow put on her best innocent face.
After about a half an hour of talking to Mabel, Spike found her and pulled her away insisting that since there was a room just for dancing that they take advantage of it. She let Spike guide her away.
As they got started dancing he cursed the hoops under her dress. "Damned hoops, I'm tripping over them."
Willow smiled because he was tripping over the hoops because he was trying to hold her closer than was acceptable for the times. Willow didn't like the hoops either and got the smallest ones possible, but even those were cumbersome. With every step of the dance Spike was hitting his ankles against the bottom hoop. She looked around and found that every man there was having the same difficulty, they just weren't saying anything about it.
"When do these things finally go out of style?" she asked.
"Right about the time bustles start coming into style," Spike said with a smart-ass grin on his face. He knew very well that she couldn't stand these kinds of things and he was enjoying the horrified look on her face.
"I'll just have to be eccentric and go without. I don't think I'd be able to navigate my way through a door with a bustle under my dress."
"Perhaps you'll squash the trend." He turned them in time with the music.
"One can only hope. There are certain things history can do without," she joked and he laughed.
"Certainly."
Dancing in history was complicated, but Willow had taken the time to learn. Spike knew most of the dances because apparently Darla insisted that he learn something civilized. Willow suspected that she taught him how to dance as a way to lure out unsuspecting victims, but didn't want to tell her that. She noticed that unless he was mad at her, he never talked about the fact that he used to kill people.
"There's a challenge on the table for you should you choose to accept it," Willow said as they turned again.
"Oh really? A challenge? You know I can never pass up a challenge."
"Mabel hates how her husband has her do her hair and would prefer some bonnets. Perhaps you could talk some fashion sense into the old coot." The waltz finished and Willow and Spike stopped, clapped and left the dance floor.
"I'm on it. Perhaps you can seduce the young and delicious looking Mabel while I'm at it." Spike said as a counter challenge. "It seems that the Stevens will be dominating our evening."
Willow blushed. "So it would seem."
Spike growled in her ear, "I love that you still blush, even after all we've done."
The rest of the evening found them in the company of the Stevens, Spike managed to talk Joseph into buying some bonnets for Mabel, but Willow was only able to seduce a very chaste kiss out of Mabel. She was somewhat disappointed, having hoped that the young lady would have been more open than she was.
As Willow and Spike were dancing one final dance of the evening, Spike felt the need to gloat over his victory and her loss. "I lived up to my challenge, but it seems you couldn't even get a proper snog out of sweet little Mabel."
"Spike you know very well that I can't force anyone to be something they aren't. If she's simply straight there's not a damn thing I can do about it. It isn't like our challenges were equal either. You simply had to talk to an old man while I was given the chore of trying to seduce a sheltered young woman. I should have you try to seduce Mr. Pendegrove as way to even the score." Willow stated evenly.
"Blek. Not Pendegrove... at least give me someone pleasant to look at like perhaps the Disher boy or Charles Allen. I could possibly have a lot of fun with those if they showed up at the next party."
"Allen would be too easy," Willow insisted. "but you may have a good case with the Disher boy. I think he'd swallow his tongue if a man hit on him. So you have a deal. If the Disher boy is at the next party, you have yourself a challenge. And you know I require to either see it with my own eyes or you have to provide proof. You are a notorious cheat."
"Oh how you flatter me," Spike said with a grin on his face. "It's one of the many things I love about you."
"Oh really? The many things you love about me?"
"I had a list actually, but it got very long and drawn out and hard to remember, but what it boiled down to is that I'm absolutely head over heels in love with you..." Spike pulled her close despite her hoops and the onlooking guests, "every part of you."
For a moment Willow was just ecstatic but then she remembered. "What about Drusilla?"
Spike shrugged in an exaggerated manner. "I still love her, but I'm not in love with her. I'm going to let history play out like it should. I just want to watch her to keep these times safe. Someone has to remember that she was once a bright sane girl."
Willow just stared at him for a moment. "You should write it all down. Everything you remember so it never fades."
He let out a sigh of relief. "So you understand?"
"I do. I really really do. Will you let me read the journals? That way you have someone you can talk to about her." Willow was dragging him off the dance floor now since they weren't dancing anymore.
"That would mean so much to me. I've been so lonely these last five years. I didn't think I could talk to you about her."
"Oh, Spike, haven't you figured out yet that I'm always here for you? I'll listen to anything you want to tell me."
And not caring about their surroundings or what time they were in, Spike kissed her passionately – right in front of everyone... including Drusilla.
