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Chapter 5
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~ London 1880 ~

William was looking forward to the gathering at the Addams home. The Underwood fortunes were old, even if the title was new, and the youngest daughter of the current Earl was the reigning toast of society. He knew there was no way possible such a luminary as she would ever even
take note of one such as himself, but he did dare to dream.

He had written his first poem about an actual breathing person because of the spell cast by her doe-like brown eyes. It had been his misfortune that some of his peers discovered his feeble
efforts and held him and his poetry up to public humiliation. Still, to be in her presence and not try to put into words his emotions was unthinkable!

Sophie had written every week for the whole of the seven years since her marriage and in each letter she wrote encouragement for her brother to find the sort of happiness she had found in marriage. She and Albert already had three children that no one in England had yet to see. Anne was not fit to travel and William was hard-pressed to keep the family finances at a level to afford the very best of care for her.

Sophia had been greatly disturbed when they finally told her of Anne's precarious health. As expected, she had instantly determined to return to London to aid in her mother's care. It had taken the combined efforts of both William and Anne to prevent her from leaving at once. The
onset of her first pregnancy with a few complications was the final deciding factor, however.

Now it was the hope that Anne would somehow defy the odds and survive the wasting disease that kept Sophie in Calcutta. Albert was not due to have a change in orders for another year and it
was hoped that those orders would be for the war office in London. Sophie hoped to be able to relieve William of the sole responsibility for Anne's care. That was yet another reason she hoped her brother would find a worthy wife. William was far too devoted to ever pursue his own happiness at the expense of his mother's welfare. Sophia wished nothing more than that he have a helpmate to bring him joy and share his burden.

William had written to his sister about the lovely girl from the Addams brood. He had dared cherish the hope that one day the girl would see past his genteel lack of wealth and recognize the potential of both himself and the businesses in his control. The Earl of Underwood had more children than he could count and would not sniff at an untitled gentleman seeking his youngest's hand.

Of course William had no aspirations of ever asking for that or any other part of the lovely Cecily. She was a dream, as insubstantial as the golden goddess of his nightly dreams. Yet in his romantic heart he had a small ember of hope that one day he would finally have the
family fortunes firmly fixed and the beautiful society star would deign to notice him.

In the meantime, he took what opportunities arose to be in her lofty company.

Anne even encouraged William's dreams by guessing his attraction and finding nothing to discourage his mental ramblings.



William's world had narrowed considerably over the past few years. His focus was now upon making Anne Pratt's life as comfortable and carefree as possible in the face of her rapidly declining health. This included many a long day at the shipyards working alongside his late father's man of business. The wolf was far from the door, but the family was still not as well fixed as they had once been in William's childhood.

Evenings for the most part were devoted to entertaining his mother. William would gladly have donned a cap with bells and wielded a pig's bladder on a stick like a traditional court jester to put a smile on that good lady's face again. As it was, he had taken to reciting his
infernal poetry, seeking to amuse her. Much to his surprise, his mother seemed to actually like his rhymes. He found his confidence growing in the warmth of her praise.

Perhaps this would be the night he would share his offerings with the lovely Cecily? He believed that such an angelic visage had to contain a gentle and loving soul, a mate to his own, or so he dared hope.

William was nearing thirty and anxious to build a family of his own. He had always enjoyed the image of a warm and close family where he could be the loving father he had ever yearned for as a child. Having grown up in a fairly large family, he wanted to recreate that for himself and perfect it. He only needed the right woman to complete his life and give him the modest desires of his heart. Perhaps one day it would be Cecily Addams.

~~~
(A/N some dialogue taken from episode "Fool For Love" written by Douglas Petrie)

William was beyond destroyed. T'would have been bad enough to be turned away, to have his love spurned. The chit hadn't been satisfied with that though. She had to grind him into the earth as if he were an insect or worse. 'Beneath her indeed!' he fumed in hurt rage. He was so
engrossed in ripping apart the offending bit of verse that had started his humiliation that he didn't see the trio walking towards him.

In uncharacteristic rudeness, he spat at the man, "Oh, watch where you're going," as he continued towards the stables and escape.

"What's the use? No woman of my class will deign to entertain my suit now. She's made me a pariah," William sobbed. "Might as well have Sophie send some officer's daughter for an arranged marriage at this rate."

He sat upon a bale of hay and wept out his misery. Didn't the girl know he would have treasured her? He would have laid the world at her feet for so much as a kind word. He would never have made the sorts of demands upon her many of their set would likely make. Never would he treat a woman he loved as chattel. He would have treated her as his equal, his beloved.

A voice, vaguely familiar, came from the darkness. "And I wonder what possible catastrophe came crashing down from heaven and brought this dashing stranger to tears?"

William's eyes, never the strongest, couldn't make out the woman in the dark, but the voice was haunting the edges of his mind. "Nothing. I wish to be alone."

Suddenly, there she was in front of him and he had to wonder if he had slipped into sleep. The dark princess was there, in the flesh. He felt a shiver of fear as ice seemed to move up his
spine.

She was closing in on him and this time William doubted the golden goddess was going to appear between them. As that thought passed through his mind, the dark woman frowned and began to sway, her movements putting William in mind of a reptile hypnotizing its prey.

"Oh, I see you. A man surrounded by fools who cannot see 'is strength, 'is vision, 'is glory," she paused and her eyes seemed to take on a faraway look. "That and burning baby fish swimming all around your 'ead."

William backed up quickly, filled with fear. The peculiar statement made all his years of dreams suddenly come to the front of his mind. "I remember you," he whispered. "You're not real."

"Am too," Drusilla countered. "More real than anyone you've yet met, my William. Saw you, I did. Long ago, but knew it was you when you knocked into Daddy. It's time. Told you you were my destiny."

"No, no, you are not any such thing!" William denied forcefully. "The other, the bright goddess, she's my destiny."

"Can't 'ave my William all confused," Drusilla decided. She locked eyes with the terrified young man and began the swaying motion once again. "Forget 'er. There's none but me, my dark prince. I'm all there ever was, me and the promise of our forever. You belong to me, the stars promised it. You remember now."

"You," William spoke in trance-like obedience. "Always and only you. My dark princess, my destiny."

"That's right," Drusilla continued. "I'm all you'll ever need. You'll give me what I need too." She pointed to William's head, "So much work, but your wealth lies 'ere." She then gently laid her dainty hand on his chest. "And 'ere. In the spirit and…imagination."

William couldn't tear his eyes from the woman. He remembered her there in the dark with him through all the worst moments of his life. Only her, the one destined for him. The one always destined for him.

She was speaking again, "You walk in worlds the others cannot begin to imagine."

"Oh, yes!" William breathed out. She understands me, always has. Suddenly he remembered his mother and her illness. Destiny or no, his princess had to understand that the time was wrong. "I mean, no. I mean…Mother is expecting me."

His princess pressed on, opening his shirt collar and touching him where no one save himself had in years. "I see what you want. Something glowing and glistening. Something…Effulgent."

Her words teased at memory. Something about her and his destiny tied to a glowing promise of delight to come. Her use of the same word that his peers had just guffawed over caused him to blink rapidly. "Effulgent?"

She looked him in the eye again with a demand phrased as a question, "Do you want it?"

"Oh, yes, GOD, yes." The destiny that had been the driving force of all his desires seemed at last within his grasp. Her face changed, leaving him puzzled, but before he could question what he was seeing, her lips met his throat and he was eternally lost.

~~~

Anne Pratt was beside herself. William had been gone for days. She had heard rumors of a public embarrassment and her beloved son storming from the Underwood town house. 'I should never have encouraged his aspirations. That girl is not nearly good enough for my boy.'

It wasn't like William to let her worry so. She spent each day beginning in hope and ending in dread. Only the gravest of circumstances could be keeping him from her side.

Dr. Gull had been called to her bedside by the worried staff and she had spent the past few days heavily sedated. Hobbs conferred with Mrs. Lamb about having a telegram sent to Miss Sophia to inform her of her brother's disappearance and her mother's failing health.

"No, the mistress wouldn't want 'er bothered so far away and all," Mrs. Lamb cautioned. "Mr. William wouldn't allow it either."

"That's just it though, he ain't about," Hobbs whispered. "Shouldn't be up to us to make these kind of decisions. Meant to follow orders, not make 'em up."

"I've a nephew who could poke about a bit, see if 'e can find Mr. William," Mrs. Lamb offered. "Not like the lad to hightail it, leavin' 'is dear mum all sick and dying. Don't care what that cat of a girl said to 'im at a party. Just wouldn'ta done it."

"Precisely. I fear Mr. William may be forever lost to us. How I do not know, but as you say, anything else is unthinkable."

"Maybe a blow to the 'ead. That'd keep the boy away," Mrs. Lamb offered with some dark hope.

"The missus certainly is hoping for the like."

"Let me send word to Archie then, see what we can find out afore we send all the way to that 'eathen country for Miss Sophia."

Hobbs nodded uneasily. Somehow he knew in his ancient heart that all of their lives had permanently altered and not for the better.

~~~

(A/N: some dialogue from "Destiny" written by David Fury and Steve DeKnight)

William swung between euphoria and despair. His attempt to save his mother with the same miracle that allowed him to defy death had resulted in the most horrifying moments of his entire life.

He had the last of his heart ripped to shreds by the accusations of the demon residing, thanks to him, within his mother's body. Now he could only stay as far from his remaining family as possible to prevent any such a thing happening to Sophia and her family. Luckily they were half a world away. There would be no proud introductions to his dark princess now.

He had arranged to pension off the staff and put all the family assets in the control of his father's man of business. Much as he was coming to enjoy his decadent forays with Angelus, he wasn't about to put all he had labored so hard over into the hands of an obvious degenerate.

Proof of the depravity in the other vampire was this evening's activities. Angelus had taken William along to the killing fields. William quite enjoyed the strength and power of his new status and gloried in fights where he was outnumbered.

His dark princess was drawn to children. At first it was as though she wished to mother them, but eventually the demon within took over and there would be tiny corpses to dispose of. William had been warned by Angelus to prevent Dru from turning any of the tykes. After all, no
one wanted a permanently dependent child for all eternity.

Between killings, William spent the evening regaling Angelus with his years of dreams, of Drusilla and his eternal destiny at her side. Angelus had laughed at the younger vampire's naivete but said not a word. They ended their revels by arriving uninvited at a wedding
reception. William had taken pleasure in giving one of the attendees the railway spike he had begged for when William had been human. All the other guests had scattered, screaming in terror.

Angelus availed himself of the bride's favors as a sort of macabre dessert. Like most of the Anglo-Irish merchant class, the vampire that had once been Liam Burke had a deep hatred for Papists. He had since made a career for himself by attacking convents and churches with gleeful abandon. This night he took complete pleasure by slowly torturing the priest unfortunate enough to have been the celebrant of the marriage. As they rode toward the hotel that was their current shelter, the nearly drained bride was propped up next to the older vampire.

William had decided to find Drusilla and tempt her into more satisfying fare than toddlers. Angelus reminded his protegee to be home before sunrise as the carriage rode off into the night.

A few hours of searching had failed to turn up his beloved and William made his way back to the place he now called home.

Mere weeks earlier, walking into the scene being played out before him would have shocked William to his foundations. Angelus was obviously engaged in sexual relations with the near dead girl from the wedding. Actually, William noticed no sign of heartbeat and assumed Angelus was engaging in a perversion of another sort. "Well, looks like you haven't had your fill of her after all."

William had come to believe there was nothing further to shock him, nothing more to lose in his existence. What he saw when Angelus moved back from the girl on the bed proved those beliefs wrong.

The girl was his beloved, his Drusilla, his destiny. She looked up at William and pouted, "The children wouldn't come out to play." She caressed Angelus at the same time she coquettishly asked, "Did you miss me, pretty William?"

Angelus answered for the dumbstruck vampire, "I'm sure he did, Dru. After all you ARE his destiny."

Angelus laughed at the raw pain etched on William's face as Drusilla leaned into her daddy's embrace and commented, "That's so sweet," before joining in the laughter.

William knew hatred at that moment. A hatred that would fuel his thoughts about Angelus from that moment forward. Drusilla must be spellbound! Had she not been the one to promise herself to him for years? It was no silly schoolboy's romantic notion that she was to be his.

At that moment, all his dreams turned to dust and his sleep was devoid of the promises that had marked them for years.
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