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Chapter 4
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~ 1873 London ~

"Are you quite certain that Miss Margaret took all of her personal items?" Anne once more questioned the beleaguered housekeeper. "Whatever shall I tell Christie?"

"Mother, you have done all that anyone could hope where Maggie is concerned." Sophia had watched her mother struggle for three years to keep the headstrong girl from rack and ruin. There had been one thwarted elopement already and now the girl appeared to have run off with another undesirable fellow. "Her taste in suitors is abominable."

Anne turned to the butler and charged him to send for her son. "Hobbs, do make certain not to alarm William overmuch. He has enough on his plate without assuming responsibility for his flibberty-jit of a cousin. Perhaps she should be allowed to stew in her own juices this time."

"William will want to pay off the boy like he did the last one. It's a miracle no one was the wiser after that stunt," Sophia mused.

"True, but that lad now has decent employ with the East India Company. Perhaps he was not so terrible a choice in hindsight. This fellow, however, has nothing to recommend himself."

"I was appalled at his table manners, to tell the truth," Sophia admitted. "I don't care if there are medical issues, it is impossible to dine while in his presence." Sophie shivered as she remembered the ill-advised family meeting over a meal that had introduced Maggie's latest object of desire. "He scarce looks human."

"As uncharitable as that statement is, I am afraid I have to agree. I have never seen a girl with so little sense when it comes to gentlemen."

"I suppose I should be grateful then for her making my own choice appear so grand," Sophia teased. She had recently become betrothed and while William might never feel any man equal to his sister, her fiance had been welcomed into the family nonetheless.

The man in question, Major General Giles, was currently with his regiment in Ghana attempting to put down the slave trade being engaged in by King Kofi Karikari. Sophia awaited his return anxiously and prayed her family's bad luck had finally come to an end. If Margaret's latest folly were the worst of things, then it might be safe to breathe freely.

Sure enough, all of Margaret's more prized possessions were as absent as the girl herself. It appeared she had run off into the night with her questionable young man. William was going to be livid.

~~~

The police officer who had been assisting young Mr. Pratt in the search for the missing girl was at a loss. "Seems this fella hasn't got a soul to vouch for him or his past. Without some trail there's little we can do to know where the gel's gotten off to."

"Margaret is of good family, sir," William insisted. "If this….this individual has brought her to shame or harmed her in any way, I shall not be responsible for any retaliation when I find them."

"Can't have you off makin' threats, even against the likes of this rogue," the officer warned. "Best leave things as is. The note said the gel was set to wed the lad. Shame we can't find any family for him though. Might set your mind at rest if you could know more about his particulars," the officer opined sympatheticially. As a father himself, he understood this family's worry. The young man who had run off with their charge appeared to have sprung from nowhere with no background or history to prove his worth.

William sighed in frustration. "Well, there's little we can do about this now. She's been gone a week. I can but hope he's made an honest woman of her."

"That's the ticket, sir! Keep hope alive and such," the officer smiled encouragingly. "Likely as not to turn up lookin' for a piece of the family pie eventually."

William paled at the memory of the lad in question seated at the dinner table. "I sincerely hope that is not the case," he nearly whispered. "Thank you again for your help, Officer…Dudley, is it? My mother in particular is grateful for all your efforts in this matter."

In truth, William had been the one to do most of the legwork, but it wouldn't do to be other than polite. All through their childhood, William had done his best to protect his loved ones, Maggie included, but the best of efforts had proven impossible where his cousin's love life was concerned.


Sophia walked in on her brother's musings. "Nothing then?" At William's shake of the head, she continued, "Perhaps a doctor might know something of this Garrick. With his digestive issues, he must surely have a physician."

"Maybe he will do the family a favor and expire on their honeymoon," William muttered in uncharacteristic lack of charity.

Sophie giggled a bit. She and William had often voiced their naughty thoughts to one another while growing up, but her brother had been quite somber since the passing of their father. She rather liked seeing some of the old fire. "I daresay our luck won't allow for that. I fear Maggie is stuck with the boy.

"William, I have been meaning to ask you if you are too put out with me for abandoning you in this way?" His sister looked a bit shamefaced. She felt guilty pursuing her own happiness in the face of her younger brother's increasing burden.

Their mother had begun to have some alarming health issues and now with her own impending marriage, the full weight of responsibility was bound to fall on the slight shoulders of her younger brother. He had already sacrificed so much in taking the helm of their father's
business affairs and heading the family, she felt as if she were being quite the most selfish woman alive at this point.

"With Albert planning to remain in service, I won't be here to help you as a dutiful sister should. It wasn't planned, you know. I never expected to fall in love with a man who would take me so far from home. His next posting is India and I have no idea how long it will be before I am near enough to home to be of any help to you."

"Nonsense, Sophie." William gave her a gentle smile. "You should know that I, of all people, would never encourage you to abandon your chance at happiness. Albert is a fine man from a good family and he will make a wonderful husband for you. Much as mother and I shall miss your presence, just knowing you are well and loved will be compensation enough for us."

"Promise that you will let yourself love a worthy lady one day soon," Sophia begged. "I know that you have high standards and some idea of perfection you have yet to meet, but do not, I beg you, allow yourself to grow old alone in the hope such a perfect woman exists." She smiled ruefully. "We are rarely perfect."

William's mind went to the blonde perfection that visited his dreams and haunted his waking moments. "I am but one and twenty, scarcely a confirmed bachelor," he teased.

"True, but I know you well, brother," Sophie reminded him. "You may not write your lovely poems any longer, but your soul is still that of a romantic. You are tender and I'd not see you hurt."

"And who says I no longer write?" William grinned. "I merely keep them to myself instead of offering them for ridicule now."

His sister looked affronted. "I've not said a word against your verse and neither has mother."

"True, but the two of you are more than a bit biased, and also alone in your regard." William sighed. "Even my more generous teachers despaired of my poetry ever amounting to anything. I have the heart, but alas not the talent."

"I'd take your heart over all the talent in the world any day, brother. You know how to love and how to cherish those lucky enough to be in that number." Sophia knew her brother better than anyone and had always been proud of his depth of emotion. "Let the others have their words, you show your beauty in your actions."

William ducked his head at the fullsome compliments. "You put me to a blush, sister." He smiled and sought to reassure her of his future happiness. "I promise that there is a perfect woman for me out there. No, not perfect in all her ways, but perfect for me. I have a destiny
and I'll not accept less."

Sophia raised her eyebrows half in amusement. "See, ever the romantic!"

~~~

They finally received a short note from Maggie explaining that her husband had taken her to his family's home. She appeared to be completely content and tried to reassure her family that she was in want for nothing.

Sophia's intended returned in August with plans for a wedding before his regiment was scheduled to head to the furthest reaches of the Empire.

"I shall send some of those lovely fabrics that the maharanis wear. William, you might make a fortune yet with the connections Albert shall make." Sophia was homesick already but loathe to make her husband feel any guilt for taking her so far from hearth and home.

The wedding a fortnight later was lovely in every aspect. Sophia was as beautiful a bride as ever graced St. James. William had proudly escorted his beloved sister down the aisle to her awestruck groom. Just that morning he and their mother had determined to withhold the
information just received from Dr. Gull about Anne's medical diagnosis. No point in placing that burden on Sophie, especially on her special day.

William had been present when Dr. Gull made a personal appearance in the Pratt parlor just the day before to give the results of the examination Anne had undergone to discover the cause of her failing health. The diagnosis of consumption made William weak in the knees, though Anne appeared to take it in stride.

"I thought it nothing less. I have known others with the wasting disease and suspected as much," Anne had said quietly. "We must make certain to keep this information from Sofia. She would think it her duty to remain here and that I cannot allow."

William agreed without hesitation. It was his duty as the man of the house to deal with the repercussions of his mother's illness. Somehow knowing Sophie was out in the world and happy would make it all worthwhile.

After a brief holiday at the Giles' family estate near Bath, the newly wed pair headed for their exotic new home in the East. Sophia remained blissfully unaware of the death sentence pronounced over her treasured mother and the disguised grief that choked her smiling brother.

~~~

William's dreamed the night they saw the young couple off. The day had been long and William felt a deeper sense of loss than he had since losing Graham all those years ago. Sophia was alive but at the other end of the Earth. William wondered when he would next see his beloved sister again. Even with modern travel, it was not often a family could retain any real closeness when a planet divided them.

The one known as Drusilla came, almost as if William could have predicted it.

"All alone now, my William. No one to chitter and chatter, but you'll soon have me. Sister's off to make those what Watch. Keep the blood in the family veins, she will. Lots of families
blood'll flow in yours, my dark prince. Are you happy to see me?"

"Not particularily," William answered in a weary tone. "I have far too many real worries at the moment to be bothered by a dream of a woman. You're as insubstantial as Hamlet's father and not as coherent."

"Not very nice," Dru frowned. "Come all this way to be with you and you've not set a place at the table. Miss Edith said you need to be reminded of your manners." Drusilla gazed off into the distance as if looking at someone only she could see. "Miss Edith was always one for telling tales. Still, Daddy will beat manners into you. Won't let 'im hurt your pretty face though, don't worry."

"Look, why don't you just go to this daddy of yours and leave me in what little peace I have? We both know these dreams end in you becoming nothing more than ash. If this daddy of yours is
so wonderful, go haunt him."

"Naughty doggie!" Drusilla ran a sharp fingernail down William's cheek. "I wonder, do you bite yet?"

"I think you teach him that little trick, Dru." As anticipated, the goddess had arrived. "I'd stop this whole thing to keep you from ruining his life, but if I do that, he won't be there for me when the time comes. You should at least wait your turn before you start annoying him with your rantings though."

"'E's mine. Not natural you'd want 'im. Put in the burnin' bits to confuse and tame. 'E was born to make the world bleed, not lay at your feet. 'E's a warrior, not a puppy." Dru narrowed her eyes in anger at the other girl.

"Thought you just called him a doggie, Dru--which is it?" The golden one smirked a bit as Dru bit back a reply. "I make him better than he is. You just drag him down to your level." She looked at William and smiled. "We make each other better really."

"All you do is use 'im and throw 'im away. Make 'im dust too afore you finish with 'im," Dru spat.

William looked from one woman to the other. For once, his waking realities were horrifying enough to make the dream more surreal than frightening. "Much as I find the idea of two ladies fighting over me a novel one, I really don't have time to puzzle over your words." He spoke to both women. Nothing they said made sense, save they both seemed to feel they had a destiny, a claim on him at some future point.

"Destiny be damned, I'll make my own choices and right now I choose to sleep undisturbed," he said in annoyance. Perhaps Sophie was right and he needed to stop thinking of his blonde goddess and begin to look for a suitable wife. His mother would be wanting to see him settled and it was the least he could do to give her that comfort.

"That sounds more like you," the blonde beamed at him. "Let me just get rid of this nut job and you can get some rest." The goddess was as good as her word, once more consigning the dark princess to dust.

"Like it or not," the glowing one promised, "you are stuck with me and in time it will be your
choice too." Then she disappeared once more.