Nan came awake slowly, so wrapped in the warmth and comfort of the Sandman's ethereal realm that she found it difficult to pull herself from it, but she did. And the more aware she became of the world around her, the more she noticed the oddly solid heat pressed to her back and the unusual sensation of movement against her breast. Opening her eyes with a frown, she glanced down at the object that was kneading her breast. Her frown deepened to a scowl when she found the object was Sir William's hand.
For a moment, Nan had forgotten where she was and in whose bed she resided. To find Sir William had joined her there did not surprise her. To see him slumbering next to her did not shock her. But the feeling of ease that followed her waking did bewilder her somewhat. Until now, she had not shared a bed with any man other than James. And finding that sharing a bed with Sir William felt as natural to her as doing so with James startled her. Though she had never awakened to James groping her in his sleep.
Lifting his hand by the wrist, she moved the limb from her breast and placed it at her waist. The hand seemed to have no issue lying there until she felt Sir William press tighter against her back. His hand slipped from her waist to wrap around her middle. She could feel Sir William's face bury itself deeper into her hair, nuzzling it as small, inaudible words slipped from his lips. His breath warmed the back of her neck, sending pleasant shivers down her spine.
Still, she could not stay within Sir William's hold forever. Eventually, Jamie would wake up and come to her room, and if he did not find her there, he would search for her. She could only imagine his reaction if he saw her in Sir William's bed with the man's arms wrapped around her. Prying Sir William's hand loose from her side, she rolled to face him, amazed that he was still sleeping with all her movement. Until she faced him, and he promptly pulled her on top of him as he rolled to his back in one swift turn.
Wide-eyed and a little more than surprised by his sudden actions, Nan stared down at her hands lying flat against his bare chest, clinging to him like a cat might cling to the branch of a tree.
"I take it you're awake then?" Nan spoke, her words caught between a statement and a gasp, though the question was more for her benefit than his. When her surprise subsided enough for her to sit up straight and see his cocky grin, she could not help the smile that formed within her mind.
"It would be a shame to sleep when such a vision is placed so..." He glanced down at her legs straddling his waist, then quickly returned to her irritated expression with a wider grin. "Conveniently upon me."
"Yes, I can feel your convenience," she commented with a casual glance over her shoulder. "But now is not the best time for such activities," she added, pressing her hand against his chest as she made to remove herself from him, stopping when his hand covered hers.
"You came to me last night telling me to take you as my lover and then fall asleep before I could take advantage of your order. And now, you tell me I am to have none of you." He scoffed, glaring at her lightly.
"I'm telling you, now is not the time. If you wish to have me tonight, then you may." She shrugged. "But not now." She replied, shaking her head as she moved to leave him again, only to have him stop her again. With a deep sigh, her shoulders slumped, and she glared down at the man she sat upon so carelessly.
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William could not help his shock as he ran her words through his head once more. The ease with which she dictated the schedule of their love both astounded and infuriated him. Did she think he was so desperate for her touch that she could issue when he was allowed to?
"Tonight! So you'll only have me in the black. When my face cannot disgust—" Nan ceased his words as she grabbed his jaw and squeezed it between her thumb and fingers.
"Oh, do shut up!" she snapped at the canopy of his bed before bringing her eyes back to him. "You irritating ma—mahaha." She stopped short as a sudden fit of laughter overpowered her previous control.
William knew he must have looked ridiculous with his face mushed in her hand, his cheeks collapsed under her fingers, and his lips puckered into an oddly shaped heart, along with the wide, startled gleam in his eyes. He must have looked an utter fool as she broke into riotous laughter. Long and loud and oblivious to the look William gave her as he watched her cackle and gasp, blindly clasping to his upper arm. Her head pressed into his chest, and William's hands hovered mere inches above her thighs, afraid to touch her for fear she might stop if she felt his hands upon her.
"Nan?" a voice called from outside, and instantly, Nan stopped laughing. William could have killed the owner of that voice when he saw her smile drop and her eyes grow large with panic as her head flew up from William's chest. Her gaze was glued to the door like a deer frozen before a wolf. When her name was called again by Jamie's unmistakable voice, she threw herself from William. Landing on the side of the bed in a whirl of white cloth and dark hair before promptly and unexpectedly falling off it and landing on her side on the floor with a loud groan just as the door to Sir William's room opened.
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William had never seen such a face on a child. To see it on Jamie was both impressive and troubling, though William had yet to decide which he should give more credence to the strength the boy's rage projected or the ill promise it made once it had locked on him.
"Where is she, ye blackguard? What'd ye done with her?" Jamie snapped as he marched further into the room, slamming the door behind him.
"She," Nan answered from her seat on the floor. "Would be over here."
"What are ye doin' on the floor?" Jamie gawked as he rushed to her side.
"I fell." She shrugged, then started to laugh as she took in Jamie's bemused expression. Her laughter only confused the boy more as he looked from the cackling woman before him to William.
"But yer all right?" Jamie questioned, uncertain. "He ain't done nothin'? Has he?" Jamie jerked his head towards William, ignoring the offending glare he received in return.
"No Love. Sir William's done nothing to me. I'm all right," she nodded as she rubbed at the corner of her eyes, removing the laughing tears that had arisen there with the side of her hand.
"Then why are ye on the floor?" Jamie continued, his confusion as unrelenting as his questions.
"Because I fell off the bed." She sighed grumpily.
"The bed? He was in the bed." Jamie tossed his head to William once more. "What were ye doin' in the bed if she were already in it?"
"Are you going to tell me a man cannot sleep in his own bed, in his own room, in my own house?" William queried in turn, his irritation shining through as he regarded his tiny rival with greater displeasure than usual.
"Not while there's a lady in it! Not if he were a gentleman!" Jamie barked, taking a threatening step toward William. This move both impressed and amused him as he smirked at the child.
"Your Nan has never claimed to be a lady," William replied slowly, quickly, glancing at Nan as she continued to sit on the floor, watching him from the corner of her eye. "And I've long ago lost any want to be a gentleman." He added, practically spitting the title. "So, little man, I'll share my bed with whom I please, when I please, and how I please. And at the moment," he walked over to Jamie, taking him roughly by the arm as he dragged the stumbling child from the room, an act that had Nan scrambling to her feet in alarm. "That does not include you." William snapped, tossing the boy from the room, slamming the door closed, and locking it before Jamie had time to turn and force his way back in.
"Nan!" Jamie yelled through the door, banging and kicking against the thick wood. "Nan!" he continued to yell, causing the door to tremble and shake.
For several seconds, Nan glared at William, furious beyond anything he had seen. Then her attention snapped to the door. "Jamie, stop beating on the door and go to the kitchen! See if you can help Cook," she shouted, much to William's surprise. Not in her entire time at Stonebrooke had William heard her raise her voice to the child; he very much doubted anyone had.
"No! I ain't leavin'—"
"Jamie! Go. Now!" She snarled at the door, her eyes flashing with rage.
"Fine, but if ye ain't there in half an hour, I'm comin' back!" He half-shouted and half-pouted through the door before giving it one last thump.
"So even you raise your voice to that brat," William remarks with a satisfied huff, content to finally see her lose her temper with the brat she had claimed as her own.
"His name is Jamie." She growled at William. "And I would not have had to yell if you had not taunted him!" Nan snapped as she gathered her clothing and made it to the door once she had them in hand.
"Where are you going?" He gasped when he finally realized her aim. She was going to leave his room in nothing but her chemise! She wasn't even going to bother to dress before leaving him. "Are you daft woman!" William shouted as he raced in front of her, slamming his hand against the thick panel, slamming it shut for the third time that morning. "If you go out like that, someone will see you!" he barked, staring down at her as though she was mad for even trying to leave in her state of undress.
"What does it matter, Sir? As you said, I have not claimed to be a lady. So what shame should a beggar girl fear if your staff should see me wandering the halls so under-dressed?" she asked, her tone full of angry mocking as her eyes scowled at him with all the violent beauty and power of a sea storm. "Besides, I doubt there is a man, woman, and now even child in this house that does not know I am your Mistress. Whether I have done the deed or not." She seethed, glaring up at him, her eyes filled with hate. William felt his stomach drop to his feet, seeing such a look on her.
"Ma'am, forgive me. I spoke hastily—" William began in earnest, trying to cool Nan's ire toward him before it grew too strong for him to change it into a more sympathetic or less dreaded emotion. He could suffer her rage and make up for her tears, but he could not bear her hatred. So quickly, he sought to apologize before he botched things between them so badly he would not be able to mend them.
"Yes, Sir, you did." She bit. "And for a man who hints at affection for me, who offers and gives in a manner that says you care for me. You have an odd way of showing it, Sir. When I agreed to be your Mistress, I thought I had made it clear that Jamie was my first and only priority. That boy is the only reason I'm alive today. And you practically tell him I'm your whore!" she yelled at him, succeeding in stunning William with her ire enough for her to wrench his arm from the door and fling it open, exiting his room without so much as a backward glance.
"Oh, bloody hell!" William half-growled and half-shouted as he slammed the door shut a fourth time and stomped over the chair he had found Nan sleeping in last night. Collapsing down into it with an angry sigh, he raised a hand to cover his face, unconsciously grinding his teeth as he fought to drown the seething stupidity that kept him tripping about her.
"Left ye high and dry, did she?" Jamie's voice broke through William's tepid silence, causing William to lower his hand and glare daggers at the boy leaning so casually between his door and its frame. The mischievously satisfied grin on his little face did far too little to cool William's irritation toward the child.
"Be gone. I am in no mood for you." William growled, tossing a rough hand for Jamie to leave. Still, he only smirked as though he found William's dismissal of him amusing and entered his room, once again without invitation or apology.
"Aye, and it seems Nan's in no mood for you." He remarked, with a tilt of his head and shrug. "I ain't ever seen her so mad." He grinned wider, chuckling as he smiled. "But I ain't ever heard her laugh either." He added, his tone carrying far less humor now as he crossed his little arms over his chest and leaned back against the wall opposite William. His look, for once, was not angry or accusing but thoughtful and begrudging, as he regarded William with a studied gaze that hid more than it revealed, much like his would-be mother.
"You've never heard her laugh?" William questioned, finding the information odd. Wouldn't her boy be the one to hear her laugh most? Wouldn't he know what could make her laugh? How had he never heard her laugh?
"Oh sure, I've heard her laugh." He admitted, "Just not like that. It's always light and soft, like she's skimming the surface of something." Jamie explained, seeming to find the knowledge he shared with William as odd as William found it to hear.
She had never laughed like that with her boy. The child she strove so hard to care for, protect, and love. "Has she ever yelled at you before?" William asked, wondering if some of the intensity of her hatred had been drawn from her having to yell at Jamie and not just because William had been too open with the boy.
"Oh aye," Jamie nodded with a shrug, as though hearing her shout at him was nothing new. "But it's just to get me attention. She ain't ever angry with me. She'll be annoyed, but that's about as far as it goes. You," Jamie pointed at William with a huge smile, "She was angry with. Can't say as I'm sorry bout that." He guffawed, enjoying William's plight.
With a glare, William rolled his eyes at the boy's apparent glee. His ire lessened with what the boy had told him, but he was still in no mood for his antics.
"If you're done pointing out the obvious, please leave before I help you more forcefully than I did the last time." William gritted.
"Ay now, be nice," Jamie warned, cocking a brow at William's gruff dismissal. Staying his ground, he regarded William far too much like Nan did when he snapped or threatened her. "That ain't no way to be talkin' to someone what's gonna help ye," Jamie added with a firm shake.
"Help me?" William repeated, his brow creasing at the boys' words. All thought screeching to a halt as William ran them back through his head. "Why on God's green earth would you help me? You hate me."
"Ah, I don't hate ye." Jamie waved the comment away as though it were ridiculous. "I just don't like ye." He corrected with a shrug. "And I might a heard Nan mention something' about ye caring for her when she was yellin' at ye," Jamie replied with a grin as his eyes rose to the ceiling as if to declare it was nothing of much importance, just some random little tidbit he'd happened upon.
"What of it?" William growled, uncertain of how much, if at all, he should trust the child to help him.
"It got me thinkin', is all." Jamie shrugged again, "We been here some three months, and you ain't done nothin' ta us. When Nan said we was stayin', I thought for sure you'd be after us. I mean there's gotsta be a reason for them stories they be sayin' about ye. Bein' the Black Knight and all. But I ain't seen nothing but ye actin' like one a them louts what comes stumblin' outta the pub. So maybe ye ain't as black as they say. Maybe them stories are fishermen's tales cause ye ugly, and ye give those louts a fright when ye come stumblin' out the pub themselves." Jamie spoke, causing William to wonder if the boy was even aware of the insult he had just thrown in William's face or if his child's ignorance hid the obviousness of the matter from him. Either way, William let the comment go, wanting to see where the boy's reasoning would lead, always preferring to know the motivation of those seeking to help him as it made it easier for him to know whether or not he could trust them and with what information.
"Anyway, guess what I'm gettin' at is. Ye been kind ta us. Lots kinder than any a them in town. And we've helped them!" he exclaimed as though he found it offensive that none had offered to help them like William had. "We ain't ever helped you, but still, ye let us stay here. Ye feed us and clothed us. Ye been right nice to us ye have. So I figure I might help ye with Nan." he shrugged.
"You're a very strange boy." William found himself saying.
"How's me wantin' ta help ye strange?" Jamie bit, clearly insulted by the comment.
"It's not that you want to help me. It's your reasoning for wanting to help me." William remarked.
"Yeah, and? What of it?" Jamie questioned with a nod.
"It reminds me of Nan. You have obviously inherited her sense of obligation." William observed, his foul mood seeming to have evaporated into nothing at some point during their conversation.
"What's ob-big-gation mean?" Jamie asked.
"Ob-ligation." William corrected, "It's a sense of duty or honor."
"Oh." Jamie nodded. "I ain't doin' this out of ob...li...gation." He said slowly, as he shook his head. "Just cause ye been nice to Nan don't mean I ain't gonna charge ye for me help." He explained.
"And what's this help going to cost me?" William asked, receiving a bright grin from Jamie.
"Many things," Jamie stated proudly. "But for now, I want a dog." He beamed.