And then she was free at last. She drew in a deep draught of air as the dead weight of her attacker’s body was pulled from her. As the priest bent over the lifeless body of Alan Boatright, uttering prayers for the dead, Mac lifted Cassie from the unholy altar. Cradling her in his arms, he carried her from the room and out of the house.
“I was so afraid,” she said between taking huge gulps of the clean, cool air. “I knew that no one had any idea where I was. Alan had made sure of that.”
“But there was one thing that even Alan couldn’t control, my love, and that was your mind.”
Cassie raised her eyes to his, a questioning expression in them.
“Don’t you remember calling to me, telling me what was happening, what you were seeing?”
“Do you mean ...?”
“Yes. This time it was me reading your thoughts, instead of the other way around. The bond between us has become so strong that when you were in danger you were able to reach out to me. I can’t begin to explain it. I can only thank God that I got here in time.”
Still held firmly in his arms, she felt a tremble ripple through him, revealing the depths of his emotions at the thought of losing her. She leaned into his embrace, holding him close, comforting him as he comforted her.
It was over at last.
Mac found her exactly where he had expected she would be, on the bench far out on the pier where they had first sat and talked to one another. Had it been only days ago? Impossible! Surely that had been a lifetime ago.
Sarge nipped playfully at his heels as he walked down the weathered wooden pier to her side. Mac barely paid attention to the puppy’s antics. The two of them had bonded so tightly that they were now inseparable and Mac took the dog’s playfulness for granted.
And at the moment, Mac was not thinking of dogs or cats or birds. His only thought was of the beautiful woman at the end of the pier.
His gaze locked on her. He felt hypnotized by the sight of her hair as the wind took it and played with it. The sun bounced sparks of light from it.
As he approached, she turned to him, the expression in her eyes one of loving, tinged with sadness.
“I’ve been waiting,” she said as if they had agreed earlier to meet there, which they had not.
“I know,” he responded. They had reached that place in their relationship where verbal communication had become almost superfluous, their thoughts so often co-mingled.
She smiled up at him. It was the saddest smile he had ever seen. She looked at him through the glimmer of unshed tears. She knew without him telling her that it was time for him to be moving on, but oh, how she would miss him. His work here was done, his story filed.
“Why the sad smile?” he asked, reaching with one hand to lift her chin with his finger tip. “The story had a happy ending, didn’t it?”
“Yes, of course.” And it had ended happily, hadn’t it, she told herself. Her mother had been cleared of all charges, Port Belmont was free of the horror of Alan’s madness, and everyone could go back to the nice comfortable lives they had once known.
Only her life would never be the same. Before Mac had come into it she had believed she was happy, but she realized now that there had always been something missing, something important yet elusive. Now she knew that that ‘something’ had been love.
She had found that love in Mac’s arms and now he was leaving. And having once known such love, her life would never be the same.
“Thank you for coming to say good-bye,” she said, turning away from him so that he would not see the pain his leaving was causing.
“Why would I want to say good-bye? I’m not going anywhere.” She felt his hands on her shoulders, turning her to face him once again.
“But I thought ...”
“That I could leave you now? Surely you know I couldn’t do that.”
“But your job. I thought ... that is, I ... How can you stay?”
“How can I not? That is, unless you want to leave with me. Don’t you know, my sweetheart, that you are my home, my life, my everything? I could no more leave you than I could stop breathing.” Her smile was radiant, shaming the sun in all its brilliance. “After all this time of being in my thoughts, I can’t believe you didn’t know how I felt about you.”
“I was afraid to even wish it,” she said softly. “Too afraid to allow myself to get close to your thoughts.”
“Then you don’t know that I’ve bought The Sentinel?”
She gave a silent, negative shake of her head.
“And that I fully expect you to marry me at the earliest possible moment?”
Again she shook her head no.
“Well, will you?”
This time the answer was a nod as she broke into the happiest smile he had ever seen. “Yes, my love, I will,” she finally answered, just before he took her into his arms and kissed her.
Father Sullivan stood at the far end of the pier, unabashedly watching the two young people embracing. Their obvious love warmed him. He smiled as he contemplated the lives they would share together.
He thanked God there was still love left in the world.
A Witch's Tale Page 16