by Linda Conrad
“Don’t…” His voice faded and he swallowed hard, trying to sound steady when that was the very last thing he was feeling.
Finally, he tried again. “Don’t stay with me out of duty, or because of our child. My mother did that and it ruined two lives, and nearly ruined several more.”
Annie looked confused—and distant. He must make her understand that he’d changed. He fell to his knees before her and clasped both her hands in his own.
“Stay because if you go, you’ll take the sun with you,” he begged. “Stay because every day without you will put me back into a cold, gray hell. Stay because you make me more human…”
His voice hitched again and he had to swipe at his eyes to see her. “Stay because I love you, Annie. And I promise to never again make a decision alone.”
“You love me?” Her voice was small, and her hands began to shake.
He was blinded by the wetness now and threw his arms around her body, pressing his face to her belly and the child they had made together. “I’ve never been in love before, my darling.” His breath caught at saying the truth out loud.
“But I know I love you,” he moaned. “You’ve got my loyalty, my heart, my soul…forever. Please don’t turn me away. Make a real life with me.”
Annie suddenly dropped to her knees and clung to him. “I don’t know why or how you’ve changed. But I do know I love you so much. And I’ll never leave as long as you just keep telling me you love me and keep on talking. We can make it. I know we can.”
Nick kissed her, allowing every emotion he’d ever hidden to surge through his lips to hers. They would make it work.
Annie pulled back and smiled at him. “You know, I think I would love to marry you again. We’ll have a big church wedding this time,” she said with a chuckle. “And a much better honeymoon. I promise.”
Nick dashed his hands across his eyes and bent to cover her laughing mouth with his own. What a fabulous life they would have together, laughing and sharing and making children.
He knew for certain now that their lives would end up being much more like a wonderful fairy tale than any daily reality could ever be. They gypsy’s book had shown him the way.
Raising his eyes, he gave thanks to an unseen old gypsy woman and to the wonderful great aunt who’d been the reason he had been so gifted by love.
Because he knew their love came from the magic. It was his legacy.
Epilogue
The old gypsy woman, Passionata Chagari, picked up her heavy crystal and waited for the haze to clear. It was important that she see into young Scoville’s future.
Everything must be as her father had directed. There could be no deviations from his wishes. Passionata had sworn on her life to deliver the proper legacies.
When the fog cleared from the crystal, a future day filled with brilliant sunshine on the ocean came into view. Sea and sky ran together in an indigo blue wash of color.
And through the choppy whitecaps appeared a double-masted sailing vessel, looking like a pirate ship with all her sails set and strained by the wind. Passionata smiled as she spotted the strawberry-blond crew, consisting of two strong and lean young men and two laughing and beautiful preteen girls. Their fresh young faces beamed with the promise of youth and good health.
They all worked together, following the orders of the captain and first mate. Their captain wore white slacks, a halter top and a navy blue cap pulled tightly down over her fiery red curls. She grinned over at the first mate as she tacked the tidy ship back and forth through the following seas and shouted over the winds to her crew.
First mate Nicholas Scoville’s gold and silver hair blew across his eyes as he smiled contentedly upon his family and crew. Proud and so magically happy that he thought he might burst, Nick did as he did every day for the past eighteen years. He gave up silent thanks to an old gypsy and her father who, for reasons still unknown, had given him back his life—and left him with love.
From her vantage point through time, Passionata wished Nicholas Scoville well, nodding her head in approval. Her father could rest easy on that account. Another small part of the debt due to Lucille Steele had been repaid.
The old gypsy tilted the crystal once again, wanting to check on the rest of her charges. But the future clouded over in a gray mass, blinding her to the future for the next of Lucille’s descendants.
Determined that nothing would stand in the way of the legacies, Passionata sat back and waited. The time and the vision for Tyson Steele would come. When it did, she was convinced all would be as ordained…and filled with magic.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-7710-0
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Copyright © 2005 by Linda Lucas Sankpill
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* The Gentrys
† The Gypsy Inheritance