Part 46 (1/2)
She could feel the strength of that love pouring into her. ”You have me.”
”I want you to marry me. Share the child you gave back to me. She's yours as much as mine now. Let me make more children with you. I'll take you as you are, Anastasia. I swear I'll cherish you as long as I live.”
She lifted her arms to him. Hair like sunlight. Eyes like smoke. Shafts of moonglow s.h.i.+mmered around her like torchlight.
”I've been waiting for you.”
Epilogue
Alone on a wild crag facing a stormy sea stood Donovan Castle. This dark night, lightning flashed and shuddered in the black sky, and the wind set the leaded gla.s.s to shaking in the diamond panes.
Inside, fires leaped and glowed in the hearths. Those who were witches, and those who were not, gathered close, waiting for the indignant wail that would signal a new life.
”Are you cheating, Grandda?” Jessie asked Padrick as he perused his cards.
”Cheating!” He gave a merry laugh and wiggled his brows. ”Certainly I am. Go fish.”
She giggled and drew from the pile. ”Granny Maureen says you always cheat.” She tilted her head. ”Were you really a frog?”
”That I was, darling. A fine green one.”
She accepted this, just as she accepted the other wonders of her life with the Donovans. She petted the snoring Daisy, who rested her big golden head in Jessie's lap. ”Will you be a frog again sometime, so I can see?”
”I might surprise you.” He winked and changed her hand of cards into a rainbow of lollipops.
”Oh, Grandda,” she said indulgently.
”Sebastian?” Mel hustled down the main stairs and shouted into the parlor, where her husband was sipping brandy and watching the card game. ”Shawn and Keely are awake and fussing. I have my hands full helping with Ana.”
”Be right there.” The proud papa of three months set down his snifter and headed up to change diapers.
Nash bounced one-year-old Allysia on his knee while Donovan sat in Matthew's lap playing with his pocket watch. ”Be careful he doesn't eat it,” Nash commented. ”Or make it disappear. We're having a little trouble keeping him in line.”
”The lad needs to spread his wings a bit.”
”If you say so. But when I went to get him out of his crib the other day, it was full of rabbits. Real ones.”
”Takes after his mother,” Matthew said proudly. ”She ran us ragged.”
Allysia leaned back against her father and smiled. Instantly Daisy woke and trotted over. Within seconds, every dog and cat in the house was swarming through the room.
”Ally,” Nash said with a sigh. ”Remember how we said one at a time?”
”Doggies.” Squealing, Ally tugged gently on the ears of Matthew's big silver wolf. ”Kittycats.”
”Next time just one, okay?'' Nash plucked a cat off his shoulder, nudged another off the arm of the chair. ”A couple of weeks ago she had every hound within ten miles howling in the yard. Come on, monsters.” He rose, tucking Allysia, then Donovan, under his arms like footb.a.l.l.s. They kicked and giggled. ”I think it's time for bed.”
”Story,” Donovan demanded. ”Uncle Boone.”