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Once they were in the kitchen, he filled a basin of water from the tap. Mellow with pleasure and happiness, Sunny watched. He’d done this strange ritual before after they’d made love.
He put the dish on the floor next to her feet, then dipped a cloth into the bowl. Dropping to his knees by her feet, he began to wash the insides of her legs, rinsing the cloth out each time, returning to cleanse more of her skin. He washed between her legs, causing her to laugh. She grabbed his shoulders to steady herself, looking down at him in the soft light. “Why are you doing this?”
“To assist you. I don’t want to leave you at all, you know that.” He stared up at her beseechingly. “I don’t wish to leave you with child, if I’m not here to support you.”
A fist tightened around her heart, her mellowness sliding away as the reality of the situation settled on her. “Oh, Cullen...”
She sat down on the kitchen chair and pulled him closer so he knelt between her legs and she could wrap her arms around him. “That’s the most adorable thing you could’ve ever done for me, but there’s no need to wash me for that reason.”
“Why not? A woman must wash in order to avoid being with child after coupling, or so I understand it.” He frowned. “That’s why I tried to assist you with the task.” He looked at her with deeply troubled eyes. “Is it different for women in your time?”
“It is. I take a little tablet each day, medicine from the doctor.” She suddenly wished she wasn’t taking it. “It’s to help me with my monthly period, but it does mean I can’t get pregnant.”
She felt incredibly sad about it, and that’s when it struck her—above all, she wanted him to stay. Next to that, she wanted to have a child with him.
“Does this take away the possibility forever?” he whispered. “Because, if so, that’s a tragedy. You would make a wonderful mother.” He cupped her cheek in his hand.
Sunny felt her lashes grow damp. She hadn’t even realized she was crying. They were happy-sad tears, though, and she shook them away. “I could stop taking the tablet tomorrow. Of course, you’d have to put up with my mood swings.” She laughed.
“I would put up with anything to be with you and have a child with you, my love.”
Perhaps it was the strange light, perhaps there was another reason, but she caught shadows in his eyes, and under the crags of his cheekbones. She sensed in her heart why. He was worrying for her. “You really don’t want to leave me, do you?”
“No, lass. This is a strange world, but there is more than enough to anchor me here. You, above all. That would be enough. Yet I know the place, I see the familiar bumps in the land. I am like a stranger in a foreign land, but you are my guide, and I would do anything to be your protector henceforth.” He took her hands to his lips and kissed her across the knuckles of each hand. “Would that I could wed you, Sunny Chambers, make you my wife and keep you safe, always.”
Sunny felt as if her heart would break if he were taken from her.
She looked away, at the moonlight coming in the window. She could see the shapes of the trees beyond, in the orchard where they’d made love, and she knew every year from this year on, the apples on the trees would be symbolic of their love, and their union. “I’ll do anything I can, I promise, to keep you here with me, if that’s really how you feel.”
“I want nothing more. Should I be forced to return to my time, I may as well be on that hell bound ship my dear friend Nathaniel signed me up for.”
“Don’t say that. I’m never going to let it happen.”
“I truly believe you are witch enough to prevent it,” he whispered.
She clamped her eyes shut a moment, to fight back the tears. His faith made her heart swell, but she doubt
ed herself so much more than he did. Opening her eyes, she stroked his handsome jaw. Had he really acknowledged she was the one who would do the rescuing? Smiling sadly, she doubted it, but she valued his positive words and his love.
“Come,” he said, rising and lifting her easily into his arms as he did so. “I’ll carry you to bed so you can rest. You have much to learn tomorrow. Willow told me on the telephone.”
“You answered the telephone?” she said, surprised, as she looped her hands around the back of his neck.
“Indeed, yes. I’m learning from you, learning how to live, and how to love.” He mounted the stairs and rolled her into bed.
Sunny lay awake, savoring his embrace. She did her fretting at night time. She was far too busy during the day to do it then. Whereas Cullen fretted during the day, while he was busy, and slept like a log at night. In the midnight hours she lay awake and wished her grandma was here to talk to her about the situation.
Once she was sure he was asleep, she extracted herself from his embrace and crept out of the room. She headed for the kitchen, primarily with the aim of getting a glass of water, but it was the place she sensed her grandmother’s presence the most.
The kitchen was the place they’d spent most of their time together when Sunny was a child, and whenever she walked into the room the memory and fragrance of their baking haunted her. Why couldn’t it be real?
She looked over at the table, where they’d made jars of applesauce. Her grandmother would take her out into the orchard and she’d hold the basket while Sunny climbed the trees and weighed each apple to see if it fell heavily into her hand with a gentle nudge. If it did, she passed it to her grandmother, who would put it in the basket.
When she moved back into the house as an adult, she found old jars at the back of the larder. It was as if her grandma was just around the corner.
When she’d begun to have the dreams about Cullen, and sensed his presence in the house, she often wondered whether her grandmother would appear. It hadn’t happened.
She didn’t put the light on. Instead she crept across the moonlit floor to the kitchen sink. The window beyond overlooked the garden. The sky was clear and the room was well lit by nature alone.
