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“Eventually, ’twill be a stone cottage ye’ll be proud tae live in. Big enough for a bairn or two.”
“Only two?” she laughed, unwilling to spoil the picture forming in her head.
He looked down and kissed the tip of her nose. “ ’Tis negotiable, o’course.”
“Good to know,” she grinned, snuggling back against his chest, but he eased her away until he could see into her face.
“I asked ye once if ye would go back through the portal if ye could. Ye said ye thought so if ye could make it back safely.” He drew a thumb down her cheek. “Do ye still feel the same?”
“No.” She captured his hand and kissed his palm. “I don’t feel the same becauseI’m not the same.It took coming here for me to grow up. To let Austin go his own way—for good or bad—that’s up to him. And to realize I don’t care if we stay here or travel through a hundred portals to a hundred different worlds, I’ll only be happy where you are.Youare my home, Taran. Not the air or the ground, or the trees.” She laid her hand over his heart.“Thisis where I want to live.”
“Ye already do, Love. Ye always have.”
He kissed her eyes, her cheek and smiled into her beautiful violet eyes. “Marry me, Paige. Sayin’ I love ye isnae enough. I want tae show ye how much, all the days of our lives. Say ye’ll marry me. Love me. Grow old wi’ me.”
“I will,” she beamed. “I do,” she sighed. “And I can’t wait.”
When she met his lips with hers, he knew they’d both found home.
Epilogue
Taran turned away so Paige could lift their son’s cradle board from his back and settle the bairn in the shade. Aiesha’s gift made the trip up the mountain far easier, and the lad seemed content to be tucked snugly inside.
They’d come every year on the anniversary of their arrival to sit in their circle of stones, look over the valley and the little village they’d both come to love.
There’d been new arrivals here and there, but like them, only when the moon was absent. And none had come from the same portal. It seemed the universe and its secrets were as varied as the people in it.
“Och. How small the cottage looks from here,” Taran pointed out. “I’m glad we picked that spot beyond the new fields. ’Tis plenty of room for the bairns tae build their own places one day.”
“Bairns?” Paige laughed. “We’ve only the one, Taran.”
“Aye,” he said, pulling her close for a quick kiss. “But I remember the count being negotiable.”
She laughed, kissed him back and gazed at all the wonderful changes in the valley over the last three years. “Do you think we’ll ever see him, again?”
“Austin? I’d like tae think so, but I dinnae ken we should count on it. Mayhap in a few more years he’ll forget the humiliation he endured here. Especially now that his banishment has been lifted.”
Taran gave her a squeeze. “He’s all right, love. Finn said that lone traveler who passed through said he’d heard of a village less than two week’s walk away. I cannae wait tae visit them,” he admitted, thinking of all the souls who’ve traveled from so many different times and places. “Just imagine what they might teach us.”
“Do you think they’re as happy here as we are?” she asked.
“Aye. If they choose tae be.”
Paige laid her head on his shoulder. “I’m so grateful for our life here, Taran. For our son. And for you,” she sighed, raising her face for another kiss.
“As am I,” he said, leaning down to brush his lips across hers. “For those things. For you. And for all the possibilities we havnae even dreamed of.”
THE END
