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“Can ye do something for me?”
“Sure.”
“In that chest, can ye find a small brown leather pouch and bring it here?”
“Okay.”
She stood and went to look in the chest he’d pointed at. Sure enough, she found the leather pouch and brought it to him. He opened it and took out a ring.
Amber’s stomach dropped, and her head spun like she was falling into the center of the earth. A ring…
“My mother gave it to me before she died, and I never thought I’d need it. Mayhap in yer time, people are happy to be dating their whole lives, or however ye call it. But we’re in my time. And in my time, I’d need to marry ye to make ye mine. I’ll never want a wife who is nae ye.”
He held out the ring to her.
“I want to marry ye.”
Amber took the ring, and it burned her fingertips. It was a simple silver band with two curls coming together in front with a beautiful Celtic finishing.
Her eyes blurred, tears stinging them. “I want nothing more than to put it on my finger and say yes.”
He swallowed hard. “But ye dinna plan to return.” There was a finality in his voice.
“I want to return.” Amber climbed on the bed and shifted closer to him, trying not to touch his thigh. “But in all honesty, I have no idea if I can. No matter how much I try, they still may put me in prison or…”
Or sentence her to death.
Owen’s face fell.
Amber took his hand in hers. “Bottom line, I may not be able to come back.” She put the ring in his palm and closed his fingers over it. “So I can’t promise to marry you. I’m not selfish enough to make you wait your whole life if I can’t.”
“But ye want to marry me?”
“Of course I do.”
He put the ring back in her palm. “Then I’ll wait for ye forever.”
“Owen—”
“Nae. Shush. If I can’t marry ye, I’ll never marry. And I’d rather spend the rest of my life hoping every day that ye come back than spend it with a woman I dinna love.”
She let the joy of hearing those words seep into every cell of her being and shake up the swarm of butterflies in her stomach. She cupped his bristled jaw. “Then whatever happens, I won’t stop until I can find a way to get back to you. I’ll turn the world upside down if I have to.”
She leaned down and kissed him, setting the butterflies in an erratic dance.
And as his arms wrapped around her, she begged time to stop so she could drink in every moment with Owen since they might very well be the last.
Chapter 33
Two weeks later, 2020
Jonathan’s house looked just like Amber remembered from when she’d visited five years ago. It was a light-green, two-story building with a big porch. Trees with Spanish moss grew around the house, its long silver streams hanging from the trees, creating an idyllic picture of a southern family house.
Her heart squeezed in a dull ache. She’d missed her family. Her mother, father, and her three brothers. The house reminded her of where she’d grown up, and she wondered if Jonathan had chosen it for that reason.
She couldn’t win this battle alone. She needed Jonathan. He had connections in the military and in the police. He could help her.
She had traveled back to the twenty-first century two weeks ago. She had no money, no passport, no phone, nothing but her clothes. Owen had given her his dagger, and Amy had suggested she take some pieces of jewelry to sell to an antiques dealer. That way, she’d have money to travel to the States.
