This chapter is dedicated to Laura Schiller, Kay and Miss Anly, thank you for your kind reviews and encouragement to keep going with this story.

Hours later, Barney was fatigued by raw emotion. He came back to the cabin and laid down next to Valancy to rest. He could not sleep. Somehow he knew through their bond that she wasn't asleep either. So many memories played through his mind including recollections of when her health was weak. The real pain that reflected in her jade colored eyes. The memory of his dear friend Cissy, what she had endured in her last days. He could no longer bear to agonize over thoughts of Valancy going through that, of her not being there with him.

Barney rested in a fitful sleep for just a couple of hours before dawn. The most dreadful dreams haunted his subconscious. In one, he was alone in the woods yet he could hear her melodic sweet laughter on the wind. When he ran against it's force to find her. She was never there. Another dream was even worse. Valancy had been told by a librarian that her husband was the famous author of the books that she loved so much. She was embarrassed by how many times that she had revealed her deep adoration of him. She was also outraged at him for keeping such an important secret. She was tearing out the pages of each book and leaving them on their cabin floor. When he touched her shoulder, she began to cry out pearls, like her necklace instead of tears. Barney awoke with a solitary tear escaping his own eye. She was sleeping beside him. He got up and prepared to go into the wilderness alone for a while.

All the restless passion of the night before had drained him of any emotion on this foggy gray morning. With a spirit that was dulled into a numb state, he left their island and paddled the small canoe over to the shore of the lake. He aimed to take to the woods not knowing or caring which direction his heart pulled him to go. His heart, if only he could trade places so that she could live on instead. She deserved it for what her life had been like before and for the amazing spirit of life that he had come to know in her now.

As the small boat reached the water's edge, Barney leapt out and pulled it up on the embankment. His steps fell heavy and fast as he took a path that led deep into the upback woods. No more pacing in the lonely lean-to on the island, now there was only moving forward into the unknown. His bride was not well. That letter was like a death sentence upon her. Time was running out soon. His own heart was feeling the pain of that realization as it beat at a rapid pulse to keep up with his walk. Everything that occurred at the train tracks repeated in his mind. The sight of that terrible machine bearing down on her, her face drained of all colour, that damn boot in the rail. Barney had always been a man of nature and earth. His spirit however had been denied by himself for so long because of soul-shattering events from his past. Valancy alone had restored it, he knew that the moment he felt his spirit go out of him before he rushed to her aid. He needed her more than anything that had ever mattered to him. If he couldn't save her...no they had to survive together. When he freed her from the boot and pulled her in tight to his chest, they fell hard against the ground. The pain of the rocks beneath his back was fully negated by the rapturous joy he felt to have her there with him. For the first time in his life, his spirit cried out to God with joyful thanksgiving.

Barney reached the sideways trunk of a fallen tree and dropped down upon to sit. He covered his face with his hands as he recalled what happened next. Once they were able to look upon each other, Valancy's beautiful mysterious eyes had turned wild and frightened. The sight of her brought forth a passion coming from his regained spirit. The rush of pure love left him senseless as he helped her over to a bench. For a moment, he was numb to what had just happened. She must have been as well. After regaining composure, he stood and said they should be going home. He was a fool to be silent when everything that he wanted was still beside him. He needed time and silence, the kind of silence that one can only attain when they're alone. Valancy must have felt the same way for she did not speak either.

When they were back at their island cabin, Barney wanted to know that she was all right. To hear her speak, to prove that she was really safe here at home. Valancy did reply with a tired voice that she was fine. Barney thought about saying more although a fear overtook him that if he did start to talk then perhaps he would not be able to stop and all would be revealed about himself. Could her heart take any more shocks that evening? No. He had be on his own for now to think. When they had returned to the cabin, he wanted so much to sleep next to her in peace although his mind did not allow any true rest that night. There were so many sweet moments, amusing memories and little inside jokes between them that Barney had hidden in his heart until now; Valancy's surprised innocence when he pulled away from their first kiss, her laughter, the joyful radiance of her face on the morning that he returned from the winter storm and of course the sound of her voice when she spoke with deep admiration of his own writing. It almost undid him every time, to take her within his arms and murmur into her ear some of the new writing that he was working on. After all, she had inspired some of it. His heart was still beating so fast. He knew that hers must have been to. How could she endure it given her condition? Perhaps mercy had shown them a favor.

Barney hiked on through the woods until he reached a common dirt road that was frequented more by horse and cart than automobile. A lone farmer waved 'hello' to Barney as he passed by leading a cow on a frayed hand braided rope. The farmer whistled a tune that Barney had heard Roaring Able play on the fiddle a few times in the past. Barney's mind wandered back to the days when Able and his daughter Cissy were more like a family to him than his real one had seemed. What a tight knit group the three were as they played games, traded stories and laughed into the wee hours of the morning. The silly rumours that abounded about himself and Cissy were of no account to themselves. Even though they were well liked and respected among the countryfolk, no one dared to speak to them in the polite society of town. No one else could understand or enter their family bond, that is until she came into their lives like a sunrise of hope.

She became a natural part of their little family with ease and delight. Valancy was like a mother and a sister when she looked-out for Cissy. These thoughts led Barney to a barrier that he was always quick to resist before. Valancy - a mother - a family that would be truly of their own making if it were only possible. He envisioned a child with his ceaseless curiosity to explore and her amusement with all situations. A son or a daughter that they could introduce to the world and take with them on amazing adventures across land and sea. He ached for knowing that it could never be so with his only true soulmate. She was slipping away. He was defenseless to stop it from happening.

The afternoon sun burned away all of the heavy morning fog. The wind picked-up and carried the rest of remaining mist away. The breeze reminded Barney first of Valancy's voice as she had read aloud to him the day before, then of the terrible dream that haunted his sleep and drove him to the woods upon awakening. The wounds of his past had been reopened by the girl who had laid so close to him and she didn't even know it. There was so much that she didn't know. He took out his frustrations on a jagged rock as he kicked it ahead along the pathway. A tall oak provided sun shade and a suitable place to rest. Barney settled underneath it for a brief meditation in solace. The sleep that he had missed the night before caught up to him during a blissful nap there. He dreamed again of Valancy as she was on the morning of his return from the snowstorm that she had thought was so terrible.

"Barney, do you think that Dr. Trent will be in his office today?" Valancy asked as she poured out coffee from a very steamy pot into each of their cups.

"Not likely, my dear. Doctors only come out in weather like this if it is an emergency."

She nearly slammed the coffee pot down on the table between them.

"I would really like to go today. There's something that I must do."

Valancy felt so urgent about it that she was now opening the kitchen door. Barney reached out and caught her arm. That is when he noticed that something was in her left hand. He loosened her fingers to find the doctor's letter within.

"What is this, love?"

"I can do this. All that I have to do is rip up this letter in front of the doctor and I will be well again."

"Moonlight, you can't be serious. It doesn't work like that. He can't make you well again."

Valancy came closer to him. She placed a soft yet shaking hand against his face.

"No, he can't Mr. Redfern, but you can."

The sound of a squirrel scurrying up the other side of the tree trunk awoke Barney with a start. He should've known that he was deep in a dream, the open use of terms of endearment for her that he had felt yet never were allowed to be said before. They preferred tea and rarely drank coffee. Most of all, that name she gave to him when pleading for his help.

He walked on further, knowing that the dream was correct. Something had to be done, right now, even though it would mean changing everything about their lives as she has known it. If it took seeing every physician in the world who was an expert on cardiac conditions, every effort must be made to attempt to save her life and his own together. He could give her his family's fortune, he could give her his writing, he could give her his passion, he could give her an intense loving devotion. First, he must give her the truth.