Farrish smiled at Megan.
"Then you shall have my have it young lady. Sylvester I've kept an eye on you for some time and I've been impressed with both your progress and your restraint. Do your best to keep your self humble as you are and I have no doubt you will go far in magic and alchemy. But I would echo the wise Lady's words. Never trust a necromancer. Their schemes have schemes. I thought I trained you better than that. You'll never know their true goal until it blindsides you. You are ready to further your life Sylvester, go with young Megan here and be joined in wedded bliss." Farrish told him.
Megan grinned as she sat down her cup of tea.
"Thank you Farrish. I hope we'll see you at the wedding." Megan told him.
Farrish smiled.
"I look forward to the invitation." Farrish told them even as they all stood.
Sylvester reached out and shook his hand.
"Thank you Master, I will continue to be guided by your words." Sylvester told him.
Megan stepped up and kissed his cheek.
"We'll see you at the wedding then." Megan told Farrish before they turned and then Sylvester gestured and she found herself standing outside of the tower and Sylvester pulled against her and they moved down and across the bride. They finally reached the stone they arrived on at the foot of the bridge. As she stepped upon the stone she saw a glowing rectangle in mid air and Sylvester walked through it pulling her along with him.
"That was an amazing adventure Sylvester. Thank you for taking me with you." Megan stretched up and kissed his cheek again after they arrived back in his tower.
Sylvester smiled.
"It was my delight to take you to meet my Master. Now there is just one last person to ask before I can ask you to marry me." Sylvester told her even as he pulled her in and kissed her.
"Well then, let's get in there so you can ask him." Megan told him.
Sylvester nodded as he moved to open his door and took her hand as they moved around the Keep to the front entrance. As Sylvester and Megan entered the Keep they could hear sounds of celebration coming from upstairs and they both looked at the other.
"I wonder what we missed." Megan said wistfully.
Sylvester shrugged.
"That's easily rectified." Sylvester smiled as they began climbing the stairs. Sylvester's eyes went wide as they climbed the stairs. "Is it my imagination or is that Lord Walter singing?"
"Really? We got to hurry then and get up there." Megan's eyes went wide even as they moved quicker up the stairs.
As they came to the great hall they saw several musicians were playing a song with several back up singers accompanying as Lord Walter was singing to Paige. Paige stood there grinning as she swayed to the beat holding his hand. Everyone stood around watching almost like they couldn't believe what they were seeing. This was not the Lord Walter they had all come to know.
"I've tried to hide it so that no one knows
But I guess it shows
When you look into my eyes
What you did and where you're coming from
(I don't care)
As long as you love me, baby
I don't care who you are (who you are)
Where you're from (where you're from)
What you did
As long as you love me (as long as you love me)
Who you are (who you are)
Where you're from (where you're from)
Don't care what you did (yeah)
As long as you love me (as long as you love me)
Who you are (who you are)
Where you're from
What you did
As long as you love me
Who you are (who you are)
Where you're from (where you're from)
As long as you love me
Who you are
As long as you love me
What you did (I don't care)
As long as you love me"
Everyone began applauding as Lord Walter finished singing. Paige wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tightly even as she pressed her lips solidly against his.
"You must have been keeping this secret from me. How have you managed to get away to practice without me knowing it?" Paige asked as they separated.
Lord Walter laughed.
"When it matters you find a way my love." Walter told her before they kissed again.
"I must give credit to my singers. They did a fine job of covering for my lack of talent in the field." Walter told her.
Paige shook her head.
"I heard every word you sang Walter and you did a good job. You needn't had worried about having other singers to help sing with you. How did you choose the song?" Paige asked.
"A traveling group stopped by the Keep a few years ago on their way to Lancaster from Los Angeles and it was one of the songs they performed. A few months ago some of the words came back to me and young Madeline, one of the singers, knew the song and provided me with a complete copy of the lyrics. Luckily the musicians knew the song. And I thought the words really seemed to fit us from my perspective. I really didn't care where you came from, what you had done, all I needed was for you to love me." Walter told her.
Paige smiled even as she caught the tear that ran over her eyelid with a finger.
"Thank you my love. You are simply too perfect." Paige told him. She saw Lisa over Walter's should standing at the servants' door way and she gestured towards the master chambers and then rocked her hands back and forth.
Paige sighed.
"Well, it seems that one or both of the twins needs me my love." Paige told him.
Walter looked out at the assemble.
"The twins have awakened friends and family, we'll return later." Walter told them even as he kept Paige's hand in his and they walked out of the great hall together.
"I guess that is going to be us in a few short months." Cabe said as Allie just grinned at him.
Sylvester saw Megan's parents with Ralph as they stood not far from the Lord's high seat. He began walking over. He wasn't sure what Sean's reaction was going to be but he already had a spell ready to unleash on him if he chose to attack him again. But he decided even if he said no he would propose to Megan right in front of him anyway.
"Sean, Louise I have something I need to ask you." Sylvester started.
Sean gave him a wary eye even as Louise grinned.
"Megan and I had talked about it many times now and I told her I planned to ask you even before the wise Lady's words. I would like both of your permissions to ask Megan to marry me." Sylvester told them.
Louise grinned and nodded before she stepped past Sean and kissed Sylvester's cheek.
"You absolutely have my permission Sylvester." Louise told him.
"So is that your way of trying to get around my permission by dragging my wife into it boy?" Sean said almost growling.
"No sir. I wanted to honor the commitment Louise has always demonstrated for Megan's care as well. And with or without your permission Sean I plan to ask Megan to marry me. But tell me, when have I ever backed down from you? I would think after the couple of altercations we've have, you would know I might not wish an altercation with you. But with the power I have been trained to wield I will defend Megan, my Lord and Lady, my friends and myself against anyone. Because of the love and kindness he has always showed me, wherever my Lord tells me to go, I will go. Whatever he tells me to do I will do, but I will not back down from you. I love Megan and now that I know that the wise Lady wants us together nothing will stop that from happening except for Megan." Sylvester told him defiantly.
Sean stared at Sylvester for almost a full minute. The people who had been close by hearing the words all moved back out of the way and Happy stepped up shoulder to shoulder with Sylvester.
"And if you think you are going to attack my friend again Sean, you've got a world of pain coming to you. You insulted my Lady, you attacked my friend already once, you've insulted him and your own daughter and I won't stand for any of it again. You're lucky Raynold demanded I not retaliate against you for what you did to my Lady that first night here. And I'm trained in several martial arts and I'll be happy to kick your ass in each one of them." Happy told him.
"Happy, stand down, that is enough." Raynold told her from behind them.
"I will not stand down Raynold. Not until I have Sean's word of honor." Happy told him without taking her eye off of Sean.
"It's okay Happy. I got this." Sylvester told her.
"I know you do Sylvester, but I'm not doing this because I think you can't handle the situation. This is what a friend does." Happy told him.
"I have no intentions of attacking Sylvester Happy." Sean finally told her before looking at Sylvester.
"You swear to care for my little girl no matter what? You swear to take care of her and any children you have for the rest of your lives?" Sean asked.
Sylvester nodded.
"I have a large account here at the Keep I seldom ever touch Sean. It will be here for Megan and any children we have in case anything ever happens to me. And between now and then I will always provide for her and our kids." Sylvester told him.
Sean nodded and held out his hand.
Sylvester reached out and shook it.
"Then you have my permission. But if you ever go back on your word, no one will stop me from taking revenge on you." Sean told him.
"Well hot damn, maybe we can have a double wedding now." Toby said as he stepped up.
"Double wedding?" Sylvester asked.
Toby grinned as he nodded thrusting his thumb towards Sir Cabe and Allie.
"Sir Cabe asked Allie to marry him. That was what was going on here before the Lord broke out in song for the Lady. We were all celebrating. Speaking of which, where have you two been?" Toby asked him.
"We went to visit my Master and get his permission before I asked Sean and Louise." Sylvester told him while grinning and then stepped over and shook Sir Cabe's hand.
"Congratulations Sir Cabe. I'm really happy for you both." Sylvester told him.
"Thank you Sylvester. But aren't you forgetting something?" Sir Cabe asked looking at Megan.
Sylvester grinned and shook his head.
"Not on my life would I forget Megan." Sylvester told him. "I just wanted to honor you both first."
Sylvester turned and took a few steps to Megan and got down on a knee before he opened a pouch hanging from his neck. He reached inside and pulled out an ornate gold engagement ring with a beautiful star cut blue moonstone gem.
Megan and Louise both gasped at the beautiful stone.
"I've had this stone for a couple of years now Megan. I had it cut and polished a few weeks ago and set into this ring that I commissioned from Happy. I knew you were the one for me and part of me was always a little worried that maybe you didn't feel the same way. I know that probably sounds stupid with all the time you spend with me and how you act when we're together. But I'm through with worrying about things like that. I love you and I pledge my life to you. Will you consent to be my wife?" Sylvester asked.
Megan smiled with tears in her eyes and nodded.
"I do Sylvester, I do." Megan told him even as Sylvester pushed the ring onto her finger.
Sylvester stood up and Megan jumped into his arms and they kissed as everyone cheered for them. After they broke their kiss everyone moved over to congratulate the couple.
Paige was nursing Daithi when Walter paused as he read from "The Tale of Two Cities" when they heard more cheering.
"I wonder what is going on now." Walter looked off wistfully.
Paige smiled.
"If you want to go see you can. You don't have to sit with me all the time reading to me. Don't get me wrong I enjoy it but I don't expect you to put the affairs of the Lands on hold all the time." Paige told him honestly.
"I manage to keep the balance of what I need to do without this time impacting what is going on my Lady." Walter told her before he went back to reading.
"But what if I am interested in knowing what is going on?" Paige asked.
"Lisa, would you mind going down stairs to find out what is happening?" Walter looked at Lisa as she sat in attendance.
"It would be my pleasure my Lord." Lisa said as she got up and moved out of the bedroom.
"Was it really that important for you to stay instead of going to see what is going on?" Paige asked.
Walter nodded.
"You will always be my priority Paige. The wise Lady would support my position of tending to you and our children first. Even if it is merely a reason to entertain you when you are being the loving Mother you are to the twins." Walter told her.
"How do you suppose that Simon's spell managed to get your essence so I would conceive Ralph?" Paige asked just before Walter began reading again.
"I'm not sure. We could ask Sylvester, he might know. It was a little embarrassing to be honest. I couldn't believe the wise Lady was fine with him doing it." Walter told her.
"It surely seems like she wanted Ralph to be born. I know with how fast everything happened between us since we met. I suppose it would have had to happen just as fast if we had met in Los Angeles in order for Ralph to have been born." Paige told him.
Walter slipped the bookmark into the book and closed it.
"I suppose it would have. Though unless you had used magic to get to San Francisco faster the trip to Los Angeles is about six weeks faster than to San Francisco. So maybe it wouldn't have happened quite as fast." Walter told her.
Paige smiled.
"We didn't use magic. And to be honest I didn't know Drew knew magic. Around me he always acted like just a fighter, maybe a rogue of some kind. Oh speaking about what the wise Lady told us. Tomorrow after breakfast I'm bringing Happy back here while I nurse the twins. I don't know what happened in Happy's life but clearly the wise Lady said she wanted her to tell it to me. So I am going to coax it out of her. I want her to be able to form a relationship with Toby since that is who the wise Lady said she wanted with her. So she can have an actual family."
"I nearly died when I realized just what I screwed up because I followed Drew to San Francisco." Paige told him even as she wiped at the tears in her eyes.
Walter nodded.
"I need to have a talk with my Father too. I never stopped to consider how he might have suffered all those years thinking I died because he had lashed me to the mast of that ship. And while I was right in my response for what he said about you, I need to apologize for it." Walter told her.
Paige smiled.
"Why don't you take him fishing after breakfast? You said he loved to take you fishing when you were living in Ireland." Paige asked.
"That is an excellent suggestion my love. And I'm sure me doing it after breakfast gives you the privacy to speak with Happy." Walter said as he arched his brow at her.
Paige laughed and nodded.
Greetings! Hope this finds you all well! Doing okay here...stories still are being very quiet. Barely got this chapter done in time to post today. Ended up writing the last third in bed last night. lol Had a nice burst of a start after talking with a friend on IG and it continued once I got to the bedroom. The song he sings is from the Backstreet Boys, "As Long As You Love". As I said to my friend last night I was shocked just how apt it is for their relationship in this AU.
Lucy - LOL Yeah, I still can't believe I did that to myself. But a double wedding might just be the thing to only write 1. lol
Railman - Thank you! Farrish may come up in a future chapter if for no other reason than the wedding. Originally Sly was going to take Megan to see him before the twins were born to tell him about the dream Lord Walter had. But with wanting his permission to marry it seemed like a good place to cannibalize part of that story for this one.
2LawDog - hehe Glad it suits you! I just meant it I couldn't believe no one noticed and said anything about it. lol Glad you are enjoying it!
Susan - Thank you! I'm so grateful so many of you embrace and some downright love both of these storylines! Yes, she does still practice her skills. She hasn't had to use them to heal anyone since their honeymoon but she regularly exercises them.
Margaret - Are you back home now? If so, welcome home! Yes, it is a very convoluted and involved storyline. It got even more complex by adapting that Walter is really Ralph's Father into it. Originally Simon was just going to go back to his people. But it gave me a chance to add a little more to his character and then give him some actual time in the story. If you do have a question, or more, please feel free to ask. You can even ask without using your name if you want. I'll do my best to explain anything that is unclear. Thank you and you are welcome!
To the Adventure! -Tim