He found her in the church, her silken black head bowed in revenant prayer. He said not a word, silently watching with attentive eyes. How he would approach her, he did not know.
She thought herself a fool for believing that she could marry Samson. She knew now that she couldn't marry him. Truthfully, deep down she had never really expected to make it as far as she did. She didn't love him, and she knew that he didn't love her. They were both conveniently using each other as a means to an end. He needed a wife to keep his house and help his social standing at the Divinity School. She needed a home of her own and longed for children of her own. It was an arrangement that had worked for centuries. There even a few couples like that in the Glen.
There were a few, no, many problems with that plan, though. Samson Belle was quickly showing Una that he wasn't the man she believed he was. Characteristics that made him seem strong and able in India only now showed a self-righteous, rigid, and possibly even abusive nature. Her desire to have children might come true, but what kind of life would they lead, and what kind of people would they become if a man like that was their father?
There was another problem with this plan as well. Her heart belonged to another. All those years before, she had rejected Shirley because it wouldn't have been fair to him to try to fill his shoes. She cared too much for Shirley to do that to him. However, what did that say regarding her feelings toward Samson? She cared even less for him than Shirley, so it would be okay to marry him while her heart belonged to someone else? That certainly wasn't any way to enter a marriage.
She had been blinded by her desires to have a home and family of her own, the only way she felt that it was possible. She knew that she would never have the home and family of her dreams. Those dreams had been quashed one September day long, long ago. If only Walter hadn't died.
She shook her head, reminding herself that Walter had in fact, not died. After all that time, her heart still didn't really believe that it was true; it couldn't. To actually believe that Walter was alive would be to open her heart again to all of those old feelings of hope and love as well as the despair and heartache that followed the news of his death.
She had come close to opening her heart again, that one night on the manse porch with Walter. Yes, he really was there, and yes, he really did kiss her. He was the only man that she would ever allow to touch her heart that way. Her heart would always remain faithful. Then Samson arrived, and her heart closed once again to the reality that her life was not supposed to be the fairy tale of Faith, Rilla, or even Mary, and that she had to settle for what she could get. If she allowed herself to believe, something would surely happen to Walter again, and she could not endure that a second time.
Something about being around Samson made Una, once known for quiet, sweet optimism, the greatest pessimist of them all. She didn't like that about herself. She didn't even like Samson, she realized. She could marry a man she did not love, but she couldn't marry a man that she neither liked nor respected, and what little of that had remained, washed away with his performance at the manse.
There was no use in delaying the inevitable. She had to inform Samson that she could not marry him. She stood up from the pew and turned to find Walter staring straight at her, but looking through her as he used to when he would experience one of his premonitions.
Little did she know that his vision was of Hope, Tenny, himself, and Una living together as a family.
"Walter, you've startled me!"
Walter awoke to the hear and now, "I'm sorry, Una. You just looked so lovely," he stopped. "May we sit and talk?" he asked.
Una looked down to her feet. "I think that I need to talk to Samson soon, Walter." She started to walk around him.
He grabbed her arm lightly, "Please don't talk to him before you talk with me, Una," he whispered in her ear.
She dared not let her heart leap at his touch or the brush of his warm breath on her ear, yet she could not deny his request. She only nodded and allowed him to lead her to a pew.
He led her to the Blythe family pew, and softly held he hands as his gray eyes gazed into the cobalt pools before him. "Una, please don't marry Samson Belle tomorrow. Please don't do something that we shall both regret."
Still not allowing her heart to overcome her, she asked, "Whatever do you mean, Walter?"
"Una, I don't think that I could live with myself, knowing that you are bound forever to a man such as Samson Belle. He doesn't deserve you. He doesn't appreciate you. He doesn't love you."
"I doubt that I shall ever know what it is to be loved in the manner you are speaking."
"You could if you would see what is in front of you Una. Why everyone loves you so much, more than Samson Belle can ever even pretend."
"I cannot be a burden to those who care for me," she stared down at the wooden pew.
He lifted her chin to look him in the eyes, "Una, Breathtaking Una! Loving you is never a burden but a privilege. Your smile brightens the darkest room and most battle-scarred heart. I am privileged to love you so very much, Una. Marry me, and know what it is to be loved by one whose heart jumps at the mere thought of your brilliant eyes and sweet, gentle touch," he pled as he caressed her hands with such loving softness that she began to shudder.
She was beginning to shake uncontrollably, finally giving in to her heart, when a final ray from the aging sun shined upon the wall, causing something to flash before her. Her eyes fixed on a tablet hanging on the wall, never taken down.
Tears began to fall down her porcelain cheeks. "But you died," she hoarsely answered.
He turned to see what Una was staring at, and his brow furrowed heavily. No one had ever thought to take it down, and even after all the time that had passed since his return, the tablet hanging over the pew stating, "Sacred to the memory of Walter Cuthbert Blythe," remained.
He looked back at Una, still fixated on the tablet and all the pain associated with it, then turned back to look at it as well. He hated that tablet and everything for which it stood. He walked to it, ripped it from the wall, and threw it onto the floor. The tablet cracked across the middle and broke into several pieces as Walter's heel slammed into it several times.
"I am alive! He yelled, tears flowing from his face as well. "I am alive! I am alive!" he repeated with every crushing blow to the tablet. When it was most definitely destroyed, he rushed back to Una, took her hands, and declared the same.
"I am alive, and I love you, Una Agnes Meredith! I love you, Una! I love you! Please say you love me too, please. Please don't let the pain from the past rob both of us from the future joy we can share! Please!"
Both were shaking violently, emotions, long hidden away, rushing to the surface. Una fell into his embrace, sobbing uncontrollably, and only able to say, "I have loved you all my life!"
Their tears were no longer for the trials, but for the rapture of never being divided more. And as their lips met, it was with the knowledge that they would meet again infinite times in the coming years.