They stood in devastated silence; hands clasped together so tightly Noah wondered how they would ever break apart…
When the time came…
"Dear God," Noah prayed internally, "If you're up there, please know I'm trying SO HARD, but this is the most difficult thing I have ever had to do."
He stood with fierce determination, but he feared Luke could see right through his pale flesh and straight into his heart as it throbbed painfully red and burning and desperate.
Luke's tear-stained face was bowed; brown eyes examining their hands, interlocked so perfectly. A heavy lock of blonde hair dropped forward across Luke's face and Noah could no longer stand to see the pain written there. He drew Luke almost roughly into his arms.
"I won't let them do it," he told Luke, wishing his voice didn't betray the truth of his fears. He kissed the top of Luke's head. "Don't think on it. I won't let them part us."
Luke shook his head wretchedly, "There is nothing we can do to prevent it."
Noah stepped back, clasping Luke by his arms as Luke smoothed a palm over Noah's silk waistcoat.
"That doesn't sound like my Luke!" Noah exclaimed. "You're just going to let them beat us?"
Luke sniffed.
"The worst thing we can expect," Noah continued, "is that we have to wait. When you've completed your father's work…"
"Noah, that could take years! Once I get on that stagecoach…" Fresh tears fell as his voice hitched, "…who knows how long it will be before we see each other again. Chicago is a long journey from here, and without good reason to travel… I fear…" A panic entered the soft brown eyes. "They will have married us both off by then! They'll keep me from you! Oh… Noah… I cannot bear it…"
To hide his own tears and stay strong, Noah pulled Luke into another embrace.
"I hate them!" Luke mumbled into Noah's chest.
"No you don't," Noah reminded him gently. "You cannot hate your family Luke, as I cannot hate mine. We cannot hate them for what they do not know and for what we can never tell them."
"They could never understand," Luke whispered, leaning back to cup Noah's cheeks in his warm hands, "could they?"
Drowning in Luke's eyes, Noah shook his head from side to side before dropping forward to press a kiss to the unhappy line of Luke's lips. But a chaste kiss would never be enough for either of them and soon; with only a few hours to spare before Luke's departure; they were rolling together, naked in the grass. They were two souls fusing into one by an impassioned but forbidden love that time and obligation had demanded they bring to an unwilling end.
"I love you, Luke."
"And I you."
"I will always love you."
"For eternity, even separated."
"Even then."