Chapter 21
Parson Farm
Grindstone Island
St. Laurence River
September 2011
"Have you ever thought about getting married?" Spencer asked Tally as they walked to school the next morning.
Tally stopped in her tracks and looked up at him a long moment. "Yes, I have." She said before she started walking again, "Since I met you."
Now it was his turn to stop for a moment. She'd already been thinking about it? "Really?" He had to take a few quick steps to catch up with her.
"Of course. For a lot of reasons, but it really all comes down to..." He looked over and saw that she was turning pink on him. "...I love you. Which is impossible to define, I just know I do. The world is better with you in it, that's all. I'd like to be there for you and have you there for me." Her cheeks turned even brighter. "Granted now that I said that I do hope this means you're asking."
He could feel his own face on fire. "I am, actually. But before you say yes there's something you should know. Come here." The tree that stood next to the school was just starting to turn from a soft, delicate green to a cascading fall of gold. He pulled her under it, where the curtain of leaves would conceal them from sight. "You said that when you were young you dropped a pumpkin every year, to see if it would shatter."
She looked like an elf under that tree, the blue of her apron vibrating against the green gold around them. "And you said you know where that place is. We're both from there. You never say much about your place in it though."
"I didn't want to upset you."
"Why would it upset me?"
"Because I haven't been able to find a way off this island." On the Sundays when he hadn't been in the kitchen he'd gone for long walks, looking for something, anything he could use. He'd made his way to the furthest fences, watched as long, modern tankers slowly sailed by the island, and been utterly frustrated at his inability to flag one. And there was no cell service, and Housekeeper had been unable to find a satellite phone and he had not managed to crack the biometric locks and no word at all from Seaver. There was nothing.
"Why would that upset me? No one knows how to leave here."
"You said that when you were little you believed a magician would come and save you." Tally nodded. So Spencer opened his hand, showed her the button there, and then made it disappear.
Her eyes opened wide and she gasped. "Where did it go?" She asked, looking over his hand. "How did you do that?"
"It's in your apron pocket." He said. She fished it out and looked up at him. He sighed. "Magic. We knew each other as children. I was a magician back then. Your mother was my teacher. But I can't get you out of here, love, and I am so sorry."
He watched the expressions crossing her face. Shock at first, which grew and deepened at what he said, and then a blow of disappointment, and the sorrow of loss. Recognition came then, and the realization of what that meant. But as she opened her mouth to say what she was thinking they heard the laughter of children. She looked back in the direction of the school, smoothed her apron and regained her composure. "We'll talk at lunch then?"
"Sure."
Lunchtime came. Spencer had been distracted all morning. What if the regret and the realization drove her away? What if she hated him for keeping this from her? What if she never wanted to speak to him again?
But none of that happened. Instead she came and sat next to him, her back to the trunk of the tree as the children scattered to eat their lunches. "I remember you." She said. "I remember. I used to chase you all over campus. You kept candy in your bag for me. Gummi worms, never more than my mother would let me have." She smiled, the gentle smile of the woman mixing with the grin of the girl. "My magician."
He remembered her in a paper crown and a beach towel cloak, grandly pronouncing him the royal magician of her court. "I kept them there just for you, you know. I never figured out why you followed me."
"I enjoyed your company. I remember having fits when you were gone and I couldn't see you that day. How dare my magician go and leave me. I was such a spoiled child." She smiled at the memory.
He couldn't help it, he laughed. "I missed you when you were gone." He said. "It was like the light went out of the world. I hadn't realized how much you mattered until you weren't there. I wish I could take you back there."
"I know. But the next best thing a magician could do, I suppose, is get himself trapped here with me so I wouldn't be alone. A girl has to love a magician like that." She looked up into his eyes, something no one there ever did, and the intimacy of it caused something within him to twist and grow. "I still want to marry you."
"Good. Because I still want to marry you. Here and there, when we get there."
"Here and there, when we get there." She agreed.
"What do we do?"
"After school." She looked up at the tree around them, the school warm and inviting and sheltering them from the rest of the farm. "This is the perfect place for it. Here." She picked up his slate and started writing on the back. "These are the vows we take here. Unless you want the ones from there."
He didn't even have to look. He couldn't stop looking at her. "These will work fine."
Once they shooed the children off to afternoon chores and cleaned up they met back under the tree beside the school. The autumn sun was slanting down toward the horizon, turning the world gold. "We don't need witnesses?" Spencer asked.
"No." Tally replied. "This is between us. Our friends will take us at our word. Witnesses are for legal things, aren't they?"
"Yes. Good point." The people for whom legal would matter wouldn't recognize a slave marriage. No, this was just for them.
"I remember your name, you know. Do you want me to use it?"
"Please." He hadn't realized the longing he would feel, the level of intimacy. He hadn't heard his own name in so long. "I remember yours; do you want me to use it?
"I don't know. I remember that everyone out there knows your name, if we do leave this place will everyone want to use it?"
"Likely. And there's another consideration."
"What's that?"
"In your father's language your name means 'little girl'. I can't think of you as a little girl anymore."
Her smile was brighter than the sun. "Then leave that name for my parents and the world out there. Give me a new name, please, one just for us."
"All right."
She took his hand, climbed a few of the schoolhouse steps so they would be the same height, and turned to face him, looking up into his eyes and perhaps into his heart.
"You cannot possess me
But while we both wish it, I give you that which is mine to give
You cannot command me
But I shall serve you in those ways you require
I pledge to you that yours will be the eyes I look for in the morning
And the face I picture in the night.
I shall be a shield for your back and trust in you to shield mine
My children shall be your children
And I shall honor you above all others
I pledge to you my living and my dying, each equally in your care
This is the marriage of equals.
This is my wedding vow to you
And with this vow I trust you to know who I truly am...Spencer."
Hearing his name sent a shiver down his spine and his heart to racing. It was the first time he'd heard it in nearly a year. It really was the most loving, intimate thing he had ever known.
Now it was his turn
"You cannot possess me
But while we both wish it, I give you that which is mine to give
You cannot command me
But I shall serve you in those ways you require
I pledge to you that yours will be the eyes I look for in the morning
And the face I picture in the night.
I shall be a shield for your back and trust in you to shield mine
I shall be a father to your children
And I shall honor you above all others
I pledge to you my living and my dying, each equally in your care
This is the marriage of equals.
This is my wedding vow to you
And with this vow I trust you to know who I truly am ..."
He looked at the world around him, the golden of the world and the shelter of this place. He never wanted her to forget this first home they shared.
"...Willow."
Her eyes widened and her smile beamed. "Oh. Oh, that's a lovely name! It's perfect!"
"It suits you." Delicate but strong, he thought, a tree that bends but never breaks. "Now what?"
Now she looped her arms around her shoulders and kissed him.
It wasn't anything like being kissed by Lila. It was gentle, sweet somehow, tender was the best word. But then he felt that spark growing, that dark heat he'd first found in a pool in Los Angeles, and he couldn't help making that kiss deeper. Willow responded and that spark grew and he felt her tremble and knew she felt it too. "I love you, Willow." He murmured when he had to breathe again.
"I love you, Spencer. My magician." For a moment she settled into his arms. "I don't want to go." She admitted. "I want to stay at the schoolhouse tonight."
He looked in her eyes and saw the spark growing there and knew that she didn't mean stay at the schoolhouse, not really. "So do I." But they'd be whipped for it if they did. They were never allowed that much privacy. But someday...
He held her hand until they came in view of the courtyard, and watched as the gate closed behind her.
.
Note: OK, I know those vows are modified from ones I found out there somewhere, but now I cannot find them again or remember the original author. Credit to him, wherever he may be.