Chapter 41

"Now wait just a minute! I don't know who has been feeding you this line of bull, but I can assure you that is exactly what it is! A line of bull! People have these feelings ALL THE TIME! There is nothing wrong with them and…wait a minute …what was that nonsense about no love and marriage for you?" Catherine demanded.

Vincent repeated what he had said and watched the disbelief form on her face. "I think we have already blown that ludicrous idea out of the water, haven't we?"

"What do you mean Catherine?"

"Well you and I love each other, so that is already half of what 'could never happen to you' right there! And although I am not sure how you handle weddings Below, I still kind of hope that one day we might be moving in that direction…"

When his mouth fell open in astonishment at her words, Catherine had to pause a moment to try and figure out what the reason might be. Didn't he want to marry her? Had he just not gotten that far in his thoughts about them? Did he honestly believe that no one would want to be his wife? Or was it that maybe he thought that a 'proper lady' would never bring up the subject of marriage, because that was the man's job? Or could it be that he was just amazed at her boldness in saying her feelings out loud? The Bond was no help because as untrained as she was, all she could feel from him was shock. There was no way of knowing which reason caused his feelings.

"Vincent I can see and sense that you are shocked. Will you please tell me why? I have a lot of thoughts running through my head, but it would be easier if I knew what you were thinking."

"Catherine when we first talked about our love for each other last night I tried to tell you that I didn't know where it could go. I never dreamed you would think about marriage to me when I was raised to believe that would not be my life's path. But, even so you have to know that I could never be married here in your world. Besides the way I look, I do not even have a last name!"

"Oh I can grasp the not being married here Above, but this silliness that you can't ever be married is crazy! Do you have some kind of way that people Below show others that they want to be viewed as life partners?"

"Yes, we have had a few weddings Below and some of them have even been registered Above, but Catherine you are a woman of this world! I couldn't ask you to give that up to live Below with me!"

"Well why ever not? I would be happy to be your wife one day and as for living Below, I am sure that there could be a way that we could make a mixture of our two worlds work. I could live Below and work Above for one!" she declared with a triumphant smile.

"You would marry me?"

With one of the sweetest smiles he had ever seen on her face Catherine questioned, "Are you asking me Vincent, or are you still, in your disbelief, trying to find out if I am telling you the truth?"

He hung his head slightly and replied, "As much as I wish I were brave enough for it to be the former, I am unfortunately afraid that it was the latter."

"Oh," she said with a hint of disappointment in her voice that she couldn't hide. "Well maybe one day you will be brave enough for the first one. I don't think it should be too hard to do when I have made it pretty clear what my answer would be. Also, if you haven't gotten your answer to your question from my statement then perhaps I should do what my old soccer coach used to do to us when we asked dumb questions."

"What was that Catherine?"

"She would thunk us on the back of the head."

"Thunk?"

"Yes, it is a highly technical term meaning…oh never mind the meaning…let me demonstrate," she said and reached out to give him a not so gentle tap on the back of his golden head.

To be continued….