He rolled over and reached for her, but she wasn't there. He panicked momentarily, but saw light glowing from the front room of the cabin. Rubbing his face with his hand, he walked out into the front room. She sat in her rocking chair near the fire.

"Becky?" He tried to cover up the shakiness of his voice by coughing. "Did you have a bad dream? Why didn't you wake me?"

"Because you are so tired. I wake you every night. And I'm not a child. I hate feeling . . ."

He knelt in front of her, and kissing her he said, "You hate letting anyone know you are afraid. Now, why is that? After twenty-five years you really think I can't tell? "

He pulled over a footstool and sat on it facing her.

"You aren't going?" She raised an eyebrow at him. He thought at first she was just teasing him, but studying her, he could see she was terrified.

"I'm not leaving you." He said reaching for her hand. "'Becca, why are you so scared?"

"I don't know. I thought you might go after them. I don't like thinking about them. And I was dreaming and . . .Israel's going? Never mind. I don't want to think about it." She rose suddenly and went back to their room. He followed her. She was sitting on their bed and he sat beside her.

"Israel isn't going alone. Peter is going with him, and some other folks too. He'll be alright. He is just angry, Becky. He's got a bit of a temper." He glanced up at her with a smile. "I'm not sure where he gets it. He feels the need to punish them. He wants to make them pay for it. I understand it."

"He's got the girls to think of, not me. I don't need anyone running off and punishing folks. You know, no one ever asks me what I want." She said her voice rising in frustration.

"What do you want?" He asked.

"I want Israel at home. I want you not looking so tired and skinny." She looked at him.

"Neither one of those things are about you, you know. What do you want?"

"I want to sleep all night long and not wake up crying like a helpless child, and for you to stop looking at me like I might disappear any second now." She sat at the end of their bed her legs criss-crossed in front of her. "I want you to go and protect Israel, and I want you to stay here."

He took her hand. "Seems like you got yourself a pretty big heap of worries. Course, seems to me you usually do. I'll go with him if you want me to, but that would be the only reason. I don't need to go chasing after vengeance. Those fools will get what they deserve. They got a sure punishment coming. I told Israel that. I only want to be here with you."

"Israel's a grown man. He can take care of himself. I just can't help seeing him as a nine year old." She sighed wearily, "No, you don't need to go." She looked at him sheepishly. "I'm sorry, Dan I don't know why, I woke up feeling broody and out of sorts. It is strange that the whole time I was gone, I didn't feel upset. I was scared, and angry and frustrated, but it was sort of tucked up underneath. And now, I . . ." She sighed.

He moved to sit across from her, facing her. "It was that way for me after the war." He said and she looked up surprised. "When you are in the middle of it, you don't really have time to think about it, but later, seems like it is all you can think about. Don't you remember?"

She considered thoughtfully. She had been so relieved to have him home again. She remembered that. She could still remember the way she felt seeing him stride towards her, finally home and safe. She had wept and spent hours watching him sleep finding immense comfort watching his chest rise and fall. But she remembered too, him being short tempered and inconsistent. At the time it had confused her, and hurt her feelings.

"I forgot about that. It makes more sense now. I'm sorry, I could've been more understanding."

"Well, I could've explained myself better. Give it time, Rebecca. You are so stubborn. You want everything back to normal with a snap of your fingers. But I think normal has changed." He drew in a deep steadying breath. "We put up a stone with your name on it. We buried you." There was a catch in his voice. "In my heart, I laid you to rest and tried to move forward. It changed us." He looked away from her, out the small window in their room. He felt her fingers wrap around his own, soft and cool.

"I am sorry." She said softly.

"It wasn't your fault." He said.

"Well, I'm sorry just the same." She smiled up at him. They sat together silently. He turned and studied her thinking that he could spend the rest of her days looking at her, and his eyes would never get their fill. She sighed quietly, and he squeezed her fingers.

"Tell me." He said.

She let go his hand, and drew in a deep breath. "It reminded me too much of when I was a girl." She said very, very softly.

"When you were bound over?" He asked. His voice was soft too. He had asked her about this over and over, during their years together, but she would never talk about it; always make a joke or change the subject.

He knew it was her deepest wound.

"I kept waiting for him to come, and rescue us. I kept waiting for my Pa to save me." Her blue eyes filled with tears, even now, all these years later. "I couldn't believe that he would let us be sold. The whole time I was standing up there, listening to people actually bidding to own me, I kept looking for him. But . . . he never came. And I was helpless. I hate feeling that way more than anything! I could have been turned over to the wrong sort of people, the wrong sort of man. I was ten years old! Anything could have happened to me and I would have been powerless to stop it."

An anger burned inside him, no it was more like a fury. She had made a peace with her father - in fact, he was the one who had pushed her into it, but listening to her now, he wanted to harm him. If Timothy Bryan stood before him in this second, he wasn't sure he could stop himself from snapping his neck. He drew in a deep breath trying to squash down the tidal wave of rage he felt. He looked down and was surprised to see her studying him. She reached out with her hand and rubbed his cheek gently.

"Easy, now. It is alright. Calm down, Dan. It turned out fine. I found you. And if he had come and rescued me, I might never have come to Kentucky. We might never have met."

"Honestly, Becky, part of me would rather have you still in Ireland, living out your life in your own village, married to some farmer, if it meant you never had to stand up on that auction block and have your heart broke like that. When I think of you abandoned like that . . . I can't see straight, I get so angry." He drew in another breath to calm himself and smiling at her he said, "Besides, you and me, we were meant to be together. I bet I would have found you even then."

"Well, I wouldn't want it different. I guess being put there again like that again, just made me remember it. I don't know, maybe that's why my mind shut down for a bit. Maybe remembering all that was just too difficult so I just forgot everything. I hated being so helpless again - knowing I didn't belong there, but being unable to explain it to anyone, or to stop it from happening. You know how I like to solve things myself." She looked up into his green eyes.

"I've noticed that." He pulled her towards him so that she lay in his arms. "'Becca, I am sorry for what happened when you were ten, and so sorry I sent you to the fort. Hate ain't strong enough to explain how I feel when I think of you so little, alone and abandoned! You are so good and sweet, and . . ." He paused knowing that if he let his mind continue down that path, he would become enraged all over again. Sighing he continued, "As to waking me up each night, I don't mind it, sweetheart. I wake up anyway to make sure you are still there, so . . . Losing you like I did, even though it wasn't true, made me think about things. There's a heap of things I regret, darling. I regret leaving you all those times I didn't really need to. I regret missing important things, like Rose being born and Patrick dying."

"Stop going on being guilty! You've known me all this time! If I was truly unhappy, do you think I wouldn't let you know? When have you ever known me to hold my tongue?"

"I suppose you've a point there. In a way, it's got nothing to do with you, but about the kind of husband I've been and the kind I want to be. I don't want to take things -take you- for granted and go back to how things have always been. Besides darlin' just because you can be content with less doesn't mean I shouldn't give you more. I know you are happy. I know you are willing to work endlessly without ever being thanked. But it doesn't mean you should!"

She considered this and was filled again with gratitude. Maybe the first part of her life was difficult, but the second half surely made up for it - a thousand times over. She thought of her own sister, Susannah, dead and buried. All of her life - from the moment their mother had died until the very end, had been filled with heartache. She couldn't think of a single reason why she should be so fortunate and Susannah should have suffered so. She sighed.

"You know something I've never told anyone about when I was bound over?" She asked him.

"Something? You've never said a word about it until today." He rested his chin on the top of her head.

"While I was up there, just before the bidding began I saw this little family. They were on the edge of the crowd. They weren't part of it. It looked like the husband was trying to steer his little family away from it all. The husband had his arm around the wife's shoulders, protecting her, shielding her, and she had a baby in her arms and was holding the hand of another child. I saw them and I thought someday, no matter what, I'd have a family like that with a husband who would guide me safely through a crowd away from dark things like slave auctions. I swore an oath to myself that one day, I'd be her." She turned and looked up at him. "And I am."

"Becky," He began, but could think of nothing else to say.

"Remember when Mima was two, and she slid down that hill? I was so scared. I couldn't move. I just froze, but you ran down after her, and caught her. You came up that hill carrying her, and you were all scratched and bloody, but she was giggling. You were smiling, and telling me she was fine, and I had to sit down because I thought I was going to faint. But it wasn't just because she had scared me half to death, it was because you were there and you caught her. You protected her and kept her safe." She turned around so that she was facing him. "Whatever was broken that day when I was ten, has been healed a hundred times over from that first time you said my name and told me you loved me."

She turned her pretty face up to his and leaning in he kissed her. Suddenly, he stopped and said, "I almost forgot!" Rising he disappeared into the other room. Becky frowned.

"Dan, what on earth?"

He returned and sat down beside her and handed her a small velvet bag. Opening it she found a beautiful gold band.

"I can't be kissing you in bed like this if you ain't a married woman, and it looks like your wedding band got stolen."

She held it up to the light. "It is so beautiful. Oh, thank you! 'Course, you did have any trouble kissing me last night." She arched an eyebrow at him, grinning.

"Well, we are married, you know, besides it wasn't finished. I was getting it inscribed. 'Sides you didn't argue none, if I remember correctly." He grinned at her raising his eyebrows right back, and she melted. Truth was that sideways grin of his almost always worked on her.

"What did you put on it? When did you even have time for this?" She looked at the ring more closely. Etched with beautiful lettering it read: Tá mo chroí istigh ionat go deo.

"Oh!" She said and smiled at him. She held it out to him saying softly, "You put it on me."

He smiled and slid it on her left hand.

"That's better, then. It was bothering me that your ring was gone. I want folks to know you are already spoke for. A beautiful woman like you and no ring! That's just dangerous. It looks pretty on your hand, Mrs. Boone."

"Thank you, Mr. Boone. I suppose it is safe now, since you got that taken care of." She waited.

He stood where he was confused. She laughed.

"Well, some things don't change." She said smiling. "Daniel."

"Yes, dear?" He asked.

"Aren't you coming to bed now?"

"Oh!" He said and she laughed all the more.

"Yes, Ma'am!" He said climbing in beside her, and their laughter floated out into the dark Kentucky sky like wisps of smoke on a cold winter night.