Spencer watched his wife's distraught figure grow smaller and smaller as he was towed away to port.

Spencer has been shaken by the trauma of war and constant near death experiences, but he had never felt anything like the pain of being ripped away from his own heart, his Alex. He could still hear her cries after him, each one tearing into him like a leopard's claw.

"Bozeman! I will meet you in Bozeman, Montana! I love you!" Alex shouted from the distance.

"I love you, Alex!" Spencer returned in desperation.

"I love you!" Alex shouted again, now barely audible.

She said she would meet him in Bozeman. Bozeman. She knows. She has all of his letters from Aunt Cara from the start of his service. They will find each other. They must.

Spencer kept repeating this to himself over and over until the dingy docked in port and he was unceremoniously cut loose among the locals.

Spencer stood there watching the ship until it finally departed, for London. He and Alex will be together again, soon, God willing.

--

Alex watched as her husband was taken away from her. She frantically searched for something to save the only hope to ever see her husband again. Bozeman, MT.

"Bozeman! I will meet you in Bozeman, Montana! I love you!" She cried.

"I love you, Alex!" She heard her husband shout.

"I love you!" She shouted one last time before he was gone away from her.

She sank to her knees and watched her husband disappear as they disembarked to London.

Alex knew Spencer would continue on his journey home, with the knowledge that she would follow in tow by any means necessary. This did not make the present more manageable…Alex and Spencer were forcibly separated because of pride and honor, or lack thereof, of her once would-be father in law. She raised her head and looked over at him. There he stood half in anger and half in bewilderment, as if he couldn't decide whether his decision to separate the two was completely warranted or a decision made out of grief and anger.

Alex stood and breezed past him without another word or look. She was determined to speak with the Captain, who was her only hope of getting word to Bozeman, should Spencer arrive first.

Alex marched through the Captain's door without a knock and said "Captain, you must send a message for me. I beg you, please. I must find my husband after this." The Captain's face betrayed nothing, but his eyes were filled with empathy and a longing that could only be for the wish he could have gone against the order he was forced to obey by the Prince in succession.

"Of course, madam. Please, you must understand…" Alex held up her had to signal she did not wish to hear anything else.

"I do not wish to hear anything that resembles an excuse. I can't say I forgive you but I can say I understand having your fate in the hands of someone with all the power. Now please, let me give you my message."

The Captain handed over the logbook, where Alex wrote in Bozeman, Montana, for Spencer Dutton, followed by: My dearest love, I will not stop until we are together again. Where you go, I go. Love, Alex.

"Consider it sent." The Captain said quietly.

Alex stared at him for a moment more and turned on her heel to return to the suite she and Spencer had shared, where she did not come out for the remainder of the journey to London.