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She gasped when he spoke her na broken then? You can speak uid sil is broken It has been broken since Twelfth Night I knoho you are, Lia I know everything about you now Your father’s to, Lia" His hand strayed and brushed aside a lock of her hair "You did it You did what he meant you to do" Tears filled his eyes "I aazed at her pointedly "Neither did mine If I could have sent you word, I would have Believe that But I only just escaped and I rode hard and fast"

Lia was so startled and shocked, she clutched hihtly, breathing in his smell, the texture of his tunic and shirt She squeezed hi him

"What of Hillel?" she asked fearfully

Colvin stroked her hair "She weds the young king in a fortnight After all, I a the huhost What are you saying? Please do not jest! My heart is still near breaking That this is a dream and I will awaken"

"I will tell you all," he answered "But first,My wife"

She stiffened

He looked at her, gazing at her face, feeling through her wild hair with his fingertips He brushed the back of his hand across her cheek "Do not fear my touch, Lia," he whispered "Your father foresaw it perfectly I kneho Hillel was truly Your father’s tome told me what I had to do to bind myself to you forever When I was at Billerbeck, I shared the knowledge with the Alder I showed hireed to perfor me forever to Ellowyn Deil, the saether while they were apart, she in Dahomey and he in Pry-Ree The orb works forI share many of your Gifts Hillel took the hetaera oaths, but she did not deceive me I let her believe she swayed me But I never let her lips touch ers clenched in her hair and his forehead brushed hers "You are mine Forever"

With his hands tangled in her hair, he brought his mouth down on her cheek and kissed her Then he kissed her chin And then finally, as her heart nearly melted with fire, he kissed her mouth It was not a soft kiss or a tender one It was a kiss that stole her breath with its urgent clai of herhirabbing his hair, kissing hi she had experienced He kissed her again and again, breathing her in, clutching her as if she would float away and leave his she had never experienced except in drea and breathless She could not believe how it made her feel The worry and torness The agony and loneliness of winter was gone like the frost He was there He was hers And they would go together to a new land and build new Abbeys together

She thought she would faint with joy and was grateful his arled weave of her hair and clutched her shoulders to keep her up

Glancing up at hi, Colvin Price, that we are reedily

"But do not I get a say in this?" she asked with a teasing voice "Am I bound forever to you then with no choice of my own?"

His eyebrows raised infor it to be sacred I suppose I was presuer down his mouth "Yes"

"Yes?" he asked

"Yes, I accept it," she answered "I give you all that I have and all that I aain," he dee

Lia awoke first before the blush of dawn lit the s of the kitchen After rising fros to war for the and knew Colvin would be too when he awoke For a e and he had tried to guess her age without asking and how they had argued She war in the seeds to the boiling water