"Griffin?" she asked softly.
"I am here, love."
"You're Griffin."
He squatted beside her and smoothed her hair back from her eyes, staring at her in concern. "Of course I am, Merrie-girl. Who did you think I was?"
Meredith shook her head, trying to marshal her jumbled thoughts. Her pirate was here. This wasn't a dream. He was real and his name was Griffin. Suddenly, it all came flooding back to her. She glanced around, not recognizing her surroundings. She was on a deserted beach. Her eyes fixed on a small boat pulled up on the sand and she frowned. She'd seen that boat before… but where?
"Where are we?"
"On Ocracoke. My Ocracoke, not yours."
"Wh-what happened?" she murmured.
"You were wounded during the battle. You've had a fever, but you're all right now."
"I traveled back in time," Meredith said. "I was waiting for you on the beach and when you didn't come, I thought I'd lost you forever. Then, suddenly, the sky turned a strange color and I could see ships in Teach's Hole. And the next thing I knew, I was on the Adventure."
He kissed her softly. "When I saw you, I could not believe my eyes. Faith, but I was angry with you, Merrie. For disobeying me, for putting your life in danger."
"I didn't disobey you," Meredith said stubbornly. "I was on the beach at midnight, waiting, just as we'd agreed. Not that I don't have every right to disobey if I choose. You can be so domineering, sometimes."
Griffin tipped his head back and laughed. "I believe I have my Merrie back, sharp tongue and all. And perhaps I should be glad of it. Perhaps, without you there, I might have been torn asunder by a pirate's cutlass. Perhaps you have once again saved my life, Merrie."
"I had to," Meredith murmured. "I couldn't lose you." She tugged him down next to her and laid her head in his lap, losing herself in his nearness. "I never want to lose you again, Griffin."
"I am well aware that I do not express my feelings eloquently," Griffin said softly. "But 'tis Ithat could not bear the prospect of losing you."
She snuggled against him, wrapping her arms around his waist. "I'm here now, and I'm not going anywhere."
He bent down and kissed the end of her nose. "But I nearly did lose you. You were feverish for so long and I could do nothing for you. And there was no help to be found. I had nearly decided to row you across the Sound, when you seemed to rest easier."
Meredith frowned, a sudden uneasiness assailing her senses. "How long was I sick?"
"Two days."
Instinctively, her hand fell to her stomach. "The baby? Is the baby all right?"
Griffin's gaze filled with worry. "Merrie, you were delirious. There is no baby."
"Of course there's a baby," she said. "Ourbaby."
He patted her hand sympathetically. "Close your eyes and get some rest. You are still feeling the ill effects of the fever."
She reached up and gently touched his cheek. "Did I forget to tell you about the baby?" She shook her head. "I can't tell the difference between what's real and what was part of the dream. I was sure I told you. We are going to have a baby, Griffin."
He stared at her, his expression emotionless save for a muscle twitching in his jaw. "A baby? You are certain of this?"
"I went to the doctor yesterday. Well, not exactly yesterday…" She paused and smiled, trying to hide her confusion at his cool reaction to her news. She was sure he would have been happy. "More like tomorrow, two hundred seventy-eight years in the future. You-you don't look pleased," she stated glumly.
He sighed and got to his feet, then began to pace in the sand beside her. "To be honest, Merrie, I am not. 'Tis not what I would have chosen for you."
"If you're worried about my reputation, don't be."
He laughed harshly. "I am not worried about your reputation. That can be solved easily enough by marriage."
"Why do all your proposals sound like direct orders? What if I don't want to marry you?"
He glared at her, his eyebrow arched. "You willmarry me, of that you can be certain."
"I will decide if I will marry you or not."
He continued to stare at her, waiting, a sardonic smile on his face.
"I can't imagine a more pitiful proposal," she muttered.
Griffin groaned and raked his fingers through his hair. "I do not mean to be dictatorial… or boorish." He knelt in the sand beside her and clasped her left hand between his. "Meredith Abbott, I love you, damn it. Will you do me the great honor of becoming my wife?"
A smile curled the corners of her mouth and she giggled. "You're forgiven, Griffin Rourke. And yes, I think I will become your wife."
His stern expression cracked and he chuckled, then kissed her palm. "I want to spend my life with you, Merrie."
"And the baby?" she asked. "Do you want our baby?"
He ran his fingers through his hair. "Of course I do. It's just that, I-I want to grow old, with you beside me."
"We can do that," Meredith cried. "Women have had babies for years, Griffin. I'm healthy and our child will be healthy." She paused and studied his tense profile for a moment. "But this isn't about me, is it? This is about Jane."
His head snapped around and he stared at her. "I could not have saved her, even if I had been there. Merrie, you mean more to me than anyone I have ever known. I could not stand to lose you. It would kill me."
She placed her palm on his cheek. "I'm not Jane and I won't die, Griffin. Not until we've spent at least the next fifty years together in this world, and eternity together in the next."
He looked out at the water, refusing to meet her eyes. "Things are different in this time, Merrie," he said, frustration edging his voice. "You know what the medical care is like here. I cannot help thinking that you would have been better off staying in your own time. At least I would have known that you, and the child, were safe."
"But we don't have to live here," she said. Her statement came right out of the blue, but she knew she spoke the truth. She blinked hard, then gazed over at the boat on the beach. Suddenly, it all came back to her. That's where she'd seen the boat, on Blackbeard's ship. And in-side the boat was the book. Meredith laughed out loud, her uncontrolled giggles causing a frown of concern on Griffin's face.
Griffin placed his palm on her forehead to check for fever. "I don't know where the book is, Merrie. I wish I did, for I would not force you to stay here against your will. Would that I could take us both back to your time."
Meredith drew a deep breath and stilled her laughter. "The book is in the boat," she said, pointing to the beach. "It's in the bow, beneath an old canvas."
He looked at her in disbelief. "How do you know this?"
"Because I put it there," she said.
Griffin stared at her for a while as if trying to judge her lucidity. Then he stood and jogged down the beach to the boat. When he returned, a smile curled the corners of his mouth. "We can go back," he said, his voice filled with relief. Suddenly, with a shout, he bent over and grabbed Meredith around the waist and pulled her up against him, lifting her feet off the ground. Just as quickly, he placed her in front of him and cupped her face in his hands, raining kisses over her face.
"We can go back," he repeated. "You'll be safe, the baby will be safe and we will live a long and happy life together."
She looked deeply into his pale eyes. "Is that what you want? To live in my time?"
"Yes," Griffin said. "I should have never left."
"You don't want to stay here?"
He growled at her. "On this, I know my mind. I love you, Merrie-girl, more than life itself. And I have come to realize this in so many ways since we have been apart. If living in your time will mean more time together, for us and our child, then that is where I want to be."
Meredith hugged the book to her chest and gazed at the man who had traveled across time to find her. He was right. They were meant to be together and nothing would ever separate them again. She raised herself on her toes and wrapped her arms around his neck.