The Gallaghers of Ardmore Trilogy

have killed her.”
    “I’ve not finished yet, have I?” He turned to pull her up. Then he held her there a moment, just held her as she fit so well against him.
    “She let out a cry, filled with pain and despair that ripped at his heart even as his head reeled from lack of food. He raced to her, and found her watching him with eyes blue as a lake. His hands trembled, as they were eyes he knew, and he began to understand.”
    Turning Jude, tucking her under his arm, he began to walk again under the splattering light of star and moon. “Though he was half starved, he did what he could to heal the wound he’d made and took the bird to the shelter of these cliffs. And building a fire to warm her, he sat guarding her and waited for sunset.”
    When they reached the top, Aidan slipped an arm around her so they could look out at the dark sea together. Water rolled in, then back, then in again, a rhythm constant, primitive, sexual.
    And understanding that Aidan’s stories had their rhythm too, Jude lifted a hand to cover his. “What happened next?”
    “What happened was this. As the sun dipped, and night reached out for day, she began to change, as did he. So woman became bird and man wolf, and for one instant they reached for each other. But hand passed through hand, and the change was complete. So it went through the night, withher too feverish and weak to heal herself. And the wolf never left her side, but stayed to warm her with his body and guard her with his life if need be. Are you cold?” he asked, as she shivered.
    “No,” she whispered. “Touched.”
    “There’s more yet. Night passed into day again, and again day into night, and each time they had only that instant to reach for each other and be denied. He never left her side to eat, as man or as wolf, and so was near to dying himself. Sensing it, she used what power she had left to strengthen him, to save him rather than herself. For the love she felt for him meant more than her life. Once again dawn shimmered in the sky, and the change began. Once again they reached for each other, knowing it was hopeless, and her knowing she would never see another sunrise. But this time, the sacrifice they’d both made was rewarded. Hands met, fingers clasped, and they looked on each other, finally, man to woman, woman to man. And the first words they spoke were of love.”
    “Happy-ever-after?”
    “Better. He who had been a king in his own right of a far-off land took his faerie queen to wife. Never did they spend a single sunset or a single sunrise apart for the rest of their days.”
    “That was lovely.” She laid her head on his shoulder. “And so is this.”
    “It’s my place. Or so I thought of it when I was a boy and would come clambering up here to look out at the world and dream of where I’d go in it.”
    “Where did you want to go?”
    “Everywhere.” He turned his face into her hair and thought that now, here was everywhere enough for him. But for her, it was different. “Where do you want to go, Jude?”
    “I don’t know. I’ve never really thought about it.”
    “Think now, then.” He shifted her, then settled down with her on a rock. “Of all the places there are, what do you want to see?”
    “Venice.” She didn’t know where that had come from, and laughed at herself to realize it had been in her mind ready to pop out. “I think I’d like to see Venice with its wonderful buildings and grand cathedrals and mysterious canals. And the wine country in France, all those acres of vineyards with grapes ripening, the old farmhouses and gardens. And England. London, of course, for the museums, the history, but the countryside more. Cornwall, the hills and the cliffs, to breathe the air where Arthur was born.”
    No tropical islands and baking beaches or exotic ports of call for his Jude Frances now, Aidan noted. It was romance and again tradition with the hint of legend that she wanted.
    “None of those places is so very far from where we’re sitting now. Why don’t you come away with me, Jude, and we’ll see them?”
    “Oh, sure, we’ll just fly off to Venice tonight and wend our way back through France and England.”
    “Well, now, tonight might be a bit of a problem, but the rest is what I had in mind. Would you mind waiting till September?”
    “What are you talking about?”
    A honeymoon was what he nearly said, but he thought it best to be cautious for the time being. “About you coming away with me.” He had