Time Will Tell

Time Will Tell - Part 22

“But what if you are?” he whispered urgently.

“I don’t know how to answer that.” She sat up, clearly flustered. “What are you getting at?”

“There are ways to prevent conception, but we’ve done none of them. So, it is possible that you could be carrying my babe right now, correct,” he asked, meeting her gaze.

“It’s a very slight possibility and if that happened, I’d cherish your child more than life itself. You have to know that.”

“Maybe so, but if you’ve conceived, what about the child? What are you going to say when he or she asks about me?” He couldn’t stem the intensity of his feelings from showing in his expression.

Libby inhaled sharply, eyeing him thoughtfully. “Colin, exactly what are you saying?”

“Marry me, Libby. Stay with me for as long as we have left as my wife. I want no bastards hanging over my head in the future. When you go back, there is no way I’ll know whether my seed took or not. If you marry me, I’ll at least be assured that I have honored my responsibilities. I want my child to know that I cared enough to give you both my name, even though I’m back in the past.”

~

Libby stared at Colin, open-jawed. The man just kept surprising her. Never in her life had she expected him to offer marriage. She closed her eyes, wishing she wasn’t using birth control and thinking about what he wanted. God help her, but more than anything, she wanted it too.

“Can we do that here, so quickly?”

“Yes, we only need a judge. I’ve a friend who can do it without delay. It won’t be a church ceremony. That would require several weeks’ wait for the banns to be announced. I don’t think we have that long.” Libby was still speechless, and after a long delay, Colin said, “We can keep it secret, except for Gus and Berta—and a few others. But we can be together without shame. I dislike sneaking around.”

She eyed him warily. “What happens when I go home? I mean, if we marry?”

“You go home, and I stay here, but you’ll have my name. That’s what will happen.”

“Will you consider yourself married?”

“Of course I’ll consider myself married,” Colin said indignantly.

“I don’t know about this.” Libby shook her head, knowing she was adding fuel to a fire that could easily grow out of control. “I love you enough to want you to be happy and that means finding someone to love after I’m gone.” It broke her heart to say it and it hurt too much to think of it happening, but she had to set him free. “Will you do that?”

“Without a crystal ball, I don’t know how I’ll feel,” he said. “Just know that if it’s possible for me to find someone else, I will, but don’t make it a requirement.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I should ask the same of you, but to be quite honest, the thought of you in some other man’s arms while I can’t have you leaves me hollow. Still, I do want you to be happy. In your time I’ll be dead, so you’ll in fact be a widow,” he admitted tersely. “And free to remarry.”

Libby put a hand to his lips. “Don’t say that. I don’t want to think that kind of thoughts.”

“Then marry me. Make me the happiest man in the world.”

Blinking back tears, she swallowed hard. “But it won’t be forever.”

“None of us knows how long we have. Please, Libby. It will rest my fears. I can’t live with myself—with the thought of you going into the world without knowing that I cared enough to give you my name.”