Living the Promise: Chapter Two

Diana felt as if she were exploring an unkown Garden of Eden --hardly lush and green, but breathtakingly beautiful nonetheless, withits rocky mantle of primeval wonder. Vincent seemed to know everyturn in the stream, every challenging boulder in their path.

Since the trail was a narrow one, more often than not, they wereforced to walk it in single file instead of side by side, but Dianawas content to let her husband lead and she follow: She'd beenwilling to follow him to the ends of the earth, it already seemed, intheir past, turmoil-riddled days, with only guilt and fear and denialawaiting them at every turn. Now, their journey's end literallypromised so much more that was warm and welcome and intimatelytheirs.

That promising warmth and gifting closeness was accentuated toDiana with their every moment shared. The surefooted way Vincentpicked his route over stones and around outcrops of rock, the swayingrhythm of his cloak over his powerful body, the sheltering,possessive, graceful reach of his arm back to her that instinctivelyhelped her over rough stretches of terrain -- these all left Dianafeeling as if she'd been transported to some mythic land of hergrandmother's Celtic fables, and was now being proudly led through itby its mysterious and bewitchingly compelling guardian.

The stream was becoming narrower and more swiftly flowing as theymade their way along, and the burnishing light was less capable ofbrightening their path. On a widened, dry stretch of gravel thatmarked a width the stream reached only in times of flooding rain,Vincent eased the backpack he carried slung over one shoulder down tothe ground, next to a large rock. "We can rest for a while here," heexplained. Diana settled down beside the rock and relinquished herown pack.

"How far have we come?" she asked, mentally calculating thedistance they might have covered.

Vincent took his canteen and hers over with him to the edge of thewater, filling them both again. "In a direct line, about three miles,but we've probably covered more than five, actually."

Offering her a drink of the sparkling, icy water, he sat besideher then, to quietly revel at how at home Diana's ethereal featuresmade her seem here in this seldom-visited corner of his world. Shecould have been some half-imagined nature sprite that had justmaterialized from the burnished light and and flowing water aroundthem. Feeling the marvelous wonder of their surroundings, too, Dianaclosed her eyes and took a deep breath, throwing her head back untilit reached his shoulder for support. He wrapped his arms about herinstantly, never feeling less than blessed by the feeling of herslender form in his arms.

"You aren't too tired, are you, Diana?" The soft tones ofVincent's voice betrayed concern, even though he knew they'd kept toan easy, leisurely pace, taking time to observe and immersethemselves in every impossible wonder that was revealed to them ontheir journey so far. He knew that his wife was in excellent physicalhealth, although her leg occasionally still gave her problems withbouts of pain. But the concern did not stem from the lingeringeffects of her injuries in the flood. It sprang from an equallyimpossible wonder that Vincent was aware of -- the knowledge thatDiana was carrying their child.

"No, I'm fine," Diana responded comfortably, nestling herselfcloser to the power of his sheltering body. His enfolding armsbrought the fullness of his cloak to sweep deliciously over her,always fragrant with candleflame, leather, wool, and the unmistakablepresence of his own heart-quickening essence.

"This is a wondrous place," she continued contentedly, slippingeasily into the welcome gifts of the naturally beautiful environmentthey were sharing. And of the blessed opportunity they finally had tosimply rejoice in one another's nearness. They could have beensuspended in an entirely different plane of existence from the wholerest of the world at the moment, as far as Diana was concerned.

Still, curiosity got the better of her after a short period ofdreamy repose. Somewhere above them, at least she thought so, lay ateeming metropolis that had once almost swallowed up her soul in itsconfounding perils of the spirit.

"Where would we be, if we were right Above, now?" she asked.

Vincent considered for a moment, following Diana's train ofthought gratefully: The peace and wonder they were sharing laybeneath a sea of struggling and sometimes dream-deprived humanity. "Ibelieve if we were to walk another half a block, we'd probably beable to turn into the Metropolitan."

The unexpected reply caused Diana to sit upright in Vincent'sarms, a look of surprise brightening her face. "You're kidding! Thatis amazing."

A gentle nod of his head was Vincent's confirmation. Diana restedback against him with an amused sigh. It did seem to fit, thecontradictory but so truthful place in the universal scheme of thingsthey were now encompassed by: She and Vincent were hundreds of feetbelow ground, simply reveling in the incredulous, natural wonder ofsheer, awesome creation. Above them, others were reveling in thecreative wonder of sheer natural talent of another kind.

Vincent would have used some place like the art museum, too, as asignpost of their journey -- a place of beauty showcasing thepossibilities of creative spirits left to soar freely. Anyone else inthe world Above would have been prone to zeroing in on the traffic,noise, and crowds to gauge a journey's progress.

"How on earth did you ever find these places, Vincent?" Dianacontinued with marvelling interest.

"The river's course has been pretty well mapped for years. Severalmen of our community had already explored most of its course evenbefore I was born, but its inaccessibility has kept it as a place ofwild and untouched beauty even within our own world, a place ofsolace and contemplation for anyone who would venture this far."

Though the tones of Vincent's voice were even and softlyremarkable, Diana thought she caught an undercurrent of memory thattinged his observations with a shade of past pain. She recalled he'dcome here to these cliffs and stones when she had become strandedafter the flood. On the anniversary of Catherine's death. He'd beenso in need of solace then, and she so heartbreakingly incapable ofoffering it to him. A sudden painful pang caused Diana's heart tolurch -- Perhaps the reason he was so familiar with the stark beautyof this place was because he'd had to banish himself to it too oftenas he struggled with the anguish that had plagued his existence.

That heartbreaking thought seemed to be confirmed to her whenDiana caught sight of a sudden clouding that darkened the blue depthsof her husband's soul-baring eyes. But he fought with that visiblywrenching memory for only a moment before he was blessedly able toset it back into its own place within his heart. Diana reached herhand up to his cheek. He turned his cleft lips into her palm andkissed it, gratefully, knowing that he had been right in bringing herhere with him this way at this point in time.

Taking her slender fingers into his, Vincent helped her to herfeet. "If you are rested enough, we should go on. We've about anotherhour's traveling, and that will soon be in the dark. The river turnsaway from this cavern and into much smaller passageways we'll belighting only with our lanterns.

"It sounds amazing," Diana responded, feeling very much, now, thattheir hearts would be able to light their way as easily as theirlanterns. The return of the sustaining warmth of

Vincent's spirit reaching out to hers told her that they'd neveragain need to endure a loss of hope they couldn't find their waythrough, together.

From a niche in the rock wall she had only now noticed, Vincentreached a lantern out to her from a store of equipment and suppliesthat was obviously a frequented stopping point along the river'scourse. No longer a journey through pain and tears, their continuedexcursion promised only gifting welcome and long-sought intimacy.

Even though the stream had narrowed considerably at this point inits channel, the sound of the flowing current was becoming louder,filling the now restricted cavern with a rumbling vibration. Whenthey cleared a final turn in their path right up against the river'sedge, the reason for the disproportionate sound became evident.

A second stream, half again as wide, was joining the waters, itsjuncture, the impossible site of a waterfall, dropping from about 50feet above them from the sheer rock face of the cavern cliffsopposite them. The falls reached the lower stream in a bed of fallenboulders, and cold spray spattered heavily across the trail Vincentand Diana were approaching from.

"I'm afraid we are going to get wet here. We need to follow thelower channel up ahead where it turns off. Stay up against the cliffas much as you can so you don't slip."

Diana listened intently to Vincent's directions over the mountingroar of the falls. The sight before her was inconceivable -- theycould have been at the foot of a waterfall in the Rockies, instead ofin the heart of New York City.

As Vincent had pointed out, the footing was a bit precarious overthe rocky edge trail now soaked from the flying spray, but Dianawasn't in the least apprehensive. Vincent had swept his arms abouther, shielding her with his cloak, keeping her closely against thecliffs of the cavern sides as they made their way along about 20yards further up the trail.

Suddenly, to their left, the cliff wall opened up into a lowpassageway that became the lower stream's pathway, cut out of thesheer rock. Their own path widened out again, onto a flat stone ledgethat paralleled the streambed into the dark.

"We can stop here for a while and get dried off. I'll build afire." Vincent pulled his cloak free of his shoulders and Diana's,spreading it over the stone floor of the ledge to dry.

Disappearing a moment into a dark crevice in the wall, he returnedwith a bundle of firewood that had obviously been carefully stored toremain dry. Within a few moments, they were sitting beside a small,warm fire.

"A geologist would have a field day down here," Diana commentedappreciatively, taking in the compelling surroundings.

"Jeffrey has the makings of one. He was identifying all the rocksand formations on our way down here the other day, though I didn'tbring the children this far. The Crystal Cavern is off on a tangentseries of tunnels closer to home, though deeper."

"I feel as though I'm exploring the world at the very beginning oftime."

A gentle smile crossed Vincent's face, and he let his hand slideover the smooth surface of the rock wall behind them. "It has taken ascore of milleniums to carve out this world for us. It is a wonder.Irresistible forces meeting immovable objects."

Without warning, a soft blush colored mythic features that weretotally in their element within the primal forces of nature. Theenchanting glow was not lost on Diana.

"I never knew geology was something that could make you blush,Vincent."

A bright radiance reached out to touch her loving soul withtenderness, enfusing the very cavern walls with warmth andexpectancy. So different from the emotions these dark labyrinths hadso often resounded with in the past.

"It wasn't exactly geology as much as physics that I was thinkingabout," came the slightly bemused confession. When it was obviousthat his wife would require a complete explanation, Vincentcontinued.

"Father told me the day of our wedding that he saw the two of usas just that type of natural phenomenom: An irresistible forcemeeting an immovable object."

Diana let a bright smile light her face before she graced herhusband with a sweet kiss that promised more forces of nature soon tobe at work between them. Then, when she pulled reluctantly away fromhis easily possessive embrace, she teased, "We both know who theimmovable object was, don't we?"

"Not always so immovable, my love," came the unexpected andwelcomed reply, as Diana felt herself being swept gently to the stonefloor beneath them in a beguiling captivity of powerful, shelteringarms, and warm, insistent lips. God, she'd never believed they couldbe so free to hold each other's hearts -- and each other's needs.

A sputtering ember from the fire brought their attention back onlya breath from the warmly inviting nearness of beloved bodies. Vincentreleased his willing captive with some effort, and pulled her back upfrom the ground.

"It would probably be best if we ate something now here where westill don't need the lanterns." Though the cold supper William hadpacked them wasn't exactly what Diana hungered for at the moment, sheagreed. Besides, they had until Sunday to share in each other'spresence. She could wait. The anticipation was just as sweet as thefulfillment, she'd come to know. And she'd not need to live alifetime on a single touch.

For a few moments, their time was spent quietly enjoying thesandwiches and fruit that they had brought along for their firstmeal, from the bounty of the Midsummer festival picnic. Then, whenthey were done with their portions, Vincent got up from the fire andsearched once again through the darkened crevice which had shelteredtheir wood fuel. He returned with two relatively straight sticks.

"What are those for?" Diana asked immediately. The fire wasburning down, and their dampened clothing was already nearly dry.

"You will have to show me," came the reply she wasn't certain sheunderstood. But, after Vincent had retrieved a small plasticcontainer from his backpack of supplies and handed it to her opened,Diana laughed out loud, throwing her arms around her beloved's neckwith joyful abandon.

"I don't believe you did this!" Incredulous brightness coloreddelicate features that Vincent would hold in his heart till his finalbreath. It took so little to give her so much joy, he saw, feelingincredibly blessed to be able to offer her even that little now.

The small container carefully held six or seven marshmallows,about a dozen graham cracker halves and four or five square pieces ofbaking chocolate -- almost the makings of Diana's childhood campfiretreat -- s'mores.

"William promised he'd try to find the proper chocolate, as heremembered making some mores when he was a boy, too. On short notice,all the had available, though, was from his baking supplies."

Diana was suddenly as close to the verge of tears as she was tosurprised laughter. To think that Vincent had gone to so much troubleto give them the opportunity to share something she remembered withfondness from her home Above. She was suddenly overwhelmed by thesweet generosity of it all.

"Thank you, Vincent. This is just wonderful of you to do."

The deep green eyes were tender and acknowledging. Vincent blessedheaven that he could be the recipient of such merciful sweetnessagain in his life.

"Now, I need your instruction in this endeavor, Diana." Thegentle, teasing words were more than just a request for guidance onthe intricacies of campfire cooking. They were very much a projectionof the reason he had asked her to join him in this journey in thefirst place -- to acknowledge to her just how far he'd been capableof coming through his dark loss and into the wonder of life nurturedby the tender guidance of her gentle, sustaining hand.

"Well, it's not that complicated, really," she offered with asmile. "All you have to do is get the marshmallow to stay on thestick and then be able to toast it without burning, althought somepeople like them burned. I don't. Here, let's try it. The fire'sperfect."

With expert Girl Scout training, Dian skewered the marshmallowsonto the sticks provided and then handed one to Vincent.

"Hold it over the embers there and watch it closely. This will beeasy. The real challenge is when the fire is roaring: There's no wayto keep the marshmallow from burning to ash then!"

In a matter of seconds, the gooey white puffs were delicatelytoasted. "I believe mine is ready." Vincent held his stick up forDiana's inspection.

"Perfect," she approved. Then she handed her bemused husband agraham cracker half and a chocolate square. "Now, pull themarshmallow off the stick between these and you are almost done."

Vincent followed his directions carefully, although most of hisattention was focused on the delighted face of his wife following hisprogress. He could almost see a young Diana within her laughing eyes,sharing happy times with cousins on summer break.

Although he was being as careful as he could in removing thetoasted marshmallow from the stick, Vincent wasn't quite repared forhow tacky it had become and how tenaciously it clung to the stick,despite his best efforts to retrieve it. He was more used tomarshmallows floating in Jacob's hot chocolate benignly. When thesticky puff in question finally came free with a bit of an extra tug,he nearly lost it back into the fire. A quick maneuver with thechocolate caught it, however, and Diana praised the outstandingrescue efforts.

When she gave Vincent the second cracker half, though, so that hemight complete the sandwiched treat, the entire thing ended upcrumbling to pieces in his hands, through no fault of his own. Thebaking chocolate was thicker than any regular candy bar and made foran overstuffed surface for the crackers to contain.

"You are certain that this is something children are capable ofconcocting?"

Diana smiled in sympathy. "Making extra ones because others havebroken is half the fun. You get to eat the whole ones and the pieces,too." With little effort, Diana constructed another treat and handedit to her husband. "You can have mine. I'll take the pieces."

"I can see why William gave us extra ingredients!"

For several long, spirit-soaring moments, the scene, far below thestreets of New York, could have been taken from a time-suspendeddepiction of young soulmates revelling in the promise of campfiresand sweet treats, both offered, and stolen, with free andsoul-nurturing tenderness.

Chocolate and marshmallows would never again taste as sublime aswhen they were enticingly lifted from love-warmed lips andshared.

About a quarter of an hour into the darkened course of the river,Vincent called Diana over towards a smaller tunnel that opened offthe main passageway. Lit only by their lanterns, the new route wasnarrow and low, leading further into the stone recesses of theirenvironment.

"You aren't claustrophoic, are you, Diana?" Vincent's voice aheadof her was only partly in jest.

"No, I'm all right. This is unbelievable in here."

Truly, what their lights shone upon was another wonderfilledscene. The sound of dripping water echoed around them, givingevidence to the natural forces at work. There were dozens ofstalagtites and stalagmites filling the narrow channel they walked.Given a few million years, it too would become a great cavern with ariver running through it on its mysterious course through time.

Around another bend in the trail, Vincent came to a halt andsettled down to his knees. He reached back to guide Diana over to hisside in the close confines. "Can you still hear the water drippingahead of us?" he asked her. When she responded that she did, he sethis lantern off to one side, throwing them into near darkness. "Iwill show you another marvel of this place, but you will need to leanover my arm to see it. Can you manage?"

Diana set her body closely to Vincent's in the tight quarters andlet him reach across her with his strong arm.

"Lean out as far as you can," he instructed, and when she did so,she found she was nearly suspended over a much larger opening in thestone wall just in front of her. Though she was almost in totaldarkness, she could feel herself not exactly anchored to anything ofsubstance beyond the stone floor under her knees and Vincent's armacross her ribs. She swallowed, but knew he would never expose her toany peril.

Her husband marveled at her instantly evident trust in him, and inhis hold about her body. She'd never let that trust waver, not fromthe first moments she'd laid eyes on him. Whatever had he done socompletely right and worthy in his life to have earned such a blessedgift? he wondered to himself now with joy.

Slowly, Vincent let the pool of illumination from his lantern fillthe space before them. Diana gasped and pulled back up against herhusband's side, but only for a reassuring instant, because she wantedto get another look at what she was being shown with so much patientcare.

"Good God! That must be as deep the Abyss!"

What Diana found herself looking into just before her was a great,unfathomable schism in the rock surfaces, bristling with glisteningformations far, far, below them. An unbroken surface of dark waterleading into that bottomless vault rested just inches from where theywere kneeling. It appeared that with a few more steps, they couldhave been propelled into the gash. Diana took in her fill of thesight, then eased back from the edge to the concrete security of herhusband's body.

"I don't suppose it has ever crossed your mind that it could bedangerous stumbling about down here in the dark," came herdefensively humorous scolding. But her trust never swayed. Vincentread her courage as surely as he read her love within her spirit. Itwas remarkable that he could feel so happy to be able to find himselfagain amongst these stone walls . . . with her unshakable devotion athis side.

"We are in no danger, Diana. Come and take a closer look and seewhy."

Something about the bemused way he was addressing her told Dianathat all probably was not as it seemed. It wouldn't have been thefirst time she'd had to face up to that fact where her husband wasconcerned, she conceded in generous understanding. Vincent's steadyhand helping her back to the sight was strong and sheltering, asalways.

"How deep do you believe that chasm is?" he asked her with somepatience.

"I'm going to say, endless, but from the look on your face, it isprobably not."

Vincent set his lantern down right before her and let her seeclearly what he was doing. He never could keep his secrets from herfor long, and he blessed heaven for that happy revelation to him.Carefully, he broke the surface of the water before him with hishand, reaching, apparently as far down into the fault as it would go.The water barely came up over his fingers and to his wrist.

"What?" came the perplexed observation.

"Look up this time and not down."

When she leaned against Vincent's arm once again, Diana followedhis urging and peered upwards into the chasm -- and understood thatwas the direction the rock actually opened into: Mere inches of waterin a little channel before them was really only reflecting the heightof the cut in the stone, hung with stalagtites from the high reachesof the ceiling above. The entire experience was an opticalillusion.

"I hope I didn't frighten you, Diana, but I thought you'd be ableto appreciate the sight.

"That is simply remarkable! It's all in your point of view . . . abottomless chasm or only a reflection." The softly wondrousobservation told Vincent his wife had seen the marvelous illusionjust as he himself had understood it.

"Sometimes a thing that is frightening is only a distortion ofwhat actually stands before us. We only need to have someone show usthe truth and our new perspective can become a marvelous, giftingvantage point, revealing so much beauty we'd been afraid to seebefore."

Vincent was speaking about more than simply the miraculous geologyof their present surroundings, Diana knew. She reached a soft kiss toher husband's lips, acknowledging his quiet wonder with their love asher own.

Her eyes now well used to the brightness of lantern light barelypushing back the surrounding dark, Diana was surprised to note thatthe small cavern they were at present walking through remainedsomewhat more illuminated. She could see why when she came up besideVincent who'd been several steps ahead of her: They had come to theend of the riverbank trail inside an actual cave.

The stream continued to flow quietly beyond the rock ledge theywere walking on into the darkness ahead of them. But their own pathcame to a halt up against a smooth stone wall jutting out in front ofthem and completely to the water's edge. It formed a sort of halfback wall to the passage, and their lantern light bounced off it tosoftly brighten the entire cavern.

"This is where we will make camp." Vincent set down his light andpack and slipped his cloak from his shoulders. With her light, Dianasaw that there were several well-bundled objects set up against theside stone wall, along with a number of piles of neatly stackedfirewood. A half dozen stubs of candles were also scattered about thespace, tucked into small, naturally formed niches and nicks in thewall.

Reaching over to one bundle, Vincent pulled two thick, frequentlypatched wool blankets he spread over the stone ledge near the wall.From another pack that was in the store of supplies, he pulled outsome cooking utensils, retrieving a bent-bottomed metal tea pot,blackened from flame, which he carried over to a fire circle ofstones about ten feet away from the blankets.

"I'll make us some tea. The fire will give us some light. We'llneed to put out the lanterns to conserve fuel."

"Tea sounds great." Diana came to rest onto the thick blankets andeased her pack from off her shoulders. She felt that her sweatshirtjacket was damp, which was surprising to her. Even though it had beenrelatively warm in the home tunnels, in these far chambers the airhad been cool. A bit of a mist unexpectedly hovered over the surfaceof the stream, and the environment within this small cave seemedwarmer and more humid than she'd expected it to be. Another climacticwhim of this indescribable world, she thought, as she unzipped herjacket as well and drew it off.

The climate didn't seem to be the only thing acting willfully atthe moment, she conceded, as she watched Vincent set about startingthe fire. Stretching her legs out

before her on the blanket, Diana was greeted by the familiartwinge of pain her injured one signalled her with when it was aboutto give her some sustained trouble. Luckily, she realized they hadcome to the end of their journey just before her limb had decided toreally act up.

Even though they had taken their time traveling, she understoodhow Vincent was capable of being in the physical condition he was in-- the distance and terrain they'd covered would be a worthychallenge to any athlete in training. She looked forward to a welldeserved rest, but, as she watched the lantern light and the slowlyenlarging fire play over the mythical figure of her husbandbewitchingly, she prayed her own stamina would hold out a bit longerthis evening. They'd waited too long for this special timetogether.

Once the fire was well underway, Vincent set the tea kettle toboil with a practiced hand, and came over to sit closely besideDiana, watching the flames with her in quiet, total contentment.

"I hope this hasn't been too difficult on you," came the gentlewords, accentuated by a beguiling rhythm of his large hands acrossher back and over her shoulders that was sweetly hypnotic in thepresence of the flames before them.

"No, Vincent, it has been wonderful. Thank you so much forthinking of bringing me here."

"We can rest tonight and then tomorrow I will take you on further.There is a place up ahead, a passageway that leads off from the riverhere, that shows some evidence of ancient encampment. There must havebeen some opening accessible to the world Above at some time that hasbeen lost." The quiet wonder in her husband's voice made Dianasmile.

"Whoever might have made his way down here must have thought thathe'd found the center of the earth."

"I still feel that way about this place."

Diana leaned easily against Vincent's body. Pulling her onto hislap to let her rest against his chest, he brought his hands to rubgently over her scarred leg. He hadn't missed how tentatively she hadstretched it out beforehand. The delicious relaxation she felt in herlimb with her husband's firm, tender touch soon radiated itselfthrough Diana's entire body.

"You keep that up, my love, and I will be asleep in about fiveminutes."

A soft smile graced her in response. "That is fine with me, Diana.I brought you here so that you might have some time just to driftaway, if that is what you wished."

With a mischevious look in her emerald eyes, Diana pulled herselfmomentarily back from the encompassing languid surrender her body wasslipping easily into. "Is that all you brought me here for then?" Aslender, long-fingered hand reached easily into the opened neck ofVincent's muslin shirt and brushed a tremor of sheer pleasure throughhis body.

Caught momentarily off guard by the rush of heat that passedinstantly between them, a sweetly confused consternation came acrosshis mythic features that was totally endearing to her, as were thewords he chided her with. "Diana, for a young woman who was broughtup in a strict, moral environment, you astound me sometimes!"

Reaching a gentle kiss to his cheek, Diana smiled in questionablereassurance. "My upbringing was no more strict than yours, and lookwhere you've brought me -- unchaperoned -- the center of theearth!"

Only the tea kettle whistling kept more fervant examples of theirargued points from being made.

Vincent came to the fire and pulled the kettle out, blessingheaven at the wonderfilled emotions that were now radiating withinthe small cavern so deep within the heart of his world. For too long,only pain and anguish had resounded within the stones here.

Pouring the water, then, over tea bags in two china cups he hadcarefully wrapped in towels to bring down for the trip, Vincenthanded a steaming serving to Diana. She couldn't resist commenting."S'mores. Tea. China cups. I have never been so pampered on a campoutin my life."

The shy gratitude that radiated from her husband's face touchedDiana instantly to her very soul. "You deserve to be pampered. Theseare just very small acknowledgements of all I owe you, Diana, and ofhow much I love you."

Setting her steeping cup carefully down, Diana ran her fingers upthrough Vincent's thick golden hair and pulled him closely to her,gifting him with a promise-sharing kiss. "All you owe me is thechance to offer you my love to the last breath of my existence."

He kept her close to his heart, needing so very much to put towords the feelings he held there at the moment, the ones that hadurged him to return to the stark beauty of this place with her besidehim.

"I've come here so many times because I found myself overwhelmedwith pain and sorrow. I knew, somehow, that only these barely chartedreaches of stone and darkness could possibly contain the anguish andloss I've carried within me so often through my life. Thesemagnificent places of God's own construction became for me onlyfortified storehouses of my deepest desolation."

Diana wasn't certain exactly why Vincent felt the need to touch tothe memories of his past soul-numbing pain with her now, and for amoment, she was afraid that the overwhelming power of his loss andhis struggles had only been temporarily set aside with theirmarriage. She felt the tears beginning to rise into her eyes andrested a suddenly unsteady hand onto her unborn child defensively,protecting it from the threat of remembered turmoil anddesperation.

But, the blaze of love that reached out to her from his heartlifted her spirit from the momentary anxiety with powerfulconviction.

Vincent let his unhuman hand brush over her lips, across her cheekin reassurance. "Don't be afraid, Diana. We haven't been deceived inour love," he whispered softly as he caressed her mouth with his own."I only wished to help you understand how precious you are to me,what it is you have truly been able to do for me, how your love hassustained me, even when I could only flee to these far-off reaches ofmy world in lonely pain."

Raising her hand up to his face, he kissed the palm, then pressedit to his cheek with tender, grateful wonder. "When I was last downhere alone, with my pain and torment threatening to completely engulfmy soul, I found my way back to hope and promise because of you. Ifelt you touch my soul, bear up my heart, with a tender patience astangible and real as holding you now here in my arms is."

Letting his own touch run over her braided hair, Vincent gentlyleft another kiss on Diana's forehead. Her heart was racing withechoing, exquisite, tenderness.

"You reached beyond my pain and found me down here, even amongthese stone walls, as surely as if you had accompanied meyourself."

Diana gazed deeply into the dark pools of his azure eyes and apang of remembrace explained to her what he was attempting to put towords. She recalled, with such still

heart-numbing pain, that anguish-shrouded night of which he wasspeaking -- the first anniversary of Catherine's death -- that hadbeen marked with so much desolation when she'd been strandedBelow.

In her chamber, fearful, and feeling terribly alone herself, shehad attempted to comfort little Jacob through a spirit-besiegingstruggle that was actually his father's pain. The desperation inVincent's heart then had been so encompassing that it had evenchanneled itself to the child's little soul, through their bondedspirits.

She would have given her own soul to ease their pain that night.Instead, all Diana had been able to do was pray, pray that her lovecould reach both of them somehow and bring them back from the depths.She'd sat gently rocking the child, easing him back to comfort,peace, and sleep, in her arms, letting her care as well as her tearspour over him as she softly sang him a lullaby to love.

But, what was it that her husband was trying to explain to hernow, about that horrific night? "You felt me reach out to you, downhere, then?" The hesitant inquiry was both awestruck and yet,suddenly, unexpectedly, certain.

"'Remember me to one who lives there . . . She was once a truelove of mine.'"

The familiar lines of a song-now-turned-poem took hold of Diana'sheart. With the hushed tones of Vincent's voice repeating her ownwords, she felt the tears run down her cheeks, easily, unchecked."You knew how much I longed to comfort you, how I prayed to be ableto be with you and ease your pain?"

A beyond human hand softly wiped tears from a porcelain cheek."You were with me, my love." Vincent breathed a heartstopping kissonto the curling tendrils of amber hair at her temple. "You were soclose to me I could even smell the lavender in your hair. The warmthof your heart brought my spirit back to life, helped me believe thatlove could touch me again."

Diana had to close her eyes for the wellspring of emotionovercoming her, recalling how deeply she'd felt herself beingimmersed within his soul that night. She'd prayed that she could holdhim close to her heart, let her love wash over his pain-weariedspirit, just as she had let his little child take comfort from hernearness and total, committed devotion. She'd prayed that he could,somehow, take hold of the strength and courage and hope a true andyearning love would offer him. Not once, though, had she believed hewould let her hold his pain as her own.

Diana drifted into Vincent's embrace with abandoned wonder,holding to his powerful body that she had sensed had been so batteredby the anguish he carried within him that night. His words to hernow, though, only spoke of hope reborn.

"I realized, at last, that the black pit that had become my life,my fear of falling into its bottomless darkness, was not the onlyreality that I'd need gaze into. The trust and hope of your love thatnight showed me there could be more of life for me, that I had beengiving myself over, in desperation, only to a reflection that couldshow me nothing but fear and threat and pain, a reflection that Icould only agonizingly endure, never transcend.

"You showed me how to look in a different direction for a newtruth reaching out to my life." Vincent cupped his hand softly aroundthe fragile, tear-stained cheek of the woman he treasured as hissoulmate. "To be loved like that, Diana . . . to feel you love melike

that . . . taking on my pain as your own . . . I could only havedreamed of such a love."

The sound of those soul-baring words, now gifting, acknowledgingher, filled Diana with the sweetest peace she could ever hope toimagine for herself.

"I wanted you to know that now, my love. I wanted you to know thatI could come down here now with you actually at my side and sharethis place with you as the wonderfilled mystery of beauty it trulyis. I can at last see this place as a marvel of creation. It nolonger needs to be only the farthest reaches of my world, a placewhose sole purpose of existence had been only to store up mydesolation. Just as you filled my heart with hope, I want to fillthis place with the revelations of love and promise I can carry nowso willingly within soul."

Diana turned her face into the beloved hand that held it as acherished gift. She never once doubted how blessed she'd been to havetaken on Vincent's anguish as her own, nearly three years ago. Andnow, that anguish had surely been turned to joy, hope-sustaining joy,between them.

She gave herself over to the man she loved as her own soul withouthesitation, drawing his entwining essence to her in a hungry,searching kiss he took to heart instantly. Tears mixed with gratitudeand relief, soft laughter with freely embraced need. Diana guided adeadly, loving hand down along the slim curves of her body to restsurely on the khaki fabric of her pants, below her waist. Her wordswere both filled with that joyful, cherishing hope, as well astenderly enkindled yearning.

"Then let me give you the first sweet new revelation you canshelter in this place, Vincent." A soft wash of gentle color tingedher opalescent skin, and a deep, undeniably beautiful rush of emotionlit the honest depths of her eyes with wonder. She drew her husband'sother arm round about her so that she was surrounded by his strength,shielded, protected, and gifted by it.

"When you take me into your arms, my love, you are no longerholding me alone . . .

You are holding our child . . . I'm pregnant with our baby,Vincent . . . You're going to be a father again."

Turning in his embrace so that she could fully face him, Dianafelt the tears well up into her eyes again at the sight of herhusband's, trailing over sculpted cheekbones, falling from eyes thatshimmered with breathtaking emotion. The hand that rested on herabdomen

stroked gently over the fabric covering her, in a tender caressthat stopped her heart. She threw her arms around his neck then,speechless at the love she felt pouring into her very soul fromhis.

"Oh, Diana . . . I never dreamed . . . never believed . . . OhGod, how I love you! . . .

Thank you, my angel . . . thank you . . . "

Their tears mingling on their cheeks pressed together, Dianakissed her way across his unique features, to the cleft lips thatwere doing the same to her with such sweet, cherishing awe. They heldeach other close, her hands luxuriating in the dense fall of hisgolden hair, his running softly over her back, over every beloved,memorized curve of her. There was as much wonder, gratitude, awe,tenderness, and need binding their spirit together at that instant asthey could ever have imagined. "I love you so, too, Vincent. You knowhow much I do. I couldn't begin to tell you."

"There could have been no more marvelous reality to bring to thisplace and share together, my sweetest angel."

Vincent's face was radiating a warmth and tender hope that hiswife had only dreamed of seeing resting itself over features too longpained and tried. That morning, Mary had been able to read thewondrous news now revealed in a mother's gently shimmering joy. Shehad also urged Diana to let Vincent experience that marvel from thatvery moment. The matriarch of the tunnel community had been so right,Diana conceded now, gratefully. She truly believed the bright, tenderwonder on her husband's face could have stood as the ultimate exampleof a father's awestruck acceptance of heaven's blessings in life. Andthe feeling of sweet, cherished, hope that it left her with was agift for her in itself, too.

Drawing back from the tenderly possessive embrace that held her,Diana felt the radiating brightness within her turn her tears ofwonder into the warmth of love. A sudden look of beloved chastisementfilled her emerald eyes with teasing accusation. "Tell me you didn'tknow already what I was going to say to you."

Vincent pulled himself away from the bewitching enticement thather nearness always drew him into. He kissed her on the forehead,suddenly aware that the need they endured at present encompassed morethan simply time to share their wondrous news with each other. Thechallenge in his beloved wife's manner carried a touch of thatawareness, too, he was quick to note.

"I wasn't exactly certain . . . you held the wonder to yourself inyour heart with such awesome disbelief . . . but when I felt thatyou'd accepted the possibility with so much joy, I wanted to let youtell me yourself." An unearthly hand encompassed a long, slender onewith sweet devotion. And the barest trace of his own challenging,accepting certainty tinged profound azure eyes bright in their ownwonder. "But, you also must have guessed that I knew."

Diana let a warm glow of remembered tenderness light her heart ather husband's words. "You don't honestly believe I could easily sleepthrough your touch, my love?"

With a guilty smile, Vincent gathered Diana so close to him inpowerful, sheltering arms. For a long moment, the two of them simplydrifted within the comforting, awesome wonder of love embodied thatnow bound them to one another as never before. Diana could never haveimagined the happiness that filled her. She could hear her husband'sheart beating strongly and true beneath her ear as she rested herhead on his chest. A tangible circle of sheltering hope reached herfrom that reality. She felt the warmth of his breath in her hair ashe kissed her gently among the beloved amber.

"Even if I was aware of what was happening, Diana, just hearingyou speak the words to me, hearing you say what you did to me, thatyou are with child, carrying our child . . . I

can't seem to gather enough of that reality within me . . . it istoo . . . encompassing . . . a gift."

The soft, deep tones of his voice in her hair, the sweet,cherishing touch of his hand upon her, echoed so very much thatsensation he was describing to her: It was too great a joy to put towords. After all the pain, guilt, fear and hesitation they'd had toendure, to find themselves sharing such an awesome reality of lovewas like a glimpse of heaven itself. She couldn't have imaginedhaving had any other reaction to the miracle, witnessing any otherresponse from her beloved.

"I know what you're feeling, Vincent. It took me the longest timeto believe it, too. I don't think it all actually became real until Itold Mary this morning. Or actually, she guessed it." A shy smilecrossed ethereal features. "She said I was carrying 'the radiance ofheaven' in my eyes and that it had to be caused by more than simplyyour tenderness."

"Mary, as always, was right."

Vincent brushed a few stray locks of her hair back off from herface with sweet care, then drew his otherwordly hand over herporcelain features with cherishing tenderness. "You have given mesuch a gift, Diana, here today. Let me share one with you, too. Giveme your hand."

Responding with warm interest to her husband's request, Dianaoffered him her hand. He kissed its palm sweetly, then set itcarefully onto the wash-softened fabric of his shirt, over his heart,holding it there. He let his other hand return to rest lightly acrossher waist where she had first set it.

Diana was fascinated by the tender intensity in his mythicfeatures. "Now, empty your mind totally, my love, of everythingaround us. Listen only with your heart. Open it up to mine."

The certainty of his instruction, that he could believe hercapable of doing what he asked, sent a wave of grateful joy throughher. In the past, her startlingly powerful, intuitive ability hadonly linked her awareness to pain, death, and madness. Now,instinctively, she realized her husband was enabling her to touchthose capabilities to something as awesomely wonderful as her ownrevelation to him.

Diana closed her eyes, focusing her sensitive essence to the lovethat was radiating over her. It was so encompassing, that shelter,that her attempt to tune her spirit into it totally was effortless.She could actually feel herself wiping away the sound of the stream'sslow current from her awareness, the feel of the cool breezes againsther face. After a moment she no longer even heard the crackling ofthe fire. She could only feel Vincent's heart throbbing with asustained, reassuring rhythm beneath her hand, the deep, even riseand fall of his chest that marked his breathing.

After only an instant, remarkably, those beloved sensationsactually channeled themselves from outside of her own experience toflow directly within her own awareness, her own body. She could hearhis heart now, feel it, beating in time with her own. A wondroussweep of enveloping shelter blanketed her spirit at the evidence oftheir mystically united souls.

For a long moment, Diana held to the sensation of Vincent's heartbeating within her own, aware of the imensity of his emotionsrevealed to her at that instant, as she had been on their weddingnight. The intense tide of awe, tenderness, need, marvel and hopeheld her transfixed, warming her to the depths of her soul.

But, there was unexpectedly even something more to the intertwinedsensations she was experiencing, though Diana wasn't at first certainwhat it was she was picking up on, hearing, or more correctly,feeling, within her. Several shared heartbeats passed between thembefore she recognized the perception her awareness had settled itselfupon: Another rhythm, very soft and faint, much quicker as well, thathad joined their own hearts, joined, but remained, somehow, totallydistinct. She opened her gentle eyes wide with wonder, then, and sawher husband looking down upon her with equal awe and tender care.

"Oh my God! It's the baby's heart, Vincent, isn't it? You can hearit."

"Yes, it is our child," came the soft reply.

Diana let the tiny, miraculous sound fill her own heart forseveral long, blessed moments. The wonder of that revelation to herbrought a feeling of encompassing bliss and sweetness that overflowedher spirit. She couldn't believe what she was experiencing, yet hadabsolutely no doubt whatever that her husband's love had made itpossible for her to touch.

Drawing her hand, then, carefully, tenderly, from her husband'schest, she reached it up to his cheek. "Thank you," she breathed withall the love in her own being. Her response was a gifted, radiantsmile, and a beguiling kiss that lit a gently-embered fire withinher.

After another moment adrift in the wondrous sensations of theirwelcomed nearness, Diana asked, "Have you said anything to Jacobyet?"

Vincent shook his head, resuming his comforting touch over hertired limbs. "I wanted us to be able to tell him together."

"How do you think he'll react?" came the quiet inquiry, as Diananever wished to cause the beloved child any confusion or anxiety.Vincent smiled down at her in reassurance.

"For one thing, he will be relieved, I'm certain. He's beenworried that you might be ill, because you've been sleeping morelately."

Diana was deeply touched at the thought that the little boy mightbe anxious for her. She thought that his quiet closeness to her inpast days might have signalled something at work within the sweetchild's heart.

"I hope he'll be happy for us all."

Vincent lifted his wife's gaze up to his own with a gentle hand."He can read our hearts, too, Diana, the joy that is within usbecause of this gift. I don't believe he'll accept this revelationwith anything less than promise and joy, as well." With a bit of amischevious sparkle in his eyes, however, he couldn't keep fromadding a bit more to his observation to his wife. "Though, thatdoesn't necessarily mean there will never be any sibling conflictbetween them."

Diana took the admonishment to heart easily, the many instances oflaughter and tears she'd shared with her own sister readily called tomind. And she seemed to recall experiences of conflict Father had lether become privy to between two young boys each with their own uniquecharacteristics of heart. "I hope I can be a good mother to themboth. I could never imagine how my mother raised my sister and me andremained sane, with what we put her through!"

Vincent touched a tender kiss to warm lips with easy reassurance."Diana, you are already a wondrously caring mother. There is no doubtin my mind that you will remain so, even with two children tonurture."

The quiet confidence of that statement sent a bright certainty ofjoy into Diana's heart. She let herself melt into the warmth of thelove enfolding her, as well as the tender touch that was releasingher tired muscles from the effects of their long hike.

Vincent didn't miss the welcome acceptance she was giving hiscareful ministrations to her. He was happy beyond words to be able tooffer her even the most minute evidences of his devotion to her. "Youare certain you're not overly tired?" The concerned inquirybrightened Diana's spirit even further, though she was a bit worriedthat her husband might find himself living the next six months inconstant anxiety about her state of health. She quickly sought torelieve his worry.

"No, I'm fine, really. And I'm certain the baby is fine, too. Assoon as we get back, I'll have Father give me a complete check up.Mary and I knew there was no way that Father would be able to keepanything from you if I were to have gone to him before. Could youhave seen him trying to pretend he didn't know anything until I gotthe chance to tell you myself?"

The thought of his beloved, usually so supremely composed parentattempting to keep such news to himself suddenly conjured up animpossible scenario within Vincent's mind. No, the dear gentlemanwould have fairly burst with the news, every bit of devotion that heheld for both his mythical son and the amber-haired angel that washis daughter-in-law ready to shout the wonder from one end of thetunnel world to the other as evidence of the providential power oflove accepted.

"I believe that you probably saved him from an episode of cardiacarrest by waiting to tell him," came the brightly amused reply. Butthen, the words turned serious and cautious with vigilant care. "Butyou must make certain that he gives you a thorough exam, Diana, andyou must be ready to follow his instruction on taking care ofyourself, especially now."

The quietly urging instruction caught at Diana's heart with theirprotective shelter. She immediately sought to reassure her beloved."Don't worry, Vincent. I'll take good care of myself. We've anotherlittle life here to think about now. But, I don't want you to beafraid for either of us. You're a doctor's son; you should knowbetter than anyone else that just because I'm pregnant I've not nowsuddenly become made of glass."

Strong arms held her closely to his heart, and the words whisperedfrom the depths of his love for her echoed her own to him on theirwedding night. "I couldn't live if I were to lose you. Either ofyou."

For an instant, Diana was fearful that her anxious uncertaintiesvoiced to Mary earlier that day had come to pass -- that goingthrough the waiting time of their pregnancy would bring Vincent asmuch pain as it could joy, because of his experiences withCatherine's loss. But then Diana realized that his words to herechoed only a fear every new father carried within the depths oftheir souls. She brought a tender kiss to his lips in comfort,reassuring herself as well.

A moment later, her husband resumed his gifting, healing touch onher leg, and Diana let herself sink into the tenderness of thefeeling. A welcomed warmth, and ease of movement returned to her, andthe mother-to-be soon found that Mary's admonishment to her would bea gift as well -- "Don't be afraid to need him . . . Let him be yourhusband in this." That gift would easily reach far beyond only thetreasured care and solicitious devotion of a husband for his pregnantwife. Diana sank back into Vincent's arms luxuriously, reveling atthe freedom in his heart as he offered her his attention.

"Does your leg feel better?" The shy inquiry was innocentlyexpectant. He was still so amazed that he could do anything for herthat could bring her the tiniest bit of comfort in heart, mind, orbody. Diana would hold that poignant uncertainty within the verydepths of her soul.

"It's much better, but don't you dare stop what you are doing."The playful instruction was drawn from a delicious freedom of her ownbuilding deliberately through her entire body at her husband's tendertouch. Far from helping her ease into drowsy comfort, the feeling hadbegun lifting her senses to a wondrous state of expectation.

Not exactly certain whether or not her concerned husband wouldfeel himself as free to respond to that expectation as she was, Dianasimply let a sigh of pure contentment escape her. "I would love tojust let myself melt into your touch right now. I don't need a singleother thing, except maybe a three hour soak in a warm tub. But, sincethat isn't going to happen down here, I'm just fine, thank you."

The deep tones of his laughter resounded warmly around them, andDiana was amazed to realize that his comforting touch on her weariedlimb was wandering, the gentle stroking drawing itself up over herknee and thigh, past the curve of her hip, to her ribs and along herspine. She leaned her head back against his shoulder, and suddenlyfound his lips at her throat.

"I don't know about three hours in a tub, but you might find a bitof similar comfort here after all. You can go for a swim." The wordswere as seductively inviting as she ever expected to hear from him,yet the reality of their circumstances and present environment drewher up out of his tender embrace in disbelief.

"In the river? Down here? You can't be serious!"

The brightly amused blue eyes of her husband hinted at somethinghe wasn't telling her.

"Why don't you go over and test the water? You might besurprised," came the quietly challenging words that piqued hercuriosity, but not far enough into belief.

"I can hardly stand the water in the river chasm at home where itis actually almost warmed by the light. What makes you think I wouldenjoy an icy plunge here?"

"If you put your hand in the water, Diana, and stop arguing withme long enough, you might let me pleasantly surprise you!"

The abundantly offended words completely surprised her, even ifshe was certain the temperature of the water would not. But, scoreone point for the unexpected exasperation the new father was enduringat the moment, for it elicited the action he required of her: Dianameekly stepped over to the edge of the rock ledge that formed theboundary to the stream and tentatively eased her fingers down to thewater level, steeling herself for the cold shock she was certainshe'd feel. Vincent laughed out loud at her hesitancy.

"Diana, it is only water you are placing your hand within, not theMouth of Truth!"

Adequately acquainted with her Roman mythology, Diana had to smileat her husband's words despite herself. The Mouth of Truth he'dreferred to was an ancient indicator of a person's moral character.If one were to be caught in a lie, when that person's hand was placedwithin the opening of the venerable stone carving, it would bepainfully held captive by its jaws, as evidence of the untruthspoken. Obviously, few people would be willing to reach their handsinto such dark, threatening depths freely.

Knowing she was in no danger of being painfully caught in a lienow, Diana simply did not want to lose the beautiful warmth thatnestling in Vincent's arms had lit within her, because of herunwilling contact with an icy stream. Still, always ready to tacklean obstacle head on, she closed her eyes and plunged her hand intothe water, certain of its effect.

She was shocked.

But not by icy tingles of cold.

"The water's as warm as bath water!" she exclaimed, amazed. "But,how?"

Vincent came over to her side, still smiling at her consternation.He'd managed to keep his secret from her, at least this once, hethought with easy warmth filling his spirit. Happily he explained thephenomenom to her. "There are several small hot springs that feedinto the stream up ahead. The water is actually scalding there, butby the time the current reaches here, it has cooled enough to bequite comfortable."

"My love, you are astounding! This place is amazing!"

Without even a second thought, Diana sat down onto the stone floorof the cave and pulled off her heavy hiking boots and socks. Rollingboth pant legs up above her knees, she eagerly let her feet and legsdangle into the warm stream. "It feels wonderful! Thank you!"

An easy smile graced Vincent's exotic features, and a gentle joyfilled his heart. He was so happy to be able to offer the wondroussoul that was his wife these so small evidences of his care exactlybecause she was so totally appreciative of them. He fully believed,had he been able to walk alongside her on a Caribbean beach in fullsummer sun, she would not have been half as ecstatic as she was atthis moment over a bit of warm water he'd been able to direct her towithin his world.

"You don't need to limit yourself simply to wading, Diana. You cango completely in. It isn't very deep, probably only up to yourshoulders in mid-channel. The sides slope gently and the bottom issandy with little current."

"Can I really?" The words were a little girl's. So was thegrammar. Vincent couldn't resist.

"Yes, you may. I've brought some towels along."

"But I don't have anything to wear for swimming," came theautomatic reply, yet the sudden rush of heat through her at the lookher husband dared give her spoke in an instant the fact that thatparticular little detail didn't even have to be addressed.

She was further assured when her husband softly noted, "We arealone here, Diana," without his gaze leaving sight of her.

Still, he was surprised by her own further reaction when she'dfound her voice. Placing a gentle kiss onto her hair and turning toretrieve the towels for her use back at their supplies, he wassuddenly held in check by an endearing touch.

"Will you come in with me?"

Vincent was unprepared for the sudden leap his heart took at thequietly promising invitation in those words. He'd read Diana's needfor time to immerse themselves once again in the compelling,comforting depths of their physical expressions of love, without thelittle frustrations and details of day-to-day living intruding timeand again. Still, he had thought that his own encompassing need toshelter her protectively in her present state of health would havesomehow tempered a bit the enticing thrill the nearness of herobviously expectant body swept through him.

From the moment that they'd consumated their marriage, he had toldhimself he would do all he could to gift her in his love freely andwith joy. It appeared, now, that his wife had made herself a similarvow where he was concerned. They'd taken this precious time to sharemore intimately in the gifting wonder of their love.

This time Diana read every breath of his heart in Vincent'swondrously aching blue eyes. "Let me build up the fire a bit. Eventhough the water is warm, the air currents are still brisk here.You'll be cold when we get out."

"I'll wait," came her nearly breathless reply, echoing the belovedfreedom of the unburdened humanity they shared between them.

She watched patiently as her husband carefully enlarged theircampfire so that it would continue to heat the small caverncomfortably for some time. With the flames and shadows playing overhis indescribably arresting features, Diana felt as though she trulyhad been magically transported to a mythic fairy tale of legend, thatshe was waiting for Oberon himself to turn his attention back toher.

Her heart was beating with a quickened rhythm in expectation,almost as it had their very first night together. At that compellingmoment, their wondrous, exquisite completion to their love had beensurrounded by the tender awe and near disbelief of their shylyneedful hearts and the astounding reality of beloved, but unfamiliarbodies reaching for breathless union.

The subsequent necessary contraints on their private momentsduring the past three months had forced them into abbreviated but noless gifting interludes of shared need. They'd found themselves ableto reach a heartening communion with a single gentle caress. Theycould touch to a blessed, shared peace as they lay in each other'sarms simply listening to little Jacob's even breath sounding in theirchamber in the early morning hours of a new day.

Somehow, Diana sensed a completely different, delightfullyoverwhelming aspect to their time together now -- the bewitchingenticements of being experienced lovers with the trust, time, andfreedom to gift their relationship with simple, human wonder andcherished, welcomed pleasure in each other. And far from enforcing acautious reticence in their physical reactions to one another'sbeguilingly dear presence, her present condition seemed to accentuateall that was compellingly human, physical, and natural in theirlove.

Smiling to herself at the hope of things to come, Diana chose toheed her breathless heart, succumbing to the powerful enticement oftheir sensual longings. She pulled her legs momentarily out of thewater, to slip her trousers down her slim hips. An instant later, shehad her legs back in the water as before, but they were completelyfree of interrupting constraints.

Vincent felt an insistent heat surround him that had absolutelynothing to do with his present task of fire tending. It cameunerringly at him from Diana's heart, with blessed, accurate aim, andhe was amazed to find himself so willingly caught up within it,despite his innate caution as to his beloved's present state.

With gentle wonder, he recognized, too, an unexpected flustereduncertainty that also hovered about her essence within him, asensation that caught Vincent's breathing with sweet tenderness: Shewas actually fighting a complex battle within herself, he realized,pitting the still-hesitant, tenuous endearment of a school girlanxiously expecting her first kiss, against the scorching seductivepower of a beautiful, compelling, enigma of a woman totally unawareof how heart-stoppingly wondrous, body and soul, she truly was.

Diana never ceased to amaze him.

In generous patience, Vincent let his wife have an extra moment tocenter her colliding expectations in private before he rejoined herbeside the stream, carrying several towels.

During that instant, he noted, with a bit of a start, that she wasnow dressed only in her long, ribbed henly shirt. Her legs, hanginginto the water, were bare, completely bare.

The long, strong, slender legs of a colt: It was the only way hecould possibly describe them, as he took in their beguiling state,free of all constraints, that rushed a surge of electricity throughhis powerful body. Apparently, Diana's seductive intentions had wonout over her more innocent expectations. Either way, Vincent knew,suddenly, he would come to cherish this evening with giftingremembrance.

Coming to sit closely behind his wife, he set his large handsgently to her shoulders, kneading them carefully, helping melt awaythe weight of the backpack she'd carried for the past several hours.She leaned easily into his body with confidant familiarity.

The humidity in the cave had already found its way into her auburnhair, pulling stray stands from her braid, curling them easily abouther face . . . and releasing the fragrance of lavender resting therefrom the simple soaps she'd easily become accustomed to using in theUnderworld.

The innocent aroma lit a captivating interlude of pure sensualmagnetism between them. Once, Vincent had been left shamefullyguilt-ridden by a so natural and enticing mystery, by wondering whereelse beside her hair the gentle fragrance might linger. He'd longsince found out, with welcome, first-hand knowledge.

Diana straightened up from his supporting body to reach back atemperature-raising kiss to his tender, cleft lips, feeling theyearning need in his touch. Her searching caress within his mouthsent a shudder through his body, that was always amazed at theaccepting desire she so willingly urged over him. Yet, Vincent lethis protective instincts surface between them, hoping to keep atenuous, still briefly balanced hold on their mounting, aching need.The bit of silent self-urging drew him to unbutton his shirt,reaching for a mind-clearing moment.

Quietly, he explained his restraint. "You'd better let me get infirst. It can become rather slippery on the rocks."

Diana accepted his vigilance for her safety, but she would not beleft bereft of her one, singular, joyous objective of the moment:With a firm hand, she caught hold of both her husband's unearthlyones as he worked to release the buttons on his muslin shirt. Thethought that he was ready to remove that shirt so easily within hersight was another sparking catalyst to the heat drawing them bothinexorably onward to the entwining fulfillment they both sought.

He hadn't even been able to take off his shirt before her on theirwedding night. Now the thought of what he was doing hadn't evenaparently stirred his consciousness, beyond the fact that the garmentwas an obstacle between the compelling planes of his chest and thesilky, soft curves of her own.

The crystaline clarity of her emerald eyes blazed acutely withinVincent's own senses. "Uh, uh. That is my job, my love," Dianaadmonished him as she worked the buttons free on his shirt. When hertask was completed, she pulled the muslin free of his jeans withcertainty . . .

. . . And immediately set about searing a path of desire with hermoist, parted lips across his flesh, stroking her fingers through thewealth of golden curls on his chest, kissing her way from the pulseat his throat, to his ribs, to the sensitive power of his musclesabove his waist . . .

Any hope of a purely sheltering exhange between them evaporated inthe heat of their fusing desires.

Still, Vincent attempted to remain cautious. There was more tothink about now than simply their own needs. Pulling himself soreluctantly from the mounting ache to meld her bewitching bodyinstantly to his own, he was startled at the forceful yearning of hersensual

tenderness. Shakily he confessed to her, "Diana, you keep that upand I will be anything but asleep in five minutes."

Looking only mildy reprimanded, the red-haired fairy he'd linkedhis heart to withdrew her attentions with great, long-sufferingpatience. Vincent set a soft kiss to her temple with a generoussmile, amazed that the awe-inspiring seductress that was having herway with the vast majority of his control was actually his wife, whohappened to be several months pregnant. He came to his feet behindher and stripped unselfconsciously.

A moment later, he was in the water, its level restingprovocatively at his hips, flames and stream accentuating every tautmuscle and powerful expanse of beloved, familiar flesh beforeher.

It did nothing to sensibly chill the heat between them. So beit.

Vincent stepped within her reach, then brought a confident hand toher braid that had come to rest over her left shoulder. He freed herhair with a practiced touch, raking his long fingers through it withwelcome pleasure. Though he cherished watching her braid it in themornings, it became an erotic delight he willingly lost himself in asoften as possible when the cloud of amber silk was left free to sweepover her shoulders. At present, it was alight with the colors of thefire in the cavern.

Diana reached down to the hem of her own shirt, then, intent onrelieving herself of its confinement as quickly as humanly possible,needing, without question, to feel her skin pressed intimately upagainst her husband's. She found herself, instead, momentarily stayedin her efforts by love-gifting hands and a heart-stumbling wellspringof erotic acknowledgement in compelling azure eyes.

"'Turn about is fair play', Diana. I believe that is my job, now."Without the slightest breath of past turmoil or denied humanity,Vincent evenly, languidly pulled the soft ribbed shirt up over hiswife's exquisite body.

His heart clamored at the sight of her, as it always did, as italways would.

She hadn't worn anything else under her henly shirt, not even thecomfortable, simple cotton camisoles she preferred as an underlayerto her clothing.

The unexpected reality of finding her so completely revealed tohis sight just then caught Vincent momentarily off guard. Both hisflagging discipline over his own body and his natural, ingrainedmodesty even in the heated exchange of their lovemaking, were quicklyunder besieging assault.

"Vincent, you're blushing," Diana pointed out to him for a secondtime that evening, the gentle, teasing words speaking of the sweettenderness she felt rising within her at her husband's reaction toher sensual delights. To reduce her mythic figure of a companion toboyish dismay was too endearing for her heart to hold onto alone. Itleapt with overwhelming joy to include Vincent's own spirit.

"I had . . . expected you . . . to be wearing . . . somethingelse," came the preciously stumbling explanation from her normallyelegantly articulate love.

Diana raised her fingers to her husband's lips with gentleexplanation. "I thought you could use a surprise or two yourself, mylove. Just because I'm going to be a mother doesn't mean I have tostop being a wife -- or lover." She leaned down to Vincent and gracedhis breathless, irresistible study of her with an empassioned kisspromising delights unimaginable.

Stunned by the erotic assurance of those words, Vincent had tomomentarily close his eyes to steady the surging throb of hisheartbeat. The gifting truth of those words rang through his body assurely as they echoed within his mind, and he was astounded as to howreadily he accepted that truth from her.

Reaching deadly, gifting hands on either side of her still slenderwaist, Vincent eased Diana carefully off the ledge, slipping herslowly into the warm water with him, letting his hands support heruntil she touched the streambed with her feet. To be certain that shedidn't become chilled in the cool air circulating round about them,he led her a few more steps into deeper water, the flame-splashedsurface of the stream becoming a mesmerizing backdrop to theirtotally attuned desires.

Holding her close for a long moment, bewitched by the heady sightof her ripening body in the wild freedom of their stoney environment,Vincent still couldn't quite bring himself to accept the firestorm ofpassionate need gaining power within him. The sublime figure beforehim was carrying, nurturing their child, after all. Diana was bothtoo compellingly, sensually beautiful, and too blessedly, arrestinglymaternal at that moment in his mind and heart.

She read the hesitation in his touch as easily as she tookbreathless note of the overwhelming hunger in his eyes.

"It's all right. I won't break, remember?" The quiet words, andthe aching sweetness in her face nearly convinced him.

"But the baby . . . our child . . . I could hurt you . . . "

"Vincent, the baby is safe. And it's perfectly natural for ahusband and wife to love, even when she's pregnant. We'll only haveto be more cautious later on."

Reaching below the water, Diana gently took up her husband's handagain and set it onto her breast as she had done their first nighttogether. "It won't be any different than what we've already beensharing," she continued to softly urge. "Remember, I've been pregnantfor a while, my love, probably since our wedding night. We haven'texactly slept in separate beds since then . . . and I've been feelingfine . . . nothing's been amiss."

The always heartstopping feeling of her tender flesh beneath hishands drew him to accept Diana's assurances, in spite of his stillhesitant care. "Yes, Diana, I understand" he whispered softly to her,suddenly unable to resist the sight of her bewitching beauty beforehim, "but we didn't actually know for certain between us until now.It was never within my mind so clearly until now."

"So think of this, then, Vincent." The emotion-tinged tone of hervoice sent a wave of trembling comprehension through him. "When youcaress me in love, you will also be acknowledging what we have beenblessed with -- the chance to nurture a new life born of that verylove. You'll be touching to the source of that life, what createdit."

The hesitant anxiety vanished from Vincent's heart at that, and helet the simple, powerfully liberating wonder of loving hiscontradictory bride, the mother of his children, set them both freeto revel in one another's astonishingly gifting presence.

It was only a moment before Vincent brought his intensely attunedattention to Diana's acutely expectant body, taking up the wonderthey'd both sought to share without constraints. He brushed his handover her full, tender breast, the rounded curve peaking just abovethe surface of the water. Diana drifted against him at the touch,their bodies holding, molding themselves to one another withwelcome.

He simply could not will himself to ignore the enticing siren callof her beloved form to his own, the sight of a now dusky-colorednipple slipping between his wet fingers too much for him to deny.Bending his golden-haired head down to her, Vincent pulled theremarkably compelling flesh into his mouth with sudden, uncontestedhunger, savoring its tender sensations as well as the pure, clearwater that washed around it. His long-fingered hands roamed freelyover her water-splashed skin, dipping beneath the surface to hold herintimately to him. Then his lips trailed back up her throat to claimher mouth, drawing her breath within him as his own.

Diana felt a current of scorching want race through every inch ofher body, that was hardly diminished because it was recognized. Shewas always astounded at what her beloved was capable of gifting herwith, in even his most cautiously tender attentions, and she realizedwhy he'd been hesitant to act upon his passionate need for her --their sensations of one another, always so fervant and intensebecause of their bonded spirits, now seemed magnified to a nearlyunbearably enflamed level this night, perhaps because of the wildfreedom of their surroundings and its echo within them.

Its reality was leaving even her breathless and easily spent, thewould-be seductress suddenly reduced to gasping helplessness.

Pulling a ragged breath into her lungs, Diana attempted to diffusetheir want a fraction as her husband had done as well, remindingherself that they did have a blessedly entire weekend ahead of themto indulge in such heady, gifting pleasures.

Vincent felt the searing fire within her settle back a tiny breathand relinquished his own too-aching homage to her body, for themoment. He raised his head back up to her, and when their guilty eyesmet, they both laughed quietly, wrapping each other in a welcome,sheltering embrace.

"It might have been easier on us both if this stream was still icycold." Diana's words caused her husband to rest his forehead gentlyagainst hers. He picked up her hand and kissed the fingertipssweetly.

"I had no idea how beautiful a mother's body could be." A powerfulhand brushed gently across tender, yielding skin beneath the water.Diana rested her head against his chest.

"You won't think that in a couple more months when I really beginto show. There'll be little beauty then. I'll just be fat andnauseous and cranky and demanding."

Vincent ran a wet hand up over her hair, then kissed it softly. "Ihardly believe you'll become any less bewitching, though, my dearestDiana. Besides," he added, as a conspicuous afterthought, "I'malready used to you being cranky and demanding. I'll survive fat andnauseous as well, no doubt."

His comments elicted her expected response -- Diana reached farinto the water with both her arms and began to splash her husbandwithout mercy. "Cranky and demanding, am I?"

Long golden hair, totally soaked, Vincent shook it out of hisface, then lunged at his assailant with determination. "They are yourown words, my love." After several other facefuls of water, Vincentmanaged to get hold of Diana's arms and pinned them behind her.

That was not the most innocuous method of handling theirsensitized experiences of one another. Her suddenly provocativelyvulnerable position threatened to re-ignite their flames beyondendurance this time. Vincent somehow drew his attention past theinviting sight of water beading up across Diana's skin and hereleased her, gently kissing her on the cheek. "Come, let's swim fora bit."

"I'm a little out of practice."

Actually, Diana was a lot out of practice. Swimming in the briskand pounding Atlantic never appealed much to her over the years, anddoing laps in the pool at the "Y" had been only an infrequentindulgence because of her past caseloads in her work. The last timeshe really recalled ever enjoying swimming as it should be was whenshe was nine or ten.

Her family had spent an idyllic week then at a lake upstate asguests of her father's partner on the force. She and her sisterMaureen, and Mike Santoni's three kids, had come out of the wateronly for the barest instances all that week, and because of only themost basic of reasons -- hunger and fatigue. It was a wonderful weekto be a kid, she remembered.

"Don't worry. I'll watch over you." Vincent's reassuring wordsbrightened her hesitant spirit. "You'll always be able to touchbottom if you need to." Stretching himself out into the water, hetook a few easy strokes and glided effortlessly across the width ofthe stream.

Diana followed, a bit anxiously, as much from that implanted voiceof parochial

conscience that told her she'd burn in hell for enjoying a swimwithout benefit of properly

modest attire, as from the fact that she couldn't remember thelast time she'd really done anything more strenuous in water thansoak her sweaters in the tub in her loft. But soon, she was able torelax and enjoy the rare treat as well, noting how her husbandwas

revelling in the experience they'd long been denied.

She did feel wondrous to be able to immerse herself, literally,into such a simple delight, and to be able to share it with the manshe loved. It felt so natural, suddenly, to be beside him like this,two uninhibited bodies, two unfettered souls, simply enjoying thebeauty of the environment about them. It truly echoed the completelyreborn sense of the place that Vincent had described, what he'dwanted to initiate with their presence among the primeval wonders inthis part of his world -- now no longer a stark and ungivingstorehouse of anguish, but a special source of joy and freedom to beshared.

They swam a half dozen long laps downstream until the water beganto lose its comfortable warmth away from the springs. Then, onanother pass, Vincent urged her

to follow him a bit further down into the cooling water. "Come andsee what is here, Diana," he called to her, an obvious delight in themarvels of his environment shining through the bright tones of hisvoice. His wife blessed heaven that he could find it so easy toexplore this place with her and delight in its natural gifts, thingsshe sensed he'd hardly had the opportunity to take note of wheneverhe'd been driven to these depths alone with his pain.

He stopped their further progress downstream at an area where thewater's channel was interrupted by a rough outcropping of the cavernwall opposite the ledge they'd followed as their trail. The stonedeviated the flow of the stream somewhat, causing a small poolingarea up against it. "What is it, Vincent?" Diana asked, intrigued atwhat he could want to be showing her.

Unexpectedly, he dove completely beneath the water, disappearingfor a moment, his

position relative to her only marked by the flowing gold of hishair under the surface. A moment later he broke the surface of thestream again, his hand closed carefully around something that heoffered out to her own.

Diana couldn't imagine what it was he wished to show her socarefully, her attention momentarily unwilling to leave the beguilingsight of him with his hair drawn completely off his unique featuresby the weight of the water it had soaked up. But then she realizedwhat it was he had given her -- a number of seashells, tiny ones,shimmering in the limited light of the cavern with their lovelyopalescence.

"There is an access to this stream from somewhere along the seaAbove. These shells would not have been found here unless they'd beenborne up from some current. The outcropping catches them."

Taking one of the shells carefully up into her fingers, Dianasmiled. "I've always loved seashells. I had a collection of them whenI was little. They were only all tossed into a canning jar on mydresser, ones I'd picked up on vacation in Massachusetts, some I gotfrom the Atlantic here, but I thought they were so special. I lovedtaking them out and sorting them and feeling how smooth theysometimes could be, inside."

Vincent's face radiated a true joy, at the thought that hisspontaneous gift to his beloved wife had been able to draw from hersuch an obviously welcomed memory. Kissing her on the cheek, he said,"Then you should start a new collection, with those. And there is oneother I think you'd like to see." Without a second thought, he wasback under the water. In the crystal clarity of the stream, Dianacould see him carefully reaching back to the outcropping of rock, hishand closing around something with immediate recognition.

When he came back up, she couldn't resist running her free handover his wet hair to smooth it back from his face. He smiled, themplaced what looked like a small stone into the palm of her otherhand, amongst the shells. "This one has been around for a bit longer,I think," he explained.

Diana turned the stone over, carefully, not wanting to lose thesmall gifts that had drawn such a delightful exchange between hermythic husband and herself. Then she understood the specialness ofhis last offering -- it was a seashell, too, albeit a stone one:

an exquisite fossil of a scallop-like shell.

"Vincent, this is marvelous. How on earth did it get there? Itcouldn't have been washed into the stream, too?"

"That one is from our world, here, Diana. That outcrop of stonehas a number of them embedded within it beneath the water line. Thecurrent of the stream occasionally frees one up."

Looking into her hand, Diana couldn't help but wonder at how thesmall tokens offered her by her loving husband seemed to mirror theirvery existences. The fragile beauty of the shells had been swept intoa place of darkness and been set to rest beside another like them,already held captive by the ages. With the passage of time thosesmall bits of the world Above would become rooted into the solid,solitary sureness of the stone, too.

"Do you think William has a canning jar he'd be willing to partwith?" she asked with sweet expectation.

"I think we'll be able to find one in the kitchen upon our return.We can ask him,"

came the reply, spoken with a soft smile.

Their way back to the area of the stream opposite their camp wasmade simply walking through the water, as Diana didn't want to risklosing her precious treasures.

Unexpectedly, she found that though the stream didn't appear toshow much of a current, she ended up expending enough of an effortlaboring against its flow to tire her out. The total aerobic workoutof swimming, on top of their long hike, was eroding her stamina morequickly than she would have admitted to.

Once opposite their campsite, Diana came to the ledge andcarefully set her shells onto the stone floor of the cave. Then sheturned to her husband and conceded her state to him with a bit ofembarassment. "Would you mind if I just soak for a while?"

Vincent smiled patiently at her. "As long as it is not going to befor three hours." Then he lead her a few dozen feet farther upstreamto where a wide ledge jutted out under the surface of the water, partof the wall that had stopped their own trail within the cave. Whenshe sat down upon that ledge, the water came up to Diana's shoulders,and she slid happily against the rock edge where she could lean backfor support.

"I'll take a few more laps, if that's all right." Her husbandcaressed her wet cheek, as she nodded, then turned to ease throughthe water past her.

Diana let the delicious warmth of the water encompass her. For afew long moments she almost thought she could surrender completely tothe luxuriant ease enveloping her and fall asleep where she was. Shesimply closed her eyes and let the wonder of her presentcircumstances sweep over her.

It truly was as if they'd stumbled upon a magical fairy land downhere in the center of the earth, she continued thinking. In allhonesty, her entire existence had taken on the fabric of legend, itseemed. Who would have possibly dreamed she'd be where she was at themoment, with the remarkable man she'd entwined her heart to?

The threads of destiny again.

Diana recalled how much pain it had cost Vincent to realize thathe would never be able to share the remotest portion of Catherine'sworld freely with her. Nor that he could ever bring himself tocondemn his first love, as he always saw it, to a starkly limitedexistence among the shadows of his own world.

With tender pain, Diana remembered that afternoon when he'd firstbrought her to the river when she'd been injured, carried heractually down the steep path to the water's edge. He'd confessed howhe'd ached to be able to grant Catherine one simple wish -- tofulfill her desire to have him share her special place in theConnecticut countryside with her -- to revel in the beauty of a lateautumn day with the sun sparkling on blazing leaves, and on the twoof them, freely walking the earth together.

Knowing he'd never share Catherine's world had slowly, butinsidiously, robbed Vincent of his own as well. Diana's heartconstricted at the memory. A place of wonder, and safety, for him,could never seem to compare.

"Oh, Cathy, whatever did you need to hang on to your life up therefor?" Diana asked silently within her heart at the thought. Samanthahad put it so eloquently, with such innocent pain to her when they'dbeen caught together in the flood: "I would have given up anything,everything, to be with the one I loved."

The words in her heart, directed at a murdered woman's spirit thatwould always seem to hover just out of sight of her own existence,echoed Diana's certainty with her own gifted hope. "You must haveknown he would never have asked you to join him here. He never reallybelieved you could be happy here, with him. Oh, but God, Cathy, whatgifts he had to offer you from this world, his world! There isbeauty, mystery, sheltering peace, and his love . . . living freelyand safely in these blessed rock chambers and tunnels."

Diana brought her thoughts back from the indecipherable twists offate of the past to the radiant reality of the present. She gentlycradled her arms about herself, with soft wonder at what she carriednow within her body -- new life, born of the promise she'd beenmiraculously blessed by. "I hope we'll be able to show you just howprecious a gift your are to us, my little one," she whispered softly."I hope we can help you, one day, find the courage to love someonespecial. And to be loved. Your father and I both did, and we'll haveyou to always remind us of it."

Watching her husband make his effortless way back and forththrough the water a bit further downstream from her, Diana let thepeaceful radiance that had filled her mind and heart drift its wayinto her body as well. Before even realizing it, she had half turnedback against the ledge she was leaning against, raising her arms upout of the water and onto the cave floor so that she could rest herhead on them. The warmth of her surroundings further diminished herenergy, and within a few moments she was asleep.

Vincent had taken his last few swimming laps underwater, admittingto himself that the small comfort he'd been able to offer Diana withtheir excursion had been equally welcome for himself, too. He feltreborn, an unexpected sense of wonder with his surroundings, longoverdue, spilling over into his heart with happy abandon.

Surfacing once again just opposite their campsite, he smoothed hishair off his face and took in Diana's form a few feet away. A tendersmile made its way over his unique features.

His wife, it appeared, had fallen asleep where she rested in thewater, her amber hair flowing over her folded arms where she'd sether head on the ledge of the cave floor. Vincent took a long momentto study her, an unmistakable tide of gratitude filling his very soulfor the sight he realized, with sweet awe, that was his ownsoulmate.

She could have been Miranda at rest from the tempest, or the Ladyof Shalott before she was doomed, or even Ariadne, long from enduringthe Minotaur's maze, those mythic ladies coming easily to his mindwith the help of an art history book Michael had brought down Belowfor the older children's classes. Vincent slowly approached thevision before him, not wanting to disturb her slumber, the memory ofsharing that book with his wife a few evenings ago in their chambervivid in his mind.

They'd stopped at the section that described Victorian-eraartists, romantics who'd created stunning depictions of legends andmyths with their ethereal, dramatically charged paintings. One suchartist, J.W. Waterhouse, had filled his visions of ancient epics withsublimely breathtaking models who embodied the spirits of theirstories with their fragile, other-worldly beauty. So many of them hadbeen auburn-haired, porcelain-skinnned, soulful-eyed nymphs thatcould have passed for Diana's own ancestry.

He'd always thought his wife was a fae spirit gracing his lifethrough some mercy of the Fates. With gracious, blushing modesty,Diana had accepted the complimentary observations sharing that bookwith her had prompted him to voice to her.

But, even beyond the sheer, tender beauty of her form that he wasstill astounded could possibly inhabit the same plane of existence ashe, Vincent treasure with such immeasurable thanks the spirit hislove seemed to share with those women of long ago -- honor in living,a strength of heart, a vision beyond that which is readily seen, thecourage to reach for love . . . or endure its pain.

The threads of destiny: His own life had seemed a tragic myth.

One love had been torn from his heart . . . but another hadreached into the very depths of his soul. The why's or how's of thatcompelling truth were beyond his understanding. Some things are meantto remain beyond understanding, he'd long ago learned, mysteries thattemper the spirit, draw the essence of a human heart to its ultimatereaches of desperation . . . and hope. One such mystery was, indeed,the love he cherished for the indescribable slip of humanity that washis wife. That he could ever have feared it, denied it, was nearyimpossible for him, now, to conceive.

Coming beside Diana softly, Vincent pulled himself up onto theledge she was sitting on. He slipped his arms around her evenlybreathing form and gently eased her head from where it lay, restingit against his chest instead.

She smiled, a quiet sigh coming from her lips, and for a moment hethought that she'd awaken, but their long trek, the warmth of thewater, and the fact that she was in the early stages of pregnancy,had finally drained her reserves of energy this night.

Vincent was ready to pull himself from out of the water, bearinghis sweet burden up into his arms and over to the fire that awaitedthem, but the spell of the moment had its way with his ownpracticality. "Rest, my enchantress," he whispered softly to her, anddrew her more comfortably into his embrace, a beguiling mix ofemotion filling his heart -- sweetly amused patience, tenderly aweddevotion, a gently building fire of his own expectant need. He'dbegun his day this morning cradling her in his arms as she slept,

and it would be his everlasting joy to renew that heartening tasknow, just as they were.

For a good twenty minutes, the only things that filled Vincent'smind were the happily reviewed experiences of the day, the morning intheir chamber, their spontaneous performance of Shakespeare for thechildren in Mary's room, the warm vibrance of the festivalactivities, and the even more comforting, and enticing moments he'dspent with his beloved here in the far limits of his world. "Oh,Diana," he addressed her within his heart,

"I have found the very center of my existence right here in thecenter of the earth, with you." A kiss to damp amber hair reinforcedhis silent exclamation.

A moment later that hair was brushing enticingly across his chestwhen Diana came awake. He held her slightly bewildered green eyeswith his own azure ones as she lifted her head from its restingplace.

"Are you a bit more rested, now?"

"Don't tell me I fell asleep?" came her more than confoundedinquiry. Her husband only smiled with gentle humor and raised herchin to hold her lips with his own.

"You were tired. We came a long distance."

"The water was so comforting . . . I just started thinking abouthow wonderful it was to be down here with you . . . "

Vincent ran his hand over her hair. "I told you I'd brought youhere to let you just drift away, if that was what you wished, mylove."

"Yes, well, I hope this doesn't mean I'm going to spend the nextsix months sleeping!"

"A woman with child needs her rest. Her body will take it wheneverit can."

Diana sat up a bit at the knowledgeable tone of her husband'svoice. "Since when are you so well-versed in the needs of a pregnantwoman?"

"I've learned a few things along the way, being a doctor's son andall."

The mother-to-be smiled infectiously at that, then let her bodyresume its appealing resting place on her husband's broad chest."Vincent, you never cease to amaze me."

"And you never cease to bewitch me."

A soft kiss was placed among the curling golden hair over hisheart, and a slender, tender hand stroked possessively through it.This time it was Vincent that felt himself slipping into thebeguiling ease of the moment. "Have you any idea how gifted my lifehas become with you in it?" he asked, with a breathtaking intensitythat belied his enlarging contentment with the moment.

Diana left another kiss onto his shoulder, then nestled againstit. "It couldn't be any more gifted than my own life in this place atthis very moment."

Raising her hand to his lips, Vincent let himself be furthercarried into the gratifying

marvel of their nearness:

"'Come away, O human child!

To the waters and the wild,

With a faery, hand in hand,

For the world's more full of weeping

than you can understand.'"

A cherished face that carried the tender beauty of a windsweptfairy land of old itself smiled at the words offered by her ownmythic companion. "I've left a world of tears behind, yes, mylove."

"You've given up more than tears to be here." The simpleobservation was quietly spoken in grateful acknowledgement.

"No, Vincent," his wife contradicted, with conviction. "I've lostnothing. You've given me everything I could ever long for." Deep,honest eyes opened easily into a spirit a peace.

Another tender kiss only paved the way for their now eagerlyreaching hearts. Vincent felt his quicken and entwine itself readilywith his wife's, without conflict, guilt, or turmoil. It was at homethere, sheltered and nurtured, within her devotion and desire. Thegreen eyes grew warm and sweetly enticing.

"Which fairy folk were supposed to live underground?" came asuddenly cryptic and tangent question from the ever more animatedbeauty in his arms. It was obvious that the few moments she'd spentasleep there had re-energized her spirit, not to mention her enticingform. "Was it the gnomes?"

Vincent looked deeply at the enigmatic features of Diana's lovelyface, and attempted to follow what she could possibly be leading upto with her query. He laughed softly. "I believe it was the gnomes,though the hobbits also inhabited Middle Earth. Whatever does thathave to do with anything?"

The teasing life suddenly lit in her face warned Vincent that hewas in trouble. She was in full control of her considerable sensesnow, and anything could happen, he knew.

"I was just wondering what sort of magical spirits we would be,living here like this. But, I'm not certain a gnome was what I washoping to become."

His soft laugh turned into a considerably more decided one. "Asmall, round elf wearing a peaked cap and guarding an undergroundwealth . . . no, that does not exactly describe you, Diana, mylove."

Letting herself melt in the strength of his embrace, Diana askedwith a suddenly sultry expectation, "Then, how would you describe me,Vincent? What sort of fairy folk would

I be?"

The barest trace of a mischevious smile remained on her husband'smouth when she pulled away from him to capture his response. Thatchallenge, too, in his eyes, spoke of a bit more allure than teasing,at the sudden thought of how irresistible his wife's confoundinglycompelling presence could become within a single, expectant heartbeatof time. "So often I've realized I've linked my destiny to aprecious, soul-lifting angel." A tender kiss to her cheek emphasizedhis words. "Normally, though, I'd need to say that my life is in thehands of a mercurial . . . imp."

About to protest the honest insult, Diana found herself at a lossfor words, literally, when her husband quickly pressed anember-flaring kiss to her parted lips. When they released one anotherto the sweeping power of their totally re-attuned desires, Vincenteagerly sought to complete his thought to her with hearteningcertainty. "Yet, at this moment, I feel as though I am none otherthan Hylas, being enchanted by the water nymph. You remember, mylove," came the tenderly urging instruction, "the Waterhouse paintingwe saw in the art book Michael brought us."

Diana held her husband's earnest, and sparkling description to herheart. She remembered, too, the book they'd shared a few days past,when they'd poured over the beautiful depictions of classic storieswith totally attuned awareness. The picture that Vincent was nowsingling out for her, quite unbelievably using as his response toher, was one that had mesmerized them both.

The story was one of Greek myth: Hylas was a companion ofHercules, and when the Argonauts stopped at a particular island intheir journeys, he had been sent ashore to look for water to drink.He found what he was looking for, a spring, but the water was guardedby nymphs who enchanted him to remain with them within their wateryhome.

The painting that brought the story to life for them both wasstriking in its imagery as well. Within a verdant spring lush withlilypads and blossoms, a group of waif-like beauties rested, longtresses flowing over their shoulders, the porcelain of their skinglowing, not all of it concealed by the darkness of the water.

Hylas was at the bank, stopped in the action of filling his watercontainer by what he sees, and what is reaching out to entice him tostay: Most of the nymphs were dipping their bodies beneath thesurface of the water, modestly, or covering themseles with lilyleaves or their hair. One, however, instead of shrinking away fromHylas' sight, actually was holding herself out of the water withoutshame, drawing his arm to her, a look of pure enticement, blushinglyentreating, on her face.

She could have been Diana.

Hylas was lost.

"'And all, that might his melting hart entise to her delights,

She unto him bewrayed:

The rest hid underneath, him more desirous made.'"

The tender blush on his wife's cheeks called to mind the powerful,evocatively sensual image of what Vincent's heart sought to describe."She was a naiad, born of the mysterious, shimmering beauty of theelement itself, the guardian spirit of life's wellspring, temptingher love to another existence beneath the flood."

Diana was exactly the innocently confident enchantress embodiedbefore him -- an ethereal creature of porcelain skin and entreatingeyes, the face of a Renaissance angel and the body of Aphrodite withchild.

She was also struck silent with the heartstopping description herlove had just graced her with, every fraction of the devotion he heldwithin the depths of his soul for her mirrored within the achingtenderness of his blue eyes. After a moment, she found her voice."You can't possibly truly see me like that."

Heat-trailing hands and lips eager to take their sustenance fromdelicate flesh swept her into the truth of her response.

"Do you doubt it for a minute, Diana?"

A radiant, shimmering brightness lit its way into the farthestreaches of her heart at the fervor of his reply. She had to resort toher defensive humor to keep the tears of wonder from filling hereyes. "I won't remain a nymph for long, you know," she pointed out."Will you still find me enchanting when I can't see my feet anylonger?"

Vincent gave his questioning wife a reassuring smile, drawing herinto his arms with easy confidence. "I will find you enchanting whenyou need me to help you put your shoes on . . . I will find youenchanting when we are up to our elbows in diapers . . . I will findyou enchanting when we are both admonishing our adolescent children .. . I will find you enchanting when your fiery hair becomes streakedwith grey . . . I will find you enchanting when I need you to help meput my shoes on!"

A sudden flash of green fire from her eyes lit Vincent's heart.Yet, with an innocent aire, Diana simply stated, "Just checking,"then proceeded to blaze her enflaming need across the tautly muscledexpanse of his body.

"Diana, you are an imp," came the startled description, as Vincentfelt himself belovely besieged by all manner of heated sensations,directed at him by his now hardly demure wife. Hylas didn't stand achance against such an assault, as he was reminded of one of the mainreasons they'd undertaken the journey here today -- their need for abit of concentrated freedom to share in the heartstopping wonder oftheir married love.

Long-fingered hands stroked surely across his sculpted chest,drifted below the water level and continued with powerful delightalong his hips and thighs. He pulled her closely to him, as much tofeel the marvel of her wet skin slipping bewitchingly along his ownas to keep her from propelling him completely beyond human endurancewith her insistently hunger-blazing touch. Sharing a ragged breath,they savored their incendiary need in an encompassing, compellingelixir of warm lips, yielding flesh, and fast-overwhelming trails ofsensitized desire that reached readily beyond both Greek mythologyand Victorian Romanticism.

Trembling with the suddenly rekindled force of their meldingpassions, they clung to one another for support a long moment. Whenhis heart finally settled back into a slightly more regular rhythm,Vincent whispered in tones that stirred her to the center of hersoul,

"I'll help you out in a minute." He stood up onto the submergedledge, then pulled himself free of the water.

Diana's heart had no chance to settle into a more stable rhythm asshe watched her husband dry himself off with one of the well-worntowels before the fire. He had to run the towel repeatedly over hislong, golden hair to wring it somewhat more dry, and she found thatintimate action powerfully sensuous to watch. The shadows of theflames licking over his arrestingly beautiful body immitated tooclosely what her own rising hunger urged her to discover anew.

Pulling the towel around his hips and anchoring it there, Vincentreached over to the dwindling fire and repositioned some of thestill-flaming wood so it would continue to burn well. Then he drewthe thick blankets strewn over the stone floor of the cave a bitcloser to the fire. Retrieving a large, old bath sheet, he returnedonce again to the stream's edge.

Throwing the towel across his left arm, Vincent reached his righthand down to Diana who was still seated on the ledge. She took it andeased herself carefully to her feet, then up onto the dry cave floor.Vincent swept the abundant width of the towel quickly around hershoulders, then gathered her into his arms, carrying her to theblankets and fire.

He settled her carefully onto one blanket, then drew the secondone round about her as well, over the towel. When he was assured thatshe'd be warm and comfortable, he took another small towel andproceeded to rub it through Diana's hair with enamored care.

She melted into the feeling of his stroking gentleness as heslowly wrung her heavy locks. They curled and twisted amongthemselves, glinting with the light of the fire. Vincent thought thelocks seemed alive with shimmering vitality in his hands.

Reluctantly, he left her momentarily, then, returning to thestream edge, to where they'd slipped out of their clothing. Hebrought back their garments, and the thick elastic band that had heldthe end of her hair. Before Diana could realize what he intended, herhusband had begun loosely braiding her hair for her. Her heartskipped a beat, as she was suddenly transported to their weddingnight in her thoughts.

"It will chill you if it is left loose . . . It is still ratherwet." Diana detected a hint of hesitant apology in his explanation,as though he should need to justify his actions. She only turned herhead to hold his gaze with aching tenderness.

"I know," she managed to quietly stammer out a reply. "My hairalways takes forever to dry."

The innocuous words did nothing to quell the sweet ache ofmounting need sweeping through them both. For a long moment emeraldeyes held sapphire ones, then Diana let the blanket round about hershoulders slide off . . . and Vincent reached an otherworldly hand upto the towel still wrapped around her form . . . and slowly drew itoff, too.

For an instant, Diana felt her pulse come to a halt. There was somuch compelling, intensely overflowing desire washed with sweet,hesitant astonishment, encompassing them each, that she knew it asthe only thing keeping body and soul together -- for them both.

Then, with gentle confidence, her husband pulled themuch-laundered softness of the towel across her skin.

With sweet concentration, Vincent soaked up the last of the waterbeading up over beloved, opalescent skin that reflected the flames ofthe fire nearby. The towel was caressed across supple shoulders, overbewitchingly full breasts, along slim, curved hips and strong, longlegs, in a sensuous devotion that drew with it Diana's aching needto

astonishing limits. In his own acute awareness, though, herhusband found that his tender ministrations to her had unexpectedlycarried with them momentary pain.

He'd been suddenly transported as well, but to that terrifyingnight when he'd almost lost his treasured soulmate to her agonizing,work-incited horrors. She'd been close to freezing in the snow; he'dfound himself forced to care for her fragile, precious body in aturmoil of heart that begged for release within hope and notheart-numbing loss.

At that moment of reckoning, he'd been helpless to keep fromthinking that his gentle tending to her needs should have been asweet prelude to their long, conflict-burdened path towards aconsumation of their love. He'd wept at the beautiful, threated sightof her in his arms, vulnerable, tormented, and yearned to transportthem to a tender moment of shared promise away from the madnesspursuing them both. How could he have ever dreamed then that they'dbe together like this, fulfilling that vision of compelling want in adevotion that had become familiar, blessed, welcomed reality betweenthem for months?

But, she was safe, now, they were safe, in each other's love.

He let his hands and lips follow the beguiling path across herenchanting form that the towel had taken a few moments before: warm,moist breath flowed over supple shoulders; otherworldly handstenderly kneaded bewitchingly full breasts; powerful, muscled thighsheld fast to slim, curved hips and strong, long legs.

When he felt the beloved flesh shudder beneath his touch, Vincentdrew his attentions momentarily back from their breathless reachacross her body, and instead sought out Diana's shirt that he'dbrought back from the stream edge along with his own clothes.Offering it to her, she, nonetheless, pushed it gently aside. "Idon't need it," she explained, knowing for a fact that her tremulousresponse of an instant before had nothing whatever to do with thecool environment of their surroundings.

"You'll get cold," came her husband's instinctively concernedreply now.

"I don't think either of us plans to do that."

With her own gentle conviction, Diana brushed her hands down thelength of his chest and across his abdomen, drawing a reflexive startfrom the rock hard muscles there. Vincent held his breath, not quitecertain he believed what he had read in her heart -- the acuteintensity of unburdened, uninhibited power of her love igniting amutual abandon of scorching heat within his own. Diana slipped herfingers beneath the edge of the towel he still wore and loosened itwith deliberate certainty, pulling it completely free of hisbody.

On their knees, they were in one another's instantly feveredembraces, giving themselves over to the heartstopping, welcome sweepof consuming, searing need, yet, each ached only to complete theother. Their sensitivity to one another's yearnings had lost none ofits focus, as their lovemaking had become more familiar to them overthe months:

It was still a body poem of trust translating into giftingphysical tenderness and passionate awareness of their devotion toeach other.

Vincent required little urging this time to rekindle his sensuousexploration of the ethereal, magical wonder that was his love. Hedrew his searching kisses from the fascinating sweetness of Diana'smouth, to the pounding pulse at the base of her throat and backagain, to the fully aroused contours of her pearl and burgundybreasts. Their tender, yielding fullness, both under his languidhand, and suckled, without turmoil, into his mouth, wasintoxicating.

Diana held him to her with ecstacy coursing through her veins,pulling her hands through the damp golden hair that veiled his faceand her body, unafraid to give herself to the consuming heat that wasovertaking the two of them breath by gasping breath.

"When the baby comes . . . there will be milk . . . for youboth."

The dusky tones of her voice, the promised, unexpectedly eroticgift she was willing to let him hold in his thoughts, the reality oftheir love free to encompass such long-forbidden fruits between them-- each pulse-arresting sensation drew Vincent's spirit deeper intothe flaming fusion of their bonding bodies, and ever-entwined souls.Without fear.

"Diana, you will consume me with only the thoughts you set alightin my heart," he managed to barely breathe when he pulled himselfaway from her an instant.

"Then help me to bring those thoughts to reality, my love."

What was in his reeling mind at the moment was the heartstoppingfact that the more he tried to sensibly think of her as a woman soonto be ripe with child, the more astonishingly sensual her imaginebecame to him in his heart. And she read that amazed understandingwith total, compliant wonder, ready to entice his enchantedexpectations with a touch of her own uninhibited sensations.

Turning in his arms with her back to him, Diana let him encompassher with a sweeping, possessive embrace, drawing his hands to her,letting them settle onto her still firm abdomen. His touch instantlybegan to stroke over her soft skin, caressing her, and acknowledgingthe gift of life beneath his hands. She leaned into him, letting himenvelope her with his strength. His breath was warm against her ear,the moist tenderness of his kiss following, as he drank in thefragrance of her hair and skin.

A moment later his cherishing touch became heartstopping . . . onestroking hand remained below her waist, but now sought to gift herwith powerful sensual recognition . . . the other surely found itsway to her breast, to draw from it the surging intimacy he yearned torelease within her.

Diana dropped her head back against his shoulder in astonishedsurrender and she immediately felt his lips and tongue trail heatdown her throat. When his erotically searching embrace moved to reachalong the trembling length of her thigh, the kisses slipping alongthe slender straight length of her spine, she knew that Hylas'attentions could become as beguiling as anything the nymph couldpossibly have offered him.

Her own lips couldn't possibly stand one moment more away fromhis. She reached around to drown her hands in his hair, and he heldher hard against himself then, just as eager to accept her mouth andher desire.

They stole one another's breath, her slender arms desperate towrap themselves completely around the power of his body. She felt himlift her from her knees, lower her with infinite care to the stonefloor beneath them, drawing the blankets more closely to them so thatthey might at least cushion some of the cold hardness from theirbodies. He only rested himself above her, holding his weight off heron his own arms, still cautious and sensitive to her comfort, and thebaby's. It left him hovering tenderly over her, every minute particalof sweet yearning for her in the stunning azure depths of his eyesthat she could now easily hold.

"Oh Diana, what you've given me . . . what you yet give me . . .I'll never believe it is truly mine." Cleft lips came down to herown, took them with sublime sweetness.

"It is," she breathed with all her heart, "it always will be, andit isn't a breath of what I've found here with you." A gentle smilethat was only a reflection of certain hope accepted was her response.With it came another gifting acknowledgement of caressing touch,radiant want, and joy immeasurable. Diana needed, without question,to hold it closely to her, press it to her and drink it in.

Reaching her arms up in invitation to her beloved, he yet heldhimself cautiously away from her. She couldn't tolerate it anylonger. "Let me hold you, Vincent."

He tenderly kissed her fingertips as he came to rest alongsideher, then proceeded to continue his heartstopping devotion to herbewitching presence. Diana let her own yearning readily answer his,fervantly returning every breathless sensation of fusing want offeredher back to him: kisses to the broad planes of his chest, among thecurling golden hair that softly blanketed him there; stroking,searching hands that outlined powerful muscles and taut sinews alivewith breathtaking vitality and virility; an exchange of poundingheartbeats and langorous sighs of sheer, gifted pleasure thatmirrored so closely the wild freedom and wonder of theirsurroundings.

But there still was too much distance between them, Diana realizedwith an ache, and she wouldn't hesitate to be the one ready to dosomething about it now, their totally attuned desires having hadenough of caution and expectation.

With purposeful direction, she leaned against the solidity of herhusband's prone body, intimately aware of the fact that his skin wasnow gleaming enticingly from the heat of their melding desires aswell as the flames of the nearby fire. Taking hold of his shouldernearest her, she urged him, with tender insistence, to roll from hisside to his back. In a graceful sweeping reply, Vincent did so,taking her along with him, drawing her onto his body for comfort.

It was her usual place when they shared their bed, stretchedbeguilingly along his powerful length, and at this particularinstance in time, it was so much more a seduction to become willinglylost in than any endearingly innocent posture for sleep.

Every inch of his form was suddenly driven to a totally sensitizedawareness of her own, the familiar position anything but comforting.It was a discipline-eroding, breath-robbing, lovingly sensualdominance that propelled his beleagured grip on the instant tonothing more substantial than a hairsbreath. The erotic contradictionof Diana's angelic form submerging him ever more deeply into therealm of undeniably mortal passions was near to overwhelming. He lethimself be overwhelmed, with welcome.

In intimate confidence, she pressed her lissome form completely tohis compelling one, electricity surging between every rock-hard planeand tender, yielding curve. They kissed with fiery abandon, traveledhands over beloved flesh memorized in love. Their headyacknowledgement of each other, allowed to spiral, for once, withevery possible expression of trusting freedom and urging want, sentsenses reeling into an astonishing whirlwind of desire.

Vincent found it even difficult to believe his heart was stillbeating any longer on its own, unsure if the seemingly familiarcreature holding herself to him was still really Diana, his wife, ortruly had become some vaporous manifestation of the wild, naturalworld around them.

That doubt about the true nature of the amber-haired beautypressed to him became totally encompassing for him the moment sheslowly, tantilizingly, slipped her body backwards down along his . .. and then sheathed herself about him completely.

The instantaneous heat, slick and inviting, and the spasmingcaresses of her body clinging in a heartbeat to his, was the finalspark that set the blaze within them to incendiary explosion. Vincentdidn't believe he could bear it, as he lost himself to her inresponse, the sound of her gasping his name searing hisawareness.

He held her powerfully to his trembling body, rolling back to hisside with her still in his arms, unwilling ever to release her.Tender kisses of breathless completion were swept over her bewitchingform, still holding fast to their entwined desires with tremulousintensity. When they finally managed the strength to free oneanother, they were hardly astonished to realize that tears werecoursing tenderly from achingly honest emerald eyes and soul-baringazure ones.

Vincent touched a shaking hand to Diana's cheek, letting the tearsfall over his fingers, knowing without a doubt that they'd been shedonly because of the exquisite ache of their fused souls. To be lovedlike that . . . to be able to give love, receive love, like that . ..

. . . He reached behind him and pulled an end of the blanket uparound them carefully, eager now only to shelter and protect. It tookthe better part of an eternity before both their pulses were able toreallign themselves into some recognizable pattern of rhythm.

During that long moment, Vincent couldn't help what suddenlyappeared within his consciousness -- an anxious uncertainty thattheir intensely inflamed lovemaking had left behind that he knew hemust relieve at that very instant. Gently, he rested his hand ontoDiana's cherished body, now lying completely spent and near sleepagain against his. It took a moment or two longer than usual, but hewas at last able to center his empathic sensitivities past theirstill so totally intertwined hearts.

The tiny, strong cadence he sought followed quickly into hisconsciousness.

Diana was still close to tears at the overwhelming, encompassinglove touching itself to her soul at the moment, that and theundisguised relief she knew filled Vincent's own spirit when he heardthe strong and still-well rhythm of their baby's heart. A dreamy easebegan to overtake her, and she nestled closer to her husband's ownexhausted body.

Vincent set a gentle kiss to her forehead.

"You never asked me what sort of fairy folk I believed you wouldbecome." Diana's words were quietly urging. Vincent took her hand andset it onto his chest . . . to hold his heart in place.

"What sort of magical, mystical spirit of creation do you see meas then, my Diana?" came his patient and intrigued question.

Her response was immediate, and spoken with soul-blessedconviction. "I've no need of magic or myth to answer that, Vincent.You are my own heart, embodied, unburdened, and free to love."

In a cavern that once resounded only with angonized loss andshame, grateful tears now fell softly into amber hair as firelighttouched souls at peace deep within the center of the earth.