Charon's Crossing

She laughed and looped her arms around his neck. "You see? You're doing it again."

"Kathryn, this is no time to be clever." Matthew put his hands on her waist to keep her from settling against his chest. "There is nothing for you here. This house is little better than a ruin!"

"We'll fix it up together. You can figure out what we need in the way of lumber and paint and all the rest, and I'll go into town and buy it."

"Don't be crazy!" He reached one hand behind his neck, clasped her wrists, and drew her arms down between them. "What sort of life would you have here, madam? In a house in the middle of nowhere, with a man who is not a man."

"You're all the man I'll ever want," she whispered.

She lifted herself towards him, eyes languorous and lips half-parted, and he breathed an oath and pushed her back.

"I am not a man at all," he said coldly. "Shall I walk through a wall by way of reminder?"

She stared at him and then her mouth began to tremble. "All right," she said. "Okay. You come up with a better plan, then." She crossed the terrace with quick steps, turned and glowered at him. "If I could travel back in time to be with you, I would do it. But I can't. This isn't like some—some old 'Star Trek' episode, where characters can float back and forth through a hole in the space-time continuum."

" 'Star Trek'? What is—"

"Dammit, Matthew!" Kathryn stamped her foot. "Do not do that! I'm not going to let myself be sidetracked. You know what I mean. We aren't caught in—in some kind of time warp!" She took a deep breath, then blew it out. "You can't enter my world."

"The woman speaks the truth at last!"

"So I—I thought about the possibility of entering yours."

Matthew frowned. "I don't under..." His face whitened and he strode to where she stood and caught hold of her. "Do you mean, you thought of dying?"

"Matthew! You're hurting me!"

"Are you insane?" he demanded in fury. "There is nothing romantic about death, and nothing predictable, either. I know only what happened to me, not what happens to anyone else. Do you have an answer to the question people have been asking since time began? Nay, Kathryn, I think not!"

"I think not, too. I mean, I don't know what happens. That's why I gave up the idea. Why are you getting so angry? And would you please let go? You're going to leave fingerprints on my arms!"

"I ought to leave handprints on your bottom!" A muscle knotted and unknotted in his jaw. "Just because I ended up here is no guarantee that you—"

"I keep telling you, I realized that! That's one of the reasons I've come up with this plan!"

Matthew's eyes narrowed. "What plan?"

"The one I was explaining before you flew off the handle!" Her expression softened. "I'm going to stay here, with you."

"For how long? You cannot expect to shut out reality forever."

Kathryn smiled. "That's exactly what I do expect. I'm never going back, Matthew. Don't you understand? I'm going to stay with you forever."

He could not help himself. Her soft words sent his heart racing before he realized how futile they were.

"Nay. You cannot."

Kathryn laughed softly and moved into his arms.

"Have you forgotten everything I told you? The world has changed, my love. Women don't let men tell them what to do anymore."

"Kathryn, listen to me. You might as well sentence yourself to life imprisonment."

"Imprisonment? To live the rest of my life with the man I love in a tropical paradise?" She laughed again and put her arms around his neck. "Nay, Captain, I think not."

"Think, Kathryn. You would lack all the wonderful things in your books."

"Indeed. Air pollution, noise, traffic jams..." Her sigh was long and dramatic. "What a tragedy."