She stared. “To whom?”
“The world.”
Gwyn nodded weakly and lowered herself into the copyist’s seat before her knees gave out entirely. “I see. No, I don’t. When are they to be returned?” She wiped her hand over her forehead. “Where? Why? I don’t understand.”
Griffyn’s face was illuminated by the flickering light. “Charlemagne’s Heir has reparations to make,” he said simply. “Although I could never have guessed ’twould be this.”
She stared at the ancient treasures. “It’s so beautiful,” she murmured, then looked at Griffyn. “A burden.”
He shook his head. “No. Not anymore. Not if they’re to be given away.”
Gwyn closed her eyes. “When?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know. At the right time, the right place. I have to read more, learn more. No, probably not now.” He glanced at the treasures, then back to Gwyn. “I suspect our children will be Guardians for generations to come. But one day, when ’tis time, the treasures will be given back.”
“How? How will you know? Who will decide where and when?”
“I don’t know. It will, I assume, become clear to the ones who are living in the times. Should we be faced with a choice in our time, Guinevere, you and I will decide what to do, and how.”
She backed up a step. “Us? I cannot intrude there, Griffyn. You are the Guardian.”
“You were, too.” He considered her pale face. “Would you leave it to me alone?”
Her eyes swam with tears. Her slim, cool fingers closed around his hand, like silver filigree on a crown. “Not if the whole world came riding for me would I leave your side,” she whispered. “Not if you would have me there.”
He pulled her to his chest, his arms wrapped around her body, a body so packed with good intent and strength and honour that she took his breath away, and Griffyn knew he had the greatest treasure of all.
He bent over her lips. “Before all others, Guinevere, I would have you. If I were offered a queen, I would choose you. If I were offered no pain, I would choose you. If every choice in the world were laid out before me, I would choose the you amid them all. I choose you above all other things.”