Dominic sighed as she said this, he gently lifted her chin as he had once before. "Alannah look at me." he said "I know that look, it is not the devil as you describe," he said softly. "It is the look of a fanatic who cannot be reasoned with, a man who lives utterly within his own imagination causing panic and fear wherever he goes. Remember this, my love, when you look upon the actions of those like your father: hate the evil inside, but do not hate the person. Do you understand?" He smiled with a seriousness she had never seen before, "the hanged man does not nor can he learn from his mistakes, and if we were to with hold the means to his salvation by denying him the chance to change, well then we are just as guilty as he is. In Isaiah the bible says 'The Lord will guide you always; but he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.'" He looked up at the sky, a strange smile upon his lips. "It will be dark soon, the time when all things take on a very different meaning. The sounds of the owls hooting in the woods, or footsteps on the ground or an unknown rider's mount gallopoing under the moonlight. I would like your answer while the world is still in the throws of the sun. Alannah, please say that you will mek me the happiest man alive and be my bride. Say you will marry me."
Alannah turned away from him with a little moan something amix of frustion and longing. She too considered the sky as though realising that time was growing short.
"Rosemary will be quite upset that I have chosen not to take her up on her acceptance of help."
"Remember, mi amore, Rosemary's offer of help comes with great consequences. My love and generosity for you comes with no strings attached, other than a ring and a home to call your own. Besides, what will you do should we not mary, and I do chose to marry someone else one day? Would you stay on at the Chateau as my little vegetable gardener?"
Her tear stained face was held by Dominic's strong hands, Alannah closed her eyes, she had her fists clenched at her sides. As a look of surrender came over her, she relaxed her hands and her body. She gave a slight trembled, her nerves were just about shot, but this man in front of her, she loved him so completely. In the few short weeks that she had been here on the island she had fell so completley in love with him that there wasn't anything in the world that could stop her from saying, "yes." The word came out as soft as the wind blowing your hair out of your face on a summers day, "yes Dominic I will" she said once again in a quiet voice, as though if only by a force of nature could she utter the words.