Tonight I remember his words... come back,” he called. “Come back, my own pretty maid.” I paused—but only because it felt wrong not to hear a man out when he was speaking from the deepest part of himself. “Come back and marry me,” he pleaded. “I have ten thousand pounds in gold, and that I’ll give to you. I thought gold had never been on my map. “Captain,” I said gently, “you’re asking for the wrong thing.” His hands clenched at his sides. “And what is the right thing?” I swallowed the ache in my throat. “To let me go.” He didn’t move. For a moment, I saw in him not power, but loneliness—a man who’d mistaken desire for destiny, who’d thought wanting something hard enough made it his.
“This is not about gold,” I continued. “And it’s not about you. There’s someone I’m bound to, whether I can find him or not.” “Mr. X ” he said, tasting the name like it offended him. “Yes,” I answered, and the word carried all the miles I’d already walked in my mind. And I didn't turn back....every road looked possible.
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