Epilogue

CALAIS, FRANCE - NOVEMBER 14, 1385

I t was the same as he'd left it. Blinking his eyes, Léo had to pinch himself to make sure that this was not a dream, that he was truly back home in front of the same arbor, on the same pebbled path, before the same crooked-looking stone maison . It'd been two years, five months, and twenty-nine days since he'd last laid eyes on home.

A kiss was pressed to his cheek, and he looked at his beautiful wife dressed in a simple leine of dark blue, the MacKinnon tartan wrapped around her shoulders, spirals of blond hair fluttering unbound on the wind. A new little bump had taken shape in Aileen's nose, and he kissed it.

What's the matter?

" I've been away too long. More than half his life. Gabriel cannot possibly recognize or remember me. I want to hold him, but I don't want to frighten him."

At that moment, the front door crashed open. A little boy stood in the doorway open-mouthed, clenching a piece of paper in his small hand. The same bluebell-colored eyes, the same dark hair but now falling in waves to his collarbone, the same chin as his own. The boy looked at him and down at the paper.

Léo's heart stopped. There, on the paper that flopped away from the boy's clenched fist, staring back at him, was his own likeness. An exact rendering of his mercurial expression, the wrinkle of distrust in his eyebrow, his amiable mouth. A sketch of himself, as Aileen saw him. She had sent it to Gabriel.

Tears formed in Gabriel's eyes, and he sprinted forward. " PAPA! Tu es à la maison! "

"Gabriel!" Sprinting through the arbor, he opened into an embrace as his precious boy launched himself into his arms, wrapping his legs around his middle and clinging to him.

"Papa…Papa…" Overcome, his taller, but still small son dissolved into sobs. "Tu m'as manqué! Où étais-tu?"

Léo tightened his arms around his boy, holding him close and kissing his cheeks. "I missed you, too, my baby. I was stuck somewhere; I couldn't get out."

Wails rose from Gabriel as he buried his face in Léo's chest. Léo's heart broke as he sank to his knees and rocked him, dissolving into sobs himself.

Gabriel pushed away from his chest and wiped his runny nose on his sleeve. "Where were you, Papa? I've been waiting for you."

Léo put his hands to Gabriel's cheeks and kissed his wet face. "I'm here, my baby, I'm here. I'll never leave you ever again, I promise you."

In the doorway, Gabriel's Mémé appeared and rushed forward, wiping her hands on her apron and colliding with them both on the pebbled path. "You're home. Thank God, you're home and safe. I didn't know you were coming, why didn't you send word?"

Léo kissed her soft cheek, the likeness to her daughter evident in her brown hair and bluebell eyes. He tightened his arms around Gabriel. "I am sorry, Mémé . We left Scotland as soon as we could. I didn't even think to send word ahead. I wanted to get here and see him."

Mémé rubbed Gabriel's back, then put a hand to his cheek as it rested on Léo's shoulder. "He's done nothing but talk to your likeness every day for almost two years. He's brought it with him everywhere, waiting for you. I wouldn't let him lose hope. When we had word you were successful in your mission, I told him that you'd likely be here soon. He's been watching out the window for days. Thank God in Heaven, you're here. "

Mémé's eyes looked behind Léo, and she smiled and pointed. Aileen's face was crumpled with tears, and she wiped her cheeks and sniffed.

Remembering himself, Léo held out his hand and motioned Aileen forward. "My manners. What am I thinking? Gabriel, I have some exciting news."

"What is it, Papa?"

He raised his hands and began to sign as he spoke in French. "While I was in the Isles, I met a woman who can turn into a bird."

Aileen crouched down beside them, a smile lifting her peach lips.

Gabriel's eyes went wide with curiosity, and he looked exactly like the sketch Aileen had created in Cràdh.

"She does not look like a bird."

Léo smiled. "Oh, but she is. She can fly through trees and turn in the wind. She can whistle songs and makes the world beautiful." Aileen pursed her lips and made a perfect imitation of the dunnock's call.

Gabriel laughed a belly laugh, and Léo planted a kiss on his son's head. "I've missed that sound more than anything else."

"What are you doing with your hands, Papa?"

He continued to sign as he spoke. "I am speaking her language. You see, she cannot speak. So she made up a way to talk with her hands using signs."

Gabriel watched each sign with great excitement and began to bounce in his lap. "That's right, birds can't talk. I want to talk with bird signs."

Léo spoke to Aileen in Gaelic. "Can you show him ‘nice to meet you'?"

Smiling, she brushed her palms and then brought her two index fingers together. She mouthed the French word. Enchanté.

Gabriel's little hands formed the signs. "Enchanté, mademoiselle ."

Aileen put a hand over her heart and gave a silent laugh. He's a little charmer, just like his Papa.

Drinking in his son's joyful face and the perfect arch of his eyebrows, just like his own, he chuckled. Yes, he was beginning to seem more like him, though his peaceful trust was all Théa .

He tickled Gabriel's belly. "Do you know, though, she is a madame, not a mademoiselle?"

Mémé's eyebrows went north, and her mouth fell open in a happy smile. "No!"

"Yes." Taking Aileen's hand, he showed them the band of gold on her finger. "I decided that a man such as myself could not live without such a remarkable creature. Half-woman, half-bird. I discovered that she is funny and kind, and that she loves me. What a prize. What a beauty. And so, as soon as I got out of the bad place, and had vanquished the bad men, I married her."

Gabriel nodded with deep approval. "You married a bird, Papa. That was a good choice."

Léo smiled and interpreted Gabriel's French for Aileen and she gave a chuckle of relief and wiped imaginary sweat from her brow.

Gabriel's eyes filled with a hopeful expression. "What do I call you?"

Léo made the signs, then translated her response to Gabriel. "You may call me whatever you wish. My name is Aileen, but you may call me Birdy if you like."

Gabriel screwed up his little face and thought, tapping a finger to his chin. " Puis-je t'appeler Maman ?"

The words needed no translation. Aileen's aqua eyes blinked rapidly, trying to keep emotion away and she mouthed her response. Oui, sil te pla?t.

A grin spread over Gabriel's face. "Maman et Papa." He repeated the short phrase over and over. And then, after a few seconds he paused. "Where will we live, Papa? In a big nest?"

The first genuine belly laugh Léo had in long months burst through him, and he shook his head and wiped his eyes, then signed. "No, we will not live in a big nest."

Aileen's shoulders shook with laughter. That sounds very fun.

Léo ruffled the downy-soft brown waves of hair on Gabriel's head. "I was hoping that you and Maman would come back to Skye with me. I have been made chief of my clan by a king and will need to stay near them. Maman and I are building a new home that looks out over the sea near where Maman grew up—where lots of trees grow so she has a place to fly, and so she may teach you how to fly too. We will keep our home here in France and come to visit in the winter and see your Mémé, uncles, and cousins. What do you think of that?"

Gabriel's face screwed up again and he tapped his chin with the same pondering finger. "I need to pack my trunk!" He jumped up and ran inside the house and Mémé followed close behind.

Aileen's eyebrows shot up and she shook her head in silent laughter. Where did he go?

"To pack."

Leaning forward, Léo took Aileen's hand and spun the band of gold on her ring finger and kissed her, feeling happier than he had ever been in his whole life.

He cupped her cheek. "When did you sketch me?"

Just before I came to Cràdh to sketch Gabriel. I climbed a tree to sketch, but your image was all I could think of at the top of the world. When you gave me the letter the following week, I knew that Gabriel should have his own likeness of you so he would know you. I sent it with the messenger to Calais. I wished to see my Da when I was small, but I couldn't remember what he looked like. I couldn't let Gabriel forget you.

He put his hands to her neck and pulled her into his mouth, kissing her with the love bursting from his heart. "You have given me everything, Aileen. Everything."

She smoothed her hand over his cheek and read the happiness in his expression. What is it?

The words of a psalm written upon his heart and mind in the depths of Cràdh came to his mind. "Turn, O my soul, into thy rest: for the Lord hath been bountiful to thee. For he hath delivered my soul from death: my eyes from tears, my feet from falling."

She smiled. He never leaves us, even when we're swept far away to unfamiliar places. Because he remembers us, we're never forgotten.

Aileen kissed him again and he touched her cheek. "Oui, mon petit oiselle."

Gabriel plonked back through the front door and cupped his hands around his mouth. "Maman, Papa! Come on! I need help!"

Léo laughed. "He needs our help."

Aileen got to her feet and turned cartwheels toward Gabriel. Gabriel watched her tumble and turn, jumping up and down, shouting with excitement. A stream of curious questions followed her inside the house.

Léo got to his feet. Tears of deep gratitude filled his eyes and spilled down his cheeks, and his heart burst with sudden understanding. "You, Lord, remembered me."

The End.