Closing her eyes and concentrating hard, she tried to pull up an image of her apartment in Florida. But it was no use. All she could see was Spencer's face.

Shaking her head, she ordered herself, "Concentrate, Destiny! Think about home, think about home...."

She began to chant.

And just as she was beginning to get a picture of home in her mind, her concentration was broken.

"Destiny, wait!" Spencer called out, as he came barging in through the door.

Harriet eyed her door's broken hinges. "Can't you come through the door like a normal person?" she complained.

Spencer waved an impatient hand her direction. "I'll build you a brand new house, if you'll just give me

some time alone with Destiny."

Harriet grinned, her blackened teeth peeking out between her wrinkled lips. "Take all the time you want.

I'll just take my breakfast with me," she said as she grabbed up her omelet and shuffled outside.

For what seemed an eternity, Spencer stared into Destiny's eyes with a hopelessness that struck him down to his soul. He tried to think of something brilliant to say, something....anything that would make her want to stay with him and not leave. But he couldn't.

He could only say one thing.

"I love you, Destiny. Please...please don't leave me."

Destiny's eyes filled with tears and she slumped against the door frame. Her shaking hand, covered her

mouth. After a moment she answered him. "I love you, too, Spencer, but I can't stay here. Can't you see that I don't belong? I'm just a plain girl who knows nothing of courtly manners or how to be around members of the upper cla.s.s. I'll be an embarra.s.sment to you."

Slowly he walked up to her, his head shaking. "How can you believe that you don't belong here? How can you believe that you don't belong with me? Feel this, Destiny!" He placed her hand over his rapidly pounding of his heart. "It beats for you, my love. If you leave me, you'll take this heart with you. I'll be worthless without you. Less than half a man."

Destiny felt her resistance crumbling. "Oh, Spencer. I'm just not sure wh...what to do. I can't believe that you love me, you said..."

"Shhh," he hushed her putting a gentle finger to her lips. "I was a fool. I was falling in love with you from the first moment I saw you. I just didn't want to admit it."

"I demand to know what is going on here!" a loud command came from the doorway.

"Father?" Spencer turned with Destiny still in his arms, to the doorway.

Harriet, standing just behind the duke, shrugged her shoulders. "I tried to tell His Grace that you wanted

to be alone."

"I'll handle this, woman!"

Harriet rolled her eyes, not at all intimidated by the big man. "Suit yourself."

The duke frowned. "That old woman is impertinent!"

Spencer matched his frown. "How did you know where to find us?"

"Do you think that I could have something like this 'time doorway' on my property and not know about?"

Spencer opened his mouth to retort, but closed it. His father had already amazed him with how much he did know about everything. Why not this? He tried again. "Destiny is from a place on the other side of that door, father. She feels like she needs to go back."

The duke looked at Destiny in his usual shrewd way. "Do you have family back there, girl?"

Destiny shook her head. "My parents died when I was in college. I'm an only child. And my name is Brown, by the way. Not Worthington."

The duke folded his hand over his chest. "That doesn't matter. Worthington suits our purpose better, I think." He seemed to contemplate something. "Do you love my son?"

"Yes"

"Then what on G.o.d's green earth is the problem, here?" He boomed. "You don't have family connections, you love my son.... I should think it would be obvious!"

Spencer turned to Destiny. "He's right, my love. You belong here with me. I'd like to think that G.o.d had something to do with sending you to me. That you are my...destiny!"

Destiny couldn't help but smile at the pun. "And you are mine, Spencer. I've never loved anyone like I love you. And your father's right. I won't deny that I'll miss my own time, but I want a life with you more."

Spencer laughed aloud as he grabbed her up into his embrace and smothered her face with little kisses, and when he'd finally reached her mouth, he put her down gently and placed a hand on either side of her face, ever so gently and placed a caressing kiss on her waiting lips. The kiss deepened when she opened up to him and with a groan, he lost himself in her sweetness.

"UH HUM!".

Spencer regretfully pulled away from Destiny, and turned a shade of dull red when he turned to face his father. "Uh, you are still here father?" he mumbled.

His Grace lifted an imperial eyebrow that was so like Spencer's that Destiny smiled. "Is the wedding on or not?"

Spencer turned to Destiny. "I've never asked you to marry me, for real, Destiny, so I will ask you now. " He bent down on one knee and took Destiny's hand. "Will you, Destiny Brown Worthington, agree to be my wife, and put this retired pirate out of his misery?"

Tears of joy tumbled down her cheeks as she gripped Spencer's hand. "Oh yes, I'll be your wife."

They both heard the door close behind them and Spencer didn't waste anytime. He folded her into his embrace and kissed her.

Just outside the old woman's cabin...

"Well, we did it, Harriet! By G.o.d, we pulled it off!" The duke crowed, quite proud of himself.

"It was pure dumb luck, if you don't mind me saying so, Your Grace. Anything could have gone wrong.

She almost drowned, you know!"

"Yes, but she didn't, and now my son is happy! Soon there will be a wedding, then a few months down

the road, an heir!"

"What if she'd gone through that time doorway before Spencer got there? I don't know why you wanted me to show her the doorway in the first place!"

The duke looked at the woman patiently. (Or as patiently as he could look.) "I had to know if she cared

for my son. I had to give her the option to choose and as you see, she chose correctly!"

"But we still have one problem, Your Grace. That 'time doorway' isn't fading, like I told Destiny it was.

What if she finds out and decides she wants to go back home?"

The dukes smile was quickly erase. "Then we will board the doorway up! I won't have that worry

hanging over my head!

Harriet looked up with dismay. "But what about my tortillas! And you know how you love that Cajun dish that I bring back from my trips to that New Orleans place!"

The duke just shook his hand and began to walk back to the castle. "You heard my order, Harriet!"

"But, Your Grace....."

But Destiny never asked about that doorway. She was far too happy and fulfilled with her husband and children to worry about going back 'home'. Which is good because Harriet never got around to boarding that portal.

THE END!.