"What did you do all day?" she asked, turning to look at him.
Gabriel shrugged. "Nothing to speak of. And you?"
"I read to the children. Sister Mary Josepha has been giving me more and more responsibility."
"And does that make you happy?"
"Yes. I've grown very fond of my little charges. They so need to be loved. To be touched. I had never realized how important it was, to be held, until..." A faint flush stained her cheeks. "Until you held me. There's such comfort in the touch of a human hand."
Gabriel grunted softly. Human, indeed, he thought bleakly.
Sara smiled. "They seem to like me, the children. I don't know why."
But he knew why. She had so much love to give, and no outlet for it.
"I hate to think of all the time I wasted wallowing in self-pity," Sara remarked. "I spent so much time sitting in my room, sulking because I couldn't walk, when I could have been helping the children, loving them." She glanced up at Gabriel. "They're so easy to love."
"So are you." He had not meant to speak the words aloud, but they slipped out. "I mean, it must be easy for the children to love you. You have so much to give."
She smiled, but it was a sad kind of smile. "Perhaps that's because no one else wants it."
"Sara..."
"It's all right. Maybe that's why I was put here, to comfort the little lost lambs that no one else wants."
I want you. The words thundered in his mind, in his heart, in his soul.
Abruptly, he stood up and moved away from the bench. He couldn't sit beside her, feel her warmth, hear the blood humming in her veins, sense the sadness dragging at her heart, and not touch her, take her.
He stared into the depths of the dark pool, the reflection of the water as black as the emptiness of his soul. He'd been alone for so long, yearning for someone who would share his life, needing someone to see him for what he was and love him anyway.
A low groan rose in his throat as the centuries of loneliness wrapped around him.
"Gabriel?"
Her voice called out to him, soft, warm, caring.
With a cry, he whirled around and knelt at her feet. Hesitantly, he took her hands in his.
"Sara, can you pretend I'm one of the children? Can you hold me, and comfort me, just for tonight?"
"I don't understand."
"Don't ask questions, cara. Please, just hold me, touch me."
She gazed down at him, into the fathomless depths of his dark gray eyes, and the loneliness she saw there pierced her heart. Tears stung her eyes as she reached for him.
He buried his face in her lap, ashamed of the need that he could no longer deny. And then he felt her hand stroke his hair, light as a summer breeze. Ah, the touch of a human hand, warm, fragile, pulsing with life.
Time ceased to have meaning as he knelt there, his head cradled in her lap, her hand moving in his hair, caressing his nape, feathering across his cheek. No wonder the children loved her. There was tranquility in her touch, serenity in her hand. A sense of peace settled over him, stilling his hunger. He felt the tension drain out of him, to be replaced with a near-forgotten sense of calm. It was a feeling as close to forgiveness as he would ever know.
After a time, he lifted his head. Slightly embarrassed, he gazedup at her, but there was no censure in her eyes, no disdain, only a wealth of understanding.
"Why are you so alone, my angel?" she asked quietly.
"I have always been alone," he replied, and even now, when he was nearer to peace of spirit than he had been for centuries, he was aware of the vast gulf that separated him, not only from Sara, but from all of humanity, as well.
Gently, she cupped his cheek with her hand. "Is there no one to love you, then?"
"No one."
"I would love you, Gabriel."
"No!"
Stricken by the force of his denial, she let her hand fall into her lap. "Is the thought of my love so revolting?"
"No, don't ever think that." He sat back on his heels, wishing he could sit at her feet forever, that he could spend the rest of his existence worshiping her beauty, the generosity of her spirit. "I'm not worthy of you, cara. I would not have you waste your love on me."
"Why, Gabriel? What have you done that you feel unworthy of love?"