Along Came A Prince

by Carlyn Cade

  “How are the wedding plans coming?” Clay inquired after they’d finished eating.

  “Everything is all set to go. We only have five days left, you know,” Josie said. “We’re thrilled you’re coming to our wedding, Clay.”

  “Yeah,” Ryan joked. “She doesn’t have much time left to back out. It won’t be long, and it’ll be too late.”

  Josie went over to him and sat on his lap. “What, and let someone else reel in my prize catch? I don’t think so.” She kissed him and gave him a hug.

  “When are Mom and Dad coming?”

  “Two days before the wedding,” Ryan said. “I figured we’d all drive up to Oregon the next day. I’ve made reservations near Cape Foulweather.”

  “And the cake...and the reception? The flowers? How about all that?” Stacia felt a little guilty. She’d planned on helping Josie, and first she’d run off to Vegas, and now she was entertaining Clay.

  “My mom’s best friend is making the cake. She has a bakery, and they specialize in wedding cakes,” Josie said. “We found a local caterer who’ll set up tables on the cliff and serve us our meal by candlelight and torches. It’ll be dark then, because we want to be married as the sun sets in the ocean. The flowers will be done locally, and the photographer will also be from the same area.

  Stacia let out a sigh. “Sounds like you have everything planned. I was feeling guilty about not helping you, but you did fantastic without me.”

  “What about your honeymoon? Where are you going?” Clay asked.

  “We plan to stay around the Oregon area, camping and sightseeing,” Ryan said.

  “Would you like to spend your honeymoon at my home at SwissDen for a week or two, or however long you can stay?”

  “A honeymoon in paradise!” Josie exclaimed. “There’s no question that we’d love it! After hearing Stace’s description of your home, it couldn’t be more perfect.”

  “I’ve already called my mother and she’s expecting you. I thought I’d make the plane reservations for a week after the wedding. I’m sorry, but I don’t know if I’ll be there. But then, I guess you won’t miss me on your honeymoon. My mother will see to it you have everything you want or need.”

  “His mother is the ultimate welcoming committee and also the most gracious hostess you’ll ever find,” Stacia said.

  “Are you sure you want us to go to SwissDen?” Josie asked.

  “I would enjoy sharing my home with you,” Clay said simply, “and so would my parents.”

  “I don’t know what to say, except thank you,” Ryan said.

  “That goes for me too,” Josie added.

  “Then it’s settled,” Clay said. “I’ll see that the plane is reserved tomorrow.”

  ♥♥

  “Josie, I think Clay might need your help,” Stacia said when they were relaxing on the patio after they’d finished dinner. “He started having dreams where he was writing in a book while he was in terrible pain. Headache. Stomach cramps. Heart pain. When he first told me about it, I thought it sounded like Mark Bennett toward the end of his life when he was writing in his journal.”

  “The end of his life? You mean the actor from London Affair, right?” Clay inquired. “Why would he have anything to do with my dream?”

  “We’ll get to that in a moment, Clay, when Josie’s heard the whole story.” Stacia turned back toward Josie. “After you told him to meditate to find out what was going on inside him, and this dream occurred, he went to Sedona. He learned to meditate there.”

  “Good work, Clay,” Josie was all smiles. “Are you still meditating?”

  “Yes.”

  “So what do you think, Josie?” Stacia asked.

  Her smiles disappeared and she became serious. “I think it’s possible Clay was Mark Bennett in his last lifetime. The date of Mark’s death and Clay’s birth would concur with this, if you want to check it out. The dream and what you know about Mark’s last days certainly suggest it.”

  “I knew it sounded like Mark,” Stacia admitted. “But, Josie, do you know of any way we can prove this?”

  “You always want proof, when in reality most things cannot be proven. Even scientists can only make a hypothesis. We all accept much of what they say without tangible proof,” Josie said.

  “Isn’t proof a normal thing to want?”

  “For you, Stacia, I’d have to say yes. But we might not be able to prove it. And what about you? What about your cabin scene with Mark?”

  “You mean about you thinking I could have been Audra in my last lifetime?” Stacia asked, then added with a resigned tone clinging to her voice, “And now you believe Clay was Mark.” She stood up and began to walk around the patio. “It’s hard to consume all this. It’s one thing to read about reincarnation, or discuss it like we do, but it’s another when you’re told it could be you. It might be easy to go along with my having a past life, but now you’re saying someone I know this lifetime was my lover, and possibly my husband, in my last lifetime. For some reason, the impact of having the two of us standing here involved together in a past lifetime, and the reality of it all makes it difficult to comprehend...and digest.” She placed her arms on the balcony railing and leaned over to stare at the twinkling lights of Hollywood in the valley below, then she stared toward the heavens at the twinkling stars far above her. How insignificant she felt stuck in the middle of the surrounding blackness lit up by stars and the man-made brightness beneath her.

  “What are you two talking about?” Clay asked.

  “Yeah, I’d like to know too,” Ryan said.

  “Stacia,” Josie began, “has had recurring dreams for some time now, except it isn’t one, it’s three. In one dream she had just eloped with Mark and returned to their cabin.” Josie looked at Clay. Have you had any more dreams?” she asked.

  “More like a flashback or a déjà vu feeling. I saw a woman sitting on a high stool singing in some smoky nightclub during the war. I don’t know which one. There were soldiers in the room. And for some reason, I saw a wishing well.”

  “Wow,” Josie said.

  “Wow,” Stacia repeated.

  “Wow, what?” Clay and Ryan said together.

  “Stacia’s had the same experience, except she was regressed and heard a song. We’ve discussed the possibility she was the woman in the scenario,” Josie explained.

  Clay shrugged. “Well, that one’s easy. We must have both gotten the idea from London Affair, or perhaps some other movie we both saw.”

  “I don’t want to explore this any further, Josie,” Stacia declared.

  “You forget you started exploring the psychic world because you couldn’t come to terms with certain things in your life,” Josie said.

  “But it doesn’t make any sense. Normal people don’t have dreams like this. And why would both of us have, more or less, the same dreams? I don’t understand,” Stacia persisted, trying to apply logic to what seemed to her to be illogical.

  “You’re wrong,” Josie contradicted. “Your so-called normal people do have dreams like you do. A lot of people ignore them, or blame them on things that have recently happened to them, or even something they ate. But it’s possible for everyone, although I suppose there’s an exception to that, to have psychic tendencies. It’s up to each individual to develop them. You both had the same dreams because for one, you’re beginning a relationship together and are very close, but mostly you’ve opened your minds to receive what’s stored there, and that’s the big difference. You’ve both seen the movie London Affair that Mark and Audra were in. This may have heightened some of your awareness to each other and the part you played in the other’s past life. You see, Stacia, you’re trying to apply logic to what your mind has convinced you is normal, and yet there are logical explanations for things that happen in the psychic world.”

  “So what do we do?” Stacia questioned.

  “I have some free time tomorrow,” Josie said. “And I’ll be glad to try regressing both of you at the same time, alt
hough I haven’t tried that before. We can experiment and see what happens. Remember when you’re in the spirit world, you’re not trapped there. You can always come back, or else if your mind prefers another route, you’ll simply fall asleep, so there’s never any need to be afraid of trying new things.”

  “How do you feel about that, Clay?” Stacia asked.

  “I’m willing, if you are.”

  “Great,” Josie said. “I’ll be over about one then. If you change your mind, let me know.”

  “We’ll be waiting,” Stacia promised. She looked over at Clay, wondering if she did know him in a former life. And if she had, what affect would it have on this lifetime?

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  Stacia was barely up when the phone started ringing the next morning. She let the machine answer, but when she heard Ryan’s voice, she picked it up.

  “Something terrible happened, Stace,” he said.

  Her heart began to pound as her mind digested his words. “What, Ryan? Are you okay? Is Josie? How about mom and dad?” She couldn’t get her words out fast enough and felt she was tripping over them.

  “We’re all fine. I’m sorry I scared you, but Jeb was in a car accident late last night. He has a broken leg and other injuries. The car rolled over, and he got pinned in there. The Jaws of Life had to get him out.”

  “He’ll be okay, right?”

  “In a while, yes. But he can’t be in the wedding.”

  “As long as he’s all right, that’s the main thing.”

  “I feel the same way. When Mom called me this morning, she assured me he’d be like new in a couple months. What I wanted to know was if Clay would mind being my best man.”

  “Why don’t you ask him?” She handed the phone to Clay. “Here.”

  A few moments later she heard his answer. “I’d like that, Ryan. Thanks for asking me.”

  “So we’ll be sharing standing up for the bride and groom again,” he related to Stacia when he set the phone down. “They say everything comes in threes. Do you suppose it’ll be our turn to marry next?”

  “Is that question part of the starting over phase?”

  “You know we’re way past that,” Clay said.

  “It didn’t last long, did it?”

  “I guess you can persuade me to do most anything,” he teased.

  “I persuaded you?”

  “If you didn’t look so sexy all the time, I could resist you. How could any guy live up to his hands-off policy when he’s around you?”

  “Well, you may not have to worry about it much longer. We have a problem.”

  “Are you kicking me out?”

  “Only temporarily, while my parents are here. I’m sure they’re assuming they can stay in my guest room. Although I haven’t asked Ryan yet, I thought with the wedding and everything, they’d probably not want to stay at Ryan and Josie’s.”

  “I could always stay in your bedroom.”

  “And where would I stay?” she asked in the same playful tone. “My father would most likely take a shotgun to you, like you said before, if he caught you in my bedroom.”

  Clay laughed. “I could be very quiet.”

  “How about invisible? Could you be that?”

  “All right, you win. I’ll go to a hotel.”

  “Let’s not talk about it too much until we find out where my parents are staying. I only wanted you to know they might stay here.”

  “Seriously, Stacia, am I wearing out my welcome? I don’t want to do that.”

  His face was so somber, she had to smile. “I love sharing my time with you. Besides, if you left, who would make omelets with me?”

  “Remember one thing. What we’ve shared up to this time is only the beginning.”

  If this is only the beginning, she thought, I can’t wait until we get to the middle. And I hope it never ends.

  ♥♥

  “As I told you, I haven’t tried to regress two people going to the same lifetime before,” Josie said the next afternoon. “This meditation will be a little different than before. I’m going to guide you into the same time period by my suggestions instead of letting you go where your subconscious wants to take you.” Josie lit the candle and turned on the meditation music.

  “Let’s sit closer together, and we’ll all join hands. By being joined together in one circle, our energies will flow between us, and you’ll be free to give or take whatever energy you need from our small group at any time. Also, by holding hands, you two will focus on being together, and that will link you to your past lives. Are you ready?”

  Stacia and Clay both nodded.

  “Close your eyes and relax,” Josie directed.

  Stacia took one last peek at Clay before she closed her eyes. Here we go, she thought. I hope it works...or do I?

  “I’m going to start at our usual beginning, Stacia, so Clay can see the technique we use.” Josie guided them to their favorite places, making sure all three of them were bathed in a safety tent of white light. Then they proceeded through the tunnel leading to past lives.

  “You have just emerged from the tunnel. Now look around and choose a path. See yourselves walking together holding hands. You’re in love and happy to be with each other. In the distance you see mountains, snow, sunshine and wildflowers. You want to travel there together. You walk toward this beautiful scene feeling loved and safe. No one can hurt you. Now you see a cabin. Walk toward the door together, put your hands on the door knob, and open it slowly. What do you see?” Josie stopped talking.

  She had arrived back at the cabin with Mark after their marriage in Nevada. As before, he carried her over the threshold into their rustic home just as he did in her other dream. She relived her entire cabin dream, as it had happened in her subconscious.

  But something new had been added…

  “I have a wedding present for you. It’s right here.” She dug in her bag and handed him a small gift-wrapped package.

  Mark opened it and pulled out a tiny pink sleeper. “We’re having a baby...” he exclaimed, and gathered her into his arms and began to kiss her.

  “It’s time to leave the lifetime you’re in and return to this one.” Josie’s voice entered Stacia’s subconscious. “Come back slowly, knowing you can visit there anytime you want. Close the cabin door and walk down the path to the tunnel.” Josie continued guiding them back to the present. “When you’re ready, open your eyes.”

  Stacia forced herself to open her eyes. She didn’t want to come back. She wanted to stay in that moment of perfect happiness and joy with Mark and Audra. In love. Married and pregnant with their child. A chill ran through her. She now understood why Mark had chosen a reclusive death. He’d had to not only give up his soulmate to a torturous death, but also his unborn child.

  “Let’s start with you, Clay. Were you able to regress?” Josie asked.

  “I went into the cabin with a woman as you suggested. I carried her inside. I kissed her, and went to get a bottle of champagne. With the bottle in my hand, I walked over to the fireplace where she was standing. I saw the fire burning, warming the room with its red and golden glow. Instantly, the room disappeared, and I saw bombs falling and death all around me. I needed to get to the wishing well to protect the woman I loved. Then you called us back.”

  Stacia was intrigued. How could this happen that both of them could get such vivid images from a supposed same past life? And why did a war always seem to be involved? London Affair must have been a huge part of their lives, which seemed perfectly logical to her, because they had to have spent months filming it and living their parts.

  “Stacia,” she heard Josie say. “It’s your turn.”

  “I went to the cabin and Mark carried me over the threshold. I saw your fireplace, Clay, and your bottle of champagne. Everything happened as I’d dreamed it before. Except…”

  “Except what, Stacia? Go on.”

  “Audra was pregnant,” she blurted out. Shivers feather-tickled her arms and ran the gamut of her bo
dy at the mention of their baby.

  “Really?” Josie asked.

  “Amazing,” Clay exclaimed.

  “No wonder Mark was devastated and chose to die as he did. He lost a wife and a child.” Stacia wanted to get lost in her tears over the couple’s heartbreaking lives. She didn’t want to think about anything that had happened. She let the dam break and tears cascaded down her cheeks.

  Clay moved over by Stacia from his place in their circle and held her close. He placed her head against his chest and stroked her hair gently while saying, “It’s all over. We don’t ever have to go back again. It’s okay.”

  “We did it though,” Josie said. “Together we got you both into the same lifetime, even if it was only for a short time. The scenes mesh perfectly. I’m convinced you two are Audra and Mark reincarnated.”

  Stacia raised her head from Mark’s check and the tears stopped. She swiped at her nose and used her fingers to dry the tears from her face. “Or we could…have tapped…” She sniffed and was determined to finish her thought. “…into two other people’s… lifetimes who had nothing…to do with us.”

  “Honestly, Stacia, you’re such a skeptic,” Josie said. “You always want all this proof.” “Well,” Clay declared. “Fact or fiction, it is fascinating.”

  ♥♥

  Stacia had made plans to take a limo to the airport the next afternoon to pick up her parents. Clay and she would wait in it while Josie and Ryan went into the airport and met the plane.

  “This is one of those times when I wish things could be like they were before I became Stacia Saunders, the actress. I wouldn’t have to hide out like this while my brother gets to welcome my parents. I could be me again – like I was at home,” she said as they waited for her family to come to the limo.

  “Would you give it all up to be plain Stacia Saunders with no tags on the end of your name?” Clay asked.

  “That’s a hard question to answer. My career has been very good to me and for me. It allows me the luxury of doing what I want most of the time.” She smiled at him. “Fame and fortune isn’t really all that bad, only sometimes when the paparazzi descend on you like a pack of hungry wolves. For instance, see over there at the horde of reporters and cameramen gathered around that limo. I can’t see who it is, but most of the time you have to do something sensational to get so much attention, although most celebrities come equipped with built-in radar for attracting the media and their fans no matter where they go. I’ll do almost anything not to attract attention to myself.” Stacia glanced out the window. “Here are my parents now.”