“That’s it?” Josie said. “That’s all he has to say about me? What about the school for girls I founded, my campaign for women’s suffrage, the orphanage...?”
“Sshh,” Deverell said with a smile.
Josie clamped her lips together in a tight line.
“The ninth Lord Waite and Lady Josephine, as famous for their philanthropy as for their lavish entertainments, died peacefully after thirty-nine years of blissful marriage,” the docent said. “There are those who claim to have seen their ghosts walking in the gardens or dancing in the gallery.”
“Really?” the young girl whispered, her tone revealing rapt attention.“Will they come to our tea in the garden?”
“Well...” Jon leaned down with his hands on his knees.“They just...”
“Don’t fill her head with nonsense,” the girl’s mother interrupted, stroking her daughter’s hair as if to wipe out any imaginative thoughts. “She’s at an impressionable age,” the woman explained to the crowd.
“But they’re right up...”
“There’s no such thing as ghosts,” the woman said to the child in a stern voice.“And even if there were such a thing, everyone knows ghosts do not take tea.”
The docent stood and cleared his throat.“We’ll be going into the parlor now.” He motioned to his group to move. “Please stay together.”
“That girl could see us,” Josie said, pulling away from Deverell and standing up straight. Even as she spoke, the child looked back over her shoulder and waved. Josie smiled and wiggled her fingers in return. “How odd. I’m not materialized and neither are you,” she said to Deverell. “Why do you think...?”
“Can’t you feel the rise in energy?”
Josie cocked her head to the side almost as if she was listening. “No,” she said after a minute. “But you’re always more sensitive to the fluctuations than I am.What does it mean?”
“I think we will soon have the chance to recruit our replacements.That is why I brought up...”
Josie gasped.“Amelia? Or Charles?”
“You know I can’t foretell the future, but from the energy shift, I believe it will be both of them together. Maybe an accident.”
“Oh, dear. How soon?”
“Some time yet. But we should make plans, think about asking them...”
“Poor Emma will be devastated. She’s so young to assume the responsibilities of the title, and the property. She’ll need our help.”
“Amelia and Charles would make wonderful guardians.”
“Yes, of course they would. But they’ll need time to adjust. Death can be quite traumatic, you know.”
“They will have each other, just as we did.”
“Helpful, but they’ll still need to learn what a ghost can and can’t do.They won’t even know how to materialize.How much information can we pass along? Albert told us practically nothing. What if they overextend and wind up in the void for forty years like we did? Who will help poor Emma then?” Josie shook her head.“No, no.Too chancy. I think we should stay.”
“I agree.”
“I know you want to...what did you say?”
“I happen to agree with you.”
Josie jumped into his arms and placed a searing kiss on his lips.
“What is that for?” he asked without releasing her from his embrace.
“I just love it when you agree with me.”
He nuzzled her neck. “One can only wonder why I don’t do so more often.”
“Because complete agreement would be boring.”
Deverell chuckled.“I can honestly say boredom is one thing I haven’t suffered from the day I met you.”
“I wish I could remember when I first saw you.”
Josie shook her head and sighed.“Lost with all the memories of my childhood.”
“I thought perhaps your memories might return now that we’re approaching the date you came from.”
Josie looked at him in surprise.“I’ve read everything I wrote in the journal before I completely lost those memories, but I never thought you believed any of it. Sometimes it was hard for me to believe my own handwriting.”
“I admit it was difficult at first, but since you lost those memories within a month of our meeting, the point became moot. Eventually, the evidence made it impossible not to believe. Either you came from this time or you saw accurately into the future.”
“Even if I never get those memories back, I’m glad to know you believed me.”
“You trusted me with that knowledge. That meant a lot to me.”
Josie sniffled and Deverell gave her his handkerchief. She never managed to have one of her own.
She dabbed at her eyes.“How did we get on this subject?”
“I don’t know. I was quite content with this...”
He kissed her forehead.“And this...” He kissed her eyelids and cheek. “This.”
She turned her head to give him better access to the sensitive spot beneath her ear.
He kissed his way down her throat and slid her sleeves off her shoulders, baring the cleavage caused by her corset.
“Mmm,” she said.“I hope no one else can see us.”
“Josie-love, I have an idea what we can do to stay out of the way of the tourists.”
“Oh?” she asked as if she didn’t know what he had on his mind.
She ran her fingers through his hair and then lifted his head so she could look him in the eye.
“We’re expected for tea in less than an hour,” she said with a rueful smile.
He swept her off her feet and carried her down the hall with long strides.“We might be fashionably late.”
She threw her arms around his neck. Between kisses along his jaw, she said, “You may have mel lowed over the years, my love, but you haven’t completely reformed.You’re still a rake.”
She wouldn’t have it any other way.
About the Author
Laurie Brown writes because she loves to, because she needs to in order to stay sane, and because it gets her out of housework. By day a mild-mannered accountant, she spends her evenings and weekends writing, following her alpha-heroes and spunky heroines on their madcap adventures to a happy ending. She has taught writing classes at the college level and has presented seminars at conferences all over the country, including the Romance Writers of America National Conference. The author of three published novels, Laurie Brown was twice a Golden Heart finalist and has received the Service Award from the Chicago-North Chapter of RWA. She lives in Glendale Heights, Illinois.
Table of Contents
Copyright Notice
Acknowledgments
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty
Twenty-one
About the Author
Back Cover
Laurie Brown Page 30