Lilith couldn’t blame Mitch for a little healthy caution. What she had to do was win his trust and prompt his memory further. Just the fact that they were sitting like this had to be a sign of progress.
Never mind that he had invited her into his home.
Lilith deliberately guided the conversation back to more neutral territory. “I’d really like to watch the children that weekend. Jason and I have had a lot of fun in the garden. They’re such sweet children…”
Mitch straightened and forced a teasing smile. “Don’t be fooled. They’re not nearly perfect.”
Lilith smiled and nodded. “I know, I know, but they’re good kids, Mitch. You should be proud of them. The only thing that worried me is that Jen might be afraid.”
Mitch’s gaze clung to Lilith’s for a heady moment, then he smiled warmly, as though he wanted to reassure her. “Jen’s very selective with her hugs. It’s quite an honor that you’ve already had one.” He leaned closer, his expression solemn. “But, Lilith, are you sure about this?”
“You have no idea how much I’m looking forward to being needed,” Lilith confessed. It was supposed to be a joke, but her breath caught tellingly. She glanced at Mitch and knew he hadn’t missed the inadvertent sign of how much this meant to her.
Lilith bit her lip, feeling that a little more explanation was necessary. She tried to keep her tone light. “You know, I’ve been alone for so long. Five and a half centuries. Even D’Artagnan doesn’t need me - if I forgot to feed him, he’d just go somewhere else to bum a meal.”
The silence stretched between them, although Lilith wasn’t sure what exactly prompted Mitch’s quiet. She wondered whether she had spoiled the mood by confessing a vulnerability and wished she could take the words back.
Then Mitch leaned closer, his eyes gleaming. “Hey,” he said quietly, the thread of humor in his voice telling Lilith that he was going to try to make her smile.
Her heart warmed at the sign of his concern.
“Are you trying to give me a run for my money on this worrying front?” Mitch winked. “You ought to know that you’re taking on a champ.”
It worked.
Lilith grinned. “I know.” Mitch was a champion and in more ways than he even guessed. And he would be hers for all eternity.
The very thought made Lilith’s smile broaden.
Mitch eyed the pitcher. “Do you want some more of this sangria? It’s a pretty wicked batch, if I do say so myself.”
Lilith chuckled. “A regular witch’s brew.”
Mitch joined her laughter. “Takes one to know one?”
Lilith nodded, then sobered. “I’ll take good care of them.”
Mitch frowned. His gaze flicked away, then met Lilith’s again. “Yes, I know,” he said quietly, as though surprised by his own conviction in that. He studied Lilith’s features as though he sought the key to some puzzle there, then reached for the pitcher.
“This stuff just seems to evaporate,” he murmured with a wink, then topped up their glasses.
“It’s very, very warm tonight,” Lilith concurred solemnly.
“So, why don’t you prompt my memory a bit? Mitch said with a casualness that didn’t quite ring true. He flicked an intent glance Lilith’s way. “Why don’t you tell me how we met?”
Lilith felt a little surge of disappointment. “You still don’t remember?”
Mitch looked away. “Not enough.”
Clearly he was embarrassed by his own inability to recall all the important details. But Lilith was more than happy to help this man remember.
She wrapped her arms around her knees. In her mind’s eye, the events of all those centuries ago were as clear as if they had only just occurred.
Maybe if she gave her memories voice, a word or an image would prompt Mitch’s memory. And there was no reason to keep all her secrets safely locked away any longer. Mitch was her love returned to her; Mitch she could trust with her life and her history.
“I was born among the Rom,” Lilith began softly, well aware of how intently Mitch listened. “That’s what we called ourselves. Others called us Egyptians – later shortened to “Gypsies” – although we never came from Egypt, as far as I knew. We did travel constantly, spending a month here and another there. We were entertainers, fortune-tellers, acrobats, as well as merchants of gold and horses and baskets woven by our men folk.”
“So you are a Gypsy. That’s what Andrea said.”
“I was Rom,” Lilith corrected firmly.
“Not anymore?”
Again Lilith found the denial didn’t come easily to her lips, so she just shook her head. “But I’ll get to that. It was the spring of 1420 – although I knew nothing of dates in those days – when we came to a village in what is now northern Italy. It was there, in the twilight of a spring evening, that I first glimpsed the man who would hold my heart for all time.”
Lilith bit back her smile of recollection. “He was unlike any man I had ever seen before, his hair not black but the shade of ripe chestnuts, his eyes not dark but as fiery as the sun. And in that twilight, he was chopping wood in the forest near where we made our camp. He heard me running – a remarkable thing for a gadgo – “
“A what?”
“Gadjo. A man not of the Rom,” Lilith explained softly. “It is said that the Rom move as silently as the wind through the grass, and I was held to be more quiet than most.” She shook her head, still marveling at the truth of it. “But he heard me.”
Lilith turned and looked deeply into Mitch’s eyes, golden eyes like sunlight snared in a bottomless pond. “You heard me, when you were Sebastian. It was just the first sign of many that we were destined to be together.”
If Mitch looked slightly discomfited by this, Lilith didn’t notice. She looked back to the changing sky and hugged her knees closer.
“It was a wonderful summer, a year when everything seemed possible to me, a year of unspeakable magick. I was twenty-one years of age, well past the age when the Rom would have seen me wed, but I knew there was something special in my future. And I was indulged because I had the Gift.”
“What gift?”
“The one I told you about. I could always see the future, I could see what would come to pass, with greater clarity than anyone else within our kumpania. There were those who said it was because I was born on the night of a blue moon, those who insisted it was the kiss of a goddess on my brow, but old Dritta said it was my mother’s talent that coursed through my veins. She said it was passed from mother to daughter.”
Lilith paused. It felt so good to be able to share these precious memories. It felt so good to have Mitch/Sebastian back by her side, with the unexpected bonus that he was even more wonderful than she remembered.
“You sound fond of this Dritta.”
Lilith smiled in reminiscence. “She was a total tyrant. Some said she was my grandmother – I never knew the truth.”
“Didn’t your mother tell you?”
Lilith sobered and shook her head. “My mother died when I was an infant. I don’t remember her. But Dritta took me in as her own. She always said she only did it because she could discern the power of my Gift. Dritta was a true shuvani.” The Rom word fell easily from Lilith’s tongue.
“What’s that?”
“A wise woman, maybe a sorceress. It doesn’t translate perfectly well.” Lilith considered that for a moment and realized suddenly how much Rom had crossed her lips since Mitch had moved in next door to her. It was strange, but she shrugged it off as coincidence.
“At any rate, she had a rare ability to see beyond this world, through the veil to the possibilities of the future. Dritta taught me to read the cards, and to read customers, too.”
“I don’t understand.” Mitch’s voice sharpened in his interest. “What do you mean by reading customers?”
Lilith glanced at him. “Most people come to have their fortune told for a reason, although there are some, particularly now, who indulge their curiosity regularly.
In those days, though, it was risky to visit the Rom – you could be charged with heresy and burned.”
Lilith paused, then decided to state the worst. It might prompt Mitch’s memory, although she had made it a matter of principle not to recall the events of a certain night.
“You could be hanged for consorting with heretics.” She spoke deliberately, then looked at him.
Mitch didn’t say anything. He held her gaze without blinking and she wondered whether her words had awakened an uneasy recollection.
She swallowed the lump in her throat that that short sentence had prompted and pulled her mind away from the darkness of that night’s memories. She never dwelt upon that.
Lilith forced herself to continue in an even tone. “So, those who came, usually had a good reason to come. And an astute observer like Dritta could often guess the reason before a word was uttered.”
“That doesn’t sound very honest.”
“On the contrary, it saves a lot of time. The reading has a focus, a focus derived from the seeker as surely as the lay of the cards themselves. Keen observation makes for better readings.” Lilith smiled. “And greater customer satisfaction” She looked steadily at Mitch. “When your presence is barely tolerated by the locals, it’s wise to ensure that they have no complaints about services rendered.”
Mitch lifted one brow. “What kind of observations? Give me an example.”
Lilith frowned. These were secrets whispered to her by Dritta and not to be readily shared, even to someone she knew she could trust more than herself.
But the time for hugging all her secrets to herself was passed. She could share a few.
“Generalizations, really. Young women often consult a fortune-teller about love. Either they have an affection for someone they know casually, or they want to know what the future will bring in terms of love or marriage. Older married women often come because they believe their husband is unfaithful and they don’t know who else to ask for advice.”
“In case they’re wrong,” Mitch contributed. “In a small community, that kind of accusation could have made a lot of trouble.”
“Exactly. One wants to be certain, or reassured that such suspicions are foolish.” Lilith shrugged. “Married women also come because they haven’t conceived children, or sons.”
“And men?”
“Younger men can come for much the same reason as younger women, or they may be concerned about their trade and financial future. Older men, particularly established ones, only come to fortune-tellers when they have a secret.”
“A mistress?”
“Or shady business dealings, or something from the past that they fear could return to jeopardize their position in the community. An illegitimate child, a forsaken fiancée, a deal made in the shadows. There must be a good deal at stake for a man of influence and prestige to risk being seen visiting a fortune-teller.”
“Sounds like a study of human nature.”
“I suppose it is in a way.” Lilith shrugged. “And there are the obvious signs, of course, Missing wedding bands that have left their mark indicated unfaithfulness. People who play nervously with their wedding band have come about marital problems. That sort of thing.” Lilith smiled at Mitch. “It’s become much more complicated in these days than once it was.”
“You make it sound so innocuous.”
“It is! These observations don’t change what I see – they just confirm which part of what I see the seeker most wants to know about.” Lilith flicked a playful glance at her companion. “I guess they’d call it target marketing now.”
Mitch shook his head. They sipped sangria in silence and she watched him, loving the play of shadows on his features. He glanced up suddenly, and their gazes collided and held. The warmth of an unstated compliment shone in his eyes and made Lilith’s heart pound.
She felt admired and respected beneath his gaze, feminine yet appreciated for far more than her appearance. He really listened to her. He had become so much more over the time they’d been apart.
Lilith loved Mitch’s protectiveness; she loved his sense of duty; she loved that he did what was right regardless of the price. She loved how he adored his kids; she loved how he talked and listened to her; she loved he frowned when he was reasoning things through.
Lilith realized that she loved Mitch with an intensity that she had never felt when she loved him as Sebastian. She decided right then and there that Mitch’s ideas about “all that old-fashioned stuff” sounded like the perfect way to spend the rest of her life. In fact, she would give anything to begin as soon as possible.
Remarkably enough, her Gift gave her no inkling of how much Mitch would ask from her in a moment’s time. He would ask for no less than the tale of the most painful night of her life.
And Lilith would give it to him, willingly paying the postage due on that glorious future. She wouldn’t consider how it might shred her heart to step into that abyss, to explore painful memories that she had declared off-limits for nearly six centuries.
She would do as he asked quite simply because she loved him.
*
8
Justice
She was doing it to him again.
But this time, Lilith wasn’t seducing Mitch with her eyes or her perfume or even her kisses. It was her clear thinking, her understanding of human nature, the flash of compassion in her eyes when she spoke of troubled people coming for advice that prompted his admiration. Her low voice with its exotic accent made him want to listen to her all night long.
She could lull him to sleep with that voice, dispatch him on a journey from which he would never return. It was so low and musical, so rich and evocative. When she lingered over a word, or saw humor in some small thing, Mitch had to fight the sense that she truly had experienced the better part of six centuries.
Lilith was unlike anyone he had ever known.
And the fact that she made good sense was no small thing to a man who prized reason as Mitch did. The acknowledgement that there were other factors at play besides her so-called gift for seeing the future was an interesting one. That Lilith clung tenaciously to a faith in her ability, even conceding as much as she had, was doubly intriguing.
On this night, when the conversation flowed so readily between them, Mitch could smell the truth he sought, lingering just out of reach.
“So what happened that summer in 1420?” he invited conversationally as he topped up their sangria. “Remind me.”
Lilith froze.
Then she carefully set down her glass and took a deep breath. “I’ve never spoken of the end,” she said so evenly that Mitch knew she was trying to veil her feelings. “I don’t even think about it, as a rule.”
If she had wanted to prompt Mitch’s curiosity, Lilith had just done a really good job. “Why not?”
She glanced across the yard, frowned, then shook her head. “I suppose, like all tales, there is good and bad in it,” she murmured. “It is the extremes that make it so painful.”
And then she fell silent so long that Mitch was sure he had crossed an invisible line.
“I don’t mean to pry,” he said quietly. “Let’s talk about something else.”
“No.” Lilith shook her head with unexpected resolve. She turned to meet his gaze and studied him for a moment. “You really don’t remember that night?”
Mitch shook his head.
“Then you have a right to know,” she concluded crisply.
Lilith turned away before Mitch could say anything. “My first glimpse of you wasn’t the last, by any means.” She smiled with sudden mischievousness and shook a finger at Mitch. “You surprised me quite often, in fact, and you gadjo types shouldn’t be able to do that.”
“Maybe I was a sorcerer myself.” Mitch grinned. She had spooked him for a minute there, but this didn’t sound so bad. The edge of skepticism in his next words was surprisingly slight. “Or was it just another sign of destiny?”
“Destiny,” Lilith said with conviction
. “We knew each other from first sight and your actions showed that our minds were as one. I’d find flowers on the path in front of me in the forest - flowers obviously left for me - and no sign of anyone until I heard your whistling in the distance. And there were ribbons left in pretty bundles on the path I took to town, always in colors that I particularly liked. You knew instinctively how to woo me because we were destined to be soulmates.”
Lilith smiled and wrapped her arms around her knees again. Her delighted expression and pose made her look young and trusting. Mitch relaxed against the post and enjoyed the luxury of watching her. “There was a great sense of anticipation in me that summer, that something wonderful was about to happen, and each gift made it feel closer and closer. It was very romantic of you.”
Lilith cast a smile at Mitch, but he anticipated her move and examined the bottom of his glass instead of holding her gaze. He felt a funny pang of jealousy, hearing how terrific this Sebastian guy had been, how deliberate he had been about cultivating Lilith’s attention.
It must just be his conscience tweaking him. After all, it was one thing for Mitch to let Lilith think he was some other guy, at least for the purpose of seeing Andrea safe, but quite another to accept credit for anything that guy had done.
To his relief, Lilith seemed to take his silence as a sign of modesty, for she soon continued on. “At any rate, one August twilight, you came to have your fortune read.” Her eyes shone as though they were filled with stardust. “I can still see you stepping into our camp, so proud and strong, so determined that only I could read for you. Our gazes met and held across the fire - in that moment, it was as though there was a tangible realization of all the great forces that linked us together.”
Mitch didn’t have the heart to question her assertion. It would have interrupted the flow of her story, after all, and he knew how irritating it was when people did that to him.
“A cord snapped tight between us,” Lilith whispered, her ripe lips curved in a smile of recollection. “I know the others felt it too. I couldn’t have stayed away from you. There was nowhere else to be but by your side. I remember coming to you and taking your hand, I remember leading you to my tent without a single word, pulling back the flap and secreting we two inside.”
Time Travel Romances Boxed Set Page 117