Always

by Jude Deveraux

  Darci swallowed her bite of pie. After the time in the tunnels she’d found out that nearly all the people in her hometown of Putnam, Kentucky, had known about her abilities. They hadn’t known everything, but they’d known much more than Darci thought they did. It was probably the same in this small town. So how did she ask the question that got them to tell what they knew?

  “Is there someone in town who’s versed in the occult arts?” Darci asked.

  That question stopped the women in place. Cook recovered first. “You don’t want to get involved with someone like that. Unless you must,” she added as she looked at Darci’s midsection.

  It took Darci a moment to realize what the cook meant. Unless you’re going to have a baby. Obviously, both women thought Darci was asking for an abortionist.

  Darci batted her eyes to look as innocent as possible. “Need?” she said, her voice rising. “Yes, I need someone to make him love me as I love him.”

  The two women blinked at her. This time Emmy understood. “Ah, you want a love potion.”

  “Yes,” Darci said, pretending to hold back tears.

  The cook squared her shoulders. “Who is this young man?” she demanded.

  Darci put her hands over her face. “You don’t know?” she said, sounding hurt. “If you don’t know, then he certainly doesn’t know that I’ve been in love with him since we were in the first grade. If he doesn’t love me back I’ll just plain die.”

  She peeked through her fingers to see how this was being taken. Cook was obviously eaten up with trying to figure out who Darci was in love with. She patted Darci’s shoulder. “We’ll send Tom to Tula’s to get what you need.”

  “I’ll have to go with him,” Darci said as she grabbed the rest of her pie and ran toward the back door.

  “I don’t think—” Cook began.

  “A lady can’t—” Emmy began.

  But Darci was out the door before either of them could finish her sentence.

  Behind the house was a small stable where a tall, thin, gray-haired man was combing a horse’s mane. Darci’s impulse was to introduce herself, but she didn’t. She tried to think how the daughter of a household in 1843 would treat a stableman. Better to just brazen it out, she thought.

  “Could you please take me to see Tula?” she said to the man’s back.

  He took his time in turning around to look at her. He had piercing eyes that were almost black and they made Darci take a step backward. How she wished she could see his aura! Was this man hiding something? From his look she could believe he was an absolute devil inside.

  “You don’t wanta see Tula and you don’t want no love potion. There ain’t no man you’re pinin’ over.”

  Darci swallowed. Obviously, he was an eavesdropper, and he also seemed to be someone who watched what was going on around him. She might be able to get around the household help with an easy lie, but this man was going to take big lies—which happened to be something she was rather good at.

  Stepping closer to him, she lowered her voice. “I need someone with second sight, someone who can tell fortunes. For real, not fake.” She lowered her voice even more. “Someone sent Lavender a note saying she was going to kill Lavey on her wedding day.”

  Tom drew in his breath.

  “Lavender and my brother laughed the note off but I didn’t. The wedding is tomorrow and I need to find out fast who hates Lavey enough to want to kill her. Do you know of anyone who can help me?”

  “Simone,” Tom whispered. “But girls like you don’t go to her.”

  “This girl does,” Darci said and couldn’t help the rush of joy that ran through her. Maybe this Simone was why she’d been sent back in time. If she’d been sent, that is. If it hadn’t been an accident.

  “Horseback or the buggy?” Tom asked.

  “Buggy,” Darci answered quickly, looking fearfully at the big horse. It rolled its eyes at her and she gave it a weak smile. “Should I pay her?”

  “Not in gold, but she’ll take all the food you can carry.”

  While Tom hitched up the buggy, Darci went into the kitchen and came out bearing a huge basket full of food. Behind her Emmy and Cook carried more baskets. It didn’t take a psychic to see that they believed this was “too much.”

  Once the buggy was loaded, Darci prepared to hop onto the top seat, but Tom gave her a look to remind her of her place. Meekly, she got into the back with the food.

  It took nearly an hour to drive to Simone’s tiny cottage. They left the prosperous town of Camwell and drove through rural areas with picture-perfect farms with pastures surrounded by fieldstone walls.

  Finally, they came to a patch of land that hadn’t been cultivated. It grew wild, with giant trees and tangled, thorny blackberry vines.

  “Through there,” Tom said.

  Darci looked at him in disbelief. The place looked like what had surrounded Sleeping Beauty’s castle. How could she get through that?

  “There’s a path and you can find it if you need to,” Tom said as he got down.

  Darci looked skyward for a moment. May God strike her dead if she ever grew to be so otherworldly that she made people have to search through thorn bushes to find the front door of her house.

  She put her hand on a basket, preparing to hand it to Tom.

  “Leave it. I know where to leave her food.”

  If Darci’d had her power she would have known what his cryptic phrase meant. It wouldn’t surprise her to find out that Simone and Tom were related.

  Tom helped Darci out of the buggy and she took several moments to arrange her huge skirt and her half a dozen slips. “Where’s Amelia Bloomer when you need her?” she muttered as she walked toward the blackberry vines and the deep shade. She let out the breath she’d been holding when she realized she’d half expected them to magically part.

  The vines didn’t part, but on the edge, near a stone wall, she saw an opening and entered. The path had been recently cleared and she wondered who maintained it. Tom?

  As Darci walked through the dark forest, she realized she was nervous. So this is how other people feel when they meet me, she thought. She’d always been on the other end and had always desperately wanted people to see her as normal, as anything but a freak.

  But only Adam, her husband, had, she thought. Only Adam had seen the person beneath her ability to see things and change them.

  At the end of the path was a cute little stone house that Darci guessed had been there since before George Washington was president. It might have been there in some form when the Mayflower landed.

  Now what do I do? she wondered. And what was this woman going to see about her? Darci had many secrets and it had never been difficult to keep them to herself, but now…

  Before Darci could knock, the door opened and she saw a thin little woman with gray, grizzled hair and eyes very much like Tom’s. They are related, Darci thought, smiling that she’d guessed that earlier. The woman had a gaudy red shawl around her shoulders and giant gold hoops in her ears. She looked like a caricature of a psychic.

  “I see clouds around you,” the woman said in a booming voice that made Darci step back. “Clouds and spirits. The spirits hover over you, watch you, and they take what they need from you. You must be cautious or the spirits will come for you when you least expect it.”

  “I just wish they’d come when I call them,” Darci said under her breath, disappointment in her voice. The woman was a fake, a showman, all psychic mumbo jumbo. Darci well knew that if you mentioned “spirits” people got frightened.

  She couldn’t repress a yawn as she stepped away from the woman. “Sorry to have bothered you but Tom has some food. He’s leaving it…Actually, I’m not sure where he’s leaving the food, but I assume you’ll be able to find it. Thanks.” As she said the last she turned and quickly started down the path. Now what was she to do?

  “Wait!” the woman called after her, but Darci just waved her hand and kept walking. “You’re a ghost,” the woman said. “Y
ou’re not really here.” Her voice was normal. No more trying-to-intimidate boom.

  Halting, Darci slowly turned to look back at the woman. “What else?”

  The woman smiled, showing strong white teeth. “I’m too old to stand out here shouting. Come in and have some tea.” All three of you, she said to herself, for, dimly, like pale shadows, the woman saw two spirits just behind young Darci Marshall. Simone didn’t know what the spirits meant, but she did know this girl was important. And how odd it was that she couldn’t remember ever having seen her before. She remembered that John Marshall had a twin sister, but Simone was sure she’d never seen this girl before.

  Inside the house, Simone first turned toward a doorway that was covered by a black curtain embroidered with various astrological signs and a moon and some stars.

  She turned away from the curtain. “In here,” she said, opening a paneled pine door. Inside was a cozy little room with a cheerful fire in a tiny fireplace. There were fat, upholstered chairs and a tea table laden with many of the things Darci had brought.

  Darci looked at the woman in question.

  “There’s a road around back and a door through there. Tom snitches food from your house and brings it to me.” Smiling, Simone removed her shawl and the big earrings. “The customers expect these things,” she said, motioning toward the shawl. Once she was in an ordinary skirt and blouse, she looked like a normal little woman. “The tea’s hot, so sit and let’s eat your food.”

  Darci took a seat, accepted the cup of tea, and smiled. “My brother can afford it. So tell me what you see.”

  “You don’t want me to tell you that a glorious man is coming into your future?” Her eyes were twinkling.

  Darci decided that she didn’t have time to be cautious. If this woman had enough ability to know that Darci wasn’t really there, then she must have seen and heard a lot in her long life. Darci decided to tell the truth. “The most glorious man has already come into my life, but he’s being held prisoner about a hundred and fifty years from now. I think I was making some headway in finding him, but then I got sent back to the past, and now I’m afraid I’m stuck here. Unless I can prevent the death of the future wife of a man who isn’t really my brother, that is.”

  “I see,” Simone said as she slowly set down her tea cup. “Are you sure you don’t want just a palm reading?”

  For a second Darci looked at her without comprehension, then she burst out laughing, with Simone joining in. Darci hadn’t laughed in a long time.

  Finally, Simone said, “Tell me everything.”

  “What would you say if I told you that I’m from another century and I want to go home?”

  When Simone didn’t blink an eye, Darci’s estimation of her went up. When you dealt with spirits without bodies on a daily basis, it took a lot to shock you.

  “I’d say that I’ve lived a long time and I’ve seen a lot of things.”

  Picking up a pecan-filled cookie, Darci looked at it. “So let me guess, Tom listens to everything in town, reports it all to you, and you use it to tell fortunes.”

  “More or less,” Simone said, smiling. “I couldn’t very well tell the truth, now could I? I touch a hand and know some young lady will be dead in a year. Or I know that the woman will never have a child. How could I tell them that? I try to fix what I can and leave the rest to God.”

  “How do you fix things?” Darci held her breath. Perhaps she’d underestimated Simone’s abilities.

  Simone shrugged. “A girl gets in trouble and goes to my daughter Tula. Sometimes my daughter helps get rid of the child, but sometimes we send the girl away to the country to my relatives. They always tell her the child was stillborn and have a lovely little funeral. It helps the girl. But my cousins bring the child to me and Tom tells the mother who wants a baby so much to come to me. I match them up.”

  “How nice of you,” Darci said in admiration. “What happens if you get caught?”

  “I don’t want to think about it. Now tell me what I can do for you.”

  Darci thought for a moment. “If Tom hears everything, has he heard of anyone who wants to kill Lavender Shay?”

  Simone leaned back on her chair. “So that’s why he brought you to me. I told him over a year ago that I foresaw that girl’s death.”

  “How? Who?” Darci asked eagerly.

  “A fall. I saw it in a vision, but I’m afraid my visions are rare and short, and not very clear. As she fell, I saw a figure on the roof behind her, but I couldn’t tell if young Lavender had been pushed or someone was trying to keep her from jumping.” Simone gave Darci a hard look. “What powers do you have?”

  “None, but I did have—” She broke off. “Can you conjure a ghost or two for me?”

  Simone seemed to think that was a funny request. “Any particular one? Thomas Jefferson, maybe?”

  Darci didn’t smile. “If I had a problem with French history he’d be the one I’d call. No, I’m looking for a spirit named Devlin, but he may be difficult to find as I’m not sure he’s ever lived on earth as a human.”

  “Neither have you,” Simone said softly. “And, no, I can’t call spirits forward. Please don’t tell anyone that or I’ll never have another customer. Tom and I tried a few séances, but I didn’t like such blatant lying, so we quit doing it.”

  On impulse, Darci held out her left hand. “What do you see?” Part of her didn’t want to know. What if she was never to find Adam? “Tell me the truth. Death and all of it.”

  Simone looked as though she wanted to say no, but she took Darci’s hand in her old one and rubbed her palm with her thumbs. “The man you’re looking for isn’t where you think he is.”

  “Will I find him?”

  “Yes and no. You’ll find him but he’s not the same man you were looking for.”

  “Excuse me if I scream,” Darci said. “What does that mean?! Do I find him dead?”

  “I don’t know,” Simone said. “I’m afraid that most of my ability comes from Tom’s snooping.”

  “I don’t think that’s true, but who is Tom to you?”

  “My son.”

  “You said I was a ghost, that I didn’t belong here.”

  Simone held Darci’s hand tighter and didn’t seem to want to say anything.

  “Tell me,” Darci said softly. “Tell me what you see, even if it’s bad.”

  “I’m not sure, but it may be you who dies tomorrow.”

  “Dies or just leaves this time and place?”

  “Dead. At the bottom of a building. There’s a woman in a white dress leaning over you.”

  “Great,” Darci said, leaning back against her chair. “Just great. Nothing like a little pressure on a girl. If I get killed here, does my spirit go back to my own time?”

  Simone looked at Darci hard. “You don’t know anything about yourself, do you?”

  “I’d love to learn.”

  Simone poured herself another cup of tea and offered some to Darci, but she refused. “We’re all put on this earth for a purpose, and as you may know, we keep coming back until we do what we’re supposed to.”

  “Yes, I know that,” Darci said impatiently. “I know I was given what power I had for a reason but I’ve never come close to finding out what it is.”

  “Have you asked?”

  “You mean God?”

  “Yes,” Simone said softly. “Have you asked God?”

  “I’ve done a lot of praying, but…” Darci looked away for a moment. “I’m ashamed to say that most of my prayers—my big wish—has always been to find someone who loved me as I am. You see…I used to have rather a lot of ability and it made me, well, different.”

  At that Simone smiled. “Oh? Is that why there’s a golden light around you?”

  Darci’s face turned pink but she smiled. “If there is, I’ve never seen it. I know it’s selfish of me, but my only interest now is getting my family back.”

  “If your body dies tomorrow you won’t find anyone. I’m not sure about
this, but I think God is going to give you only one body.”

  “No past lives?” Darci asked. “No future lives?”

  “I don’t think so.” Simone smiled. “I wish you could have met my grandmother. She had real talent. She would have been able to tell you everything in an instant. She used to go into trances that lasted for days, and she’d come out of them knowing things.”

  Darci sighed. “That doesn’t help me now, does it? Maybe if I found the key…”

  “What key?”

  Darci removed the little silver box from her skirt pocket. “You don’t have a key to this, do you? I found the key inside a little ceramic man. We couldn’t break him but he dissolved in water.”

  Simone’s eyes widened. “Stay here. Sit right there. Don’t move.” She quickly left the room.

  When Darci was alone, she thought about what Simone had told her, that it could well be her, not Lavender, who died tomorrow. And if Darci died she’d never see her family again. She probably wouldn’t be reborn in a twenty-first-century body and get another chance.

  Simone returned and in her hand was what looked like an iron egg, but when Darci took it, it was surprisingly light.

  “What do you feel?” Simone asked.

  “Nothing,” Darci answered, frustrated. “I have no power to—”

  “Yes, you do. Spirits never change. You have power now but it’s…” She frowned as though trying to figure out how to explain.

  “It’s blocked,” Darci said. “It’s as though someone has wrapped my senses in a thick quilt and I can’t find them.”

  “Think it was this Devlin who you want to contact?”

  Darci’s eyes narrowed. “I think maybe it was an old blind man who’s the sweetest person in the world—and perhaps the most powerful.”

  “But then isn’t the devil exceedingly pleasant?” Simone asked.

  “Yes.” For a moment Darci put her face in her hands. “I’m out of my element here. Here I can’t feel anything, make anything change. It’s not me here.”

  “I know you’re not where you are supposed to be,” Simone said, trying not to show her wonderment. Darci had said she couldn’t make anything change. Could someone actually do that? And what mortal had the power to wrap someone else’s God-given talent in a quilt?