Time Travel Romances Boxed Set (147 page)

If there was one place where Lilith most
actively and obviously denied her
Rom
roots, it was in her
place of business, her fortune-telling parlor. The room was
furnished in mission-style furniture, the clean lines of the oak
and warm finish of the oxblood leather emanating a definite sense
of
this
world.

There were Persian rugs cast on the gleaming
hardwood floor and Turkish kilims woven in earth tones cast over
the backs of chairs. A particularly spectacular batik from
Indonesia of two traditional dancers was framed without a backing
and hung over the window so that the light shone through it.

Bookcases stood on either side of the
fireplace, their leaded glass doors gleaming. It was there that the
evidence of Lilith’s livelihood could be found in the wide array of
occult titles. There were mineral samples and seashells scattered
unobtrusively around the room and fat beeswax candles on many of
the tables.

“
It’s not what I expected,”
Andrea declared finally. “But it’s very nice.”

Lilith smiled. “What did you expect?”

“
You know, red velvet and
crystal balls. The usual tacky mishmash.” Andrea took the chair
Lilith indicated and practically bounced in place. “But I like
this.” She wrinkled her nose. “It seems
real
.”

“
Thank you.” Lilith
retrieved her cards from their high vantage point and unfolded the
silk that surrounded them. She had never been able to resist
different tarot decks and had at least a half a dozen decks in the
house. This current “working” deck had lovely paintings which
patrons seemed to like.

Andrea’s eyes widened at the sight. “What an
odd place to keep your cards.”

“
They have to be
respected,” Lilith confided easily. “And granted the honor of the
highest point in the room.” She shuffled the deck. “There are those
who insist the cards watch over the homes of those who treat them
well.”

“
Really?” Andrea
breathed.

“
That’s what they say. I
certainly have no complaints.” Lilith set the cards on the coffee
table, then retrieved a small crystal ball. She took the seat
opposite the older woman and smiled. “Would you like to ask a
specific question, or shall I just read?”

Andrea’s smile shone. “Would you just
read?”

Her enthusiasm was infectious, especially as
Lilith knew Andrea wouldn’t be disappointed by what she heard
today.

“
Of course.” When Lilith
spared the crystal ball a glance as she put it down, a fleeting
image there caught her eye. She straightened in shocked
recognition.

It was Dritta!

It couldn’t be! Lilith blinked and carefully
looked again, trying to hide her gesture from Andrea.

But the ball was clear once more.

Lilith must have imagined the image. It
couldn’t have been Dritta. No, she had left all of that behind,
centuries ago, outside an Italian village.

She was upset, that was all. She’d been
thinking too more of old
Rom
expectations for her future,
expectations that had nothing to do with her life. She was just
lonely.

It was nothing more than that.

Lilith deliberately smiled for Andrea, then
cupped the woman’s left hand within both of hers. The older woman’s
skin was soft and warm, and there were a thousand lines in her
palm.

Impressionable
, Dritta whispered in
Lilith’s ear. Lilith frowned and chose to ignore the source. But
she would have to be particularly careful about what she said.
Andrea caught her breath in anticipation as Lilith leaned closer to
read the omens hidden in her hand.

“
You’re
right-handed?”

Andrea nodded.

“
Then this is what you were
born with,” Lilith said softly, with a gentle squeeze of Andrea’s
left hand before reaching to take her right. “And this is what you
have made of it.”

Though there were just the two of them in
the room – even D’Artagnan had not deigned to join them – Lilith
had a definite sense that they two were not alone. In fact, she
looked over her shoulder more than once in the following minutes,
but there was no one there.

Yet when she read, Lilith heard an echo from
the past in her choice of words, though she never intended any such
thing. She knew it was no accident she heard Dritta’s wisdom echo
in her own voice that afternoon.

Although she wondered at the change.

*

The room had fallen into darkness when the
reading was done. What Lilith had seen in Andrea’s eyes had been
reinforced in her palm and in the cards. By the end, they both had
a very clear answer of where Andrea’s next love would be found.

It was a really good reading, one loaded
with specific details, one of the best readings Lilith had given in
a long time. It left Lilith bone tired. She waved to a thrilled
Andrea from the porch and leaned against the doorjamb in
exhaustion.

Perhaps it was because she was so tired that
the unexpected words fell from her lips.

“
Te sav ka to biav!”
Lilith called, though she had no intention of doing any such thing.
She blinked in surprised to hear the first
Rom
words cross
her lips in nearly six centuries.

Andrea spun around. “What language is
that?”

“
Rom
,” Lilith
admitted, then clarified. “Gypsy.”

Andrea gasped and her eyes went round with
wonder once more. “Are you a Gypsy?”

Oddly enough, Lilith couldn’t manage to
utter her usual rejection of her roots. It didn’t seem right after
this day, after this reading.

She really
was
tired.

“
I was,” she conceded
quietly.

Andrea snorted, an unconscious reminder of
Dritta’s dismissiveness. “And so you still are.”

Lilith’s heart skipped at that, then she
gave her head a shake. Because Andrea didn’t know anything about
being
mahrime
. Andrea didn’t know what she was talking
about.

Lilith was not
Rom
, not any more.

“
What does it
mean?”

Lilith grinned and held the screen door open
with her toe, feeling suddenly playful. “May I eat at your
wedding.”

Andrea laughed with delight. “You will! I
just know it! Wait until I tell Mitch about this.” She chuckled
impishly as she darted up his porch steps. “He’ll be
livid
!”

Lilith turned back to her house, her smile
fading as soon as the door closed behind her. Old words echoed in
her thoughts, despite the silence of the house.

“
It is in your blood,
child. Who you are will follow you.”

No. Lilith frowned and locked the door.
Nothing had followed her. They had cast her out. They had denied
her and she would deny them.

Lilith was
Rom
no longer.

And that was that.

*

“
She told you
what
?”

Livid proved to be a woeful miscalculation
of Mitch’s response. He was incredulous, skeptical and mad as hops.
Andrea tried to find another way to share the good news.

Because it
was
good news.

If only Mitch would
listen
.

“
There’s nothing to get
excited about, Mitch,” she said flatly. “I’m going on a cruise. And
I’m going to meet the man of my dreams.” Andrea waved her hand
airily. “It’s perfectly simple. Lilith said so.”

“
Lilith said so.” Mitch
echoed in a low growl and paced the kitchen. He was clearly
fighting his urge to bellow like a boar. “You know, Andrea, that’s
not exactly how love is supposed to work.”

“
So, now you’re an
authority on matters of the heart,” Andrea snorted. “What were
those credentials again?”

“
Ouch,” Mitch said
flatly.

Andrea tossed her hair. “I’ve at least got
experience.”

“
Ouch again.” Her stepson
took a deep breath, then deliberately sat backwards on a chair.
Mitch was clearly exasperated, and just as clearly bent on
convincing her to change her mind.

In a way, Andrea liked it better when he
ranted. When Mitch got all cold and logical, it was harder to
refute his points. Andrea braced her feet against the ground,
folded her arms across her chest and dug in her heels.

She was going on that cruise.

“
Andrea, think about what
you’re saying.”

Danger, danger. He was very cool and
decisive. Andrea knew Mitch would have her agreeing with him but
quick if she didn’t stick to her guns.

She was going. “I have!”

Mitch arched a brow. “Then consider the
source.”

“
What does that
mean?”

Mitch frowned. “Lilith told me that she’s a
witch.”

“
Pshaw! Wiccans are as
thick on the ground as bicycle thieves in this neighborhood. So
what?”

Mitch’s eyes flashed. “She says that she’s
six hundred years old. Six
hundred
years, Andrea.” He arched
an eloquent brow. “Is this the kind of clear thinking you want in
an advisor?”

Andrea blinked, surprised by this
information. “She did?”

Mitch nodded solemnly. “She’s nuts.”

But Andrea shook her head. “I don’t think
so. She’s certainly lonely, but she’s far too nice to be nuts.”

Mitch exhaled and rubbed one hand across his
brow. “So, now you’re a psychologist. Who says crazy people can’t
be nice?”

“
Mitch! Anyone can see that
Lilith’s a sweet girl!”

“
Which proves nothing.”
Mitch’s lips drew to a thin line. “Think about what you’re
saying!”

“
I know what I’m saying!”
Andrea took a deep breath. “You know, you really should go and have
a look at Lilith’s place. It’s so cute and it must be exactly the
same layout as this house. I mean, you’d never believe it, but
clearly Lilith has more than one gift…”

“
I am not going over
there to compare decorating notes!”
Mitch abandoned the chair
and cast it aside, his annoyance front and center once more as he
glowered at Andrea.

When he continued, his voice was tight and
low once more. “Will you please stay on the subject?”

“
Well, it was just a
suggestion,” Andrea huffed.

Mitch muttered something that Andrea was
glad she hadn’t clearly heard, then propped his hands on his hips.
His eyes glinted dangerously, like gold in candlelight, his lips
were taut.

The man could seethe, there was no doubt
about it.

Then, Mitch took another deep breath and
when he spoke, his words were even. “Andrea,” he said with careful
control, “It’s not unreasonable that I worry about you. Now, I want
you to listen to me for just two minutes.”

He really wanted to make his point. And he
was trying not to blow his stack. Andrea supposed that should earn
him an audience.

But she wasn’t going to make it easy on
him.

And she wasn’t going to change her mind.

Andrea heaved a sigh of apparent reluctance,
then perched on a chair, knowing full well what she was going to
hear. “Fine. You have to promise not to take any longer than that,
because I know what you’re going to say and you could say it in
half that time.”

“
Look.” Mitch squatted down
in front of Andrea, so concerned for her safety and future that her
heart wrenched a little. He was such a good son, even if he wasn’t
exactly her son.

Mitch’s voice was intent, his gaze was
steady. “Andrea, I want you to really think about what you’re
saying here. A fortune teller -“

“
Not just any fortune
teller!” she corrected. “
Lilith
!” Andrea leaned down and
patted Mitch on the shoulder. If only he worried half as much about
himself as he did about everyone else! She really had to find him a
nice young woman who would appreciate him.

Andrea blinked at the realization that there
was one very good candidate right next door. “She seems like a very
nice girl, you know, Mitch, and it’s about time you started
thinking about dating again. You can’t beat yourself up over Janice
forever…”

“
Andrea!”
Mitch
roared.

Andrea decided to shut up.

Mitch took a Herculean breath, stared at the
floor for a long moment, then impaled her with a glance. “I get two
minutes,” he reminded her.

Andrea folded her arms across her chest.
“Well, time’s wasting.”

“
A fortune teller,” Mitch
repeated with a stern glance her way “told you to go on a specific
cruise at a specific time, that you would meet a specific kind of
man there, and that this man - your own true love - would sweep you
off your feet.” Mitch arched a brow. “Doesn’t that sound a teeny
bit suspicious to you?”

“
It sounds like destiny,”
Andrea retorted haughtily. “It sounds like Lilith is reading the
future.”

Mitch snorted. “Come on, Andrea, this is how
cons are arranged! Keep in mind that you are in very comfortable
financial circumstances.”

“
Lilith couldn’t know
that.”

“
Anyone
could know
that,” Mitch retorted so crisply that Andrea wondered. “The real
estate records show my acquisition of the house, a little digging
in the marriage registry and the birth files could come up with my
association with you. It’s
easy
to find people, Andrea, and
to find out a lot about them. The Internet is a positive minefield
of personal information.”

He looked so serious that Andrea believed
him. She bit her lip. “Really?”