Time Travel Romances Boxed Set (171 page)

Andrea reached out suddenly and squeezed
Lilith’s hand. She took a deep breath and obviously tried to blink
away the sheen of tears in her eyes. “But you’re undoing the
lesson, Lilith, as I never imagined anyone could.” She bit her lip.
“Don’t stop. Don’t give up on him.”

“
I won’t,” Lilith pledged,
surprised when Andrea gave her a big hug.

“
I know,” Andrea whispered.
“That’s what I like about you. You’re almost as stubborn as I am.
You’re going to fit right in to this family and don’t let anyone
tell you different.”

Lilith grinned and hugged Andrea back,
wiping away a tear of her own. She looked up to find Mitch
lingering at the gate, his gaze warm. He smiled at her and Lilith
smiled back.

“
Okay?” he mouthed and she
nodded.

Mitch slammed the gate as though he was just
arriving and the kids raced to meet him. Andrea straightened and
wiped away the last of her tears, summoning a quick smile.

“
Is there a nice cool
swimming pool back here?” Mitch demanded. “I need a
swim.”

“
Me, too!” Kurt declared,
following Mitch into the yard.

“
Here, Daddy, here!” Jen
cried, running to catch at Mitch’s hand when he made a great show
of not being able to find the pool. He collapsed into it finally,
almost overwhelming it. Jen jumped on top of him, Cooley barked,
Jason got the hose and turned it on Kurt. The yard soon became
grounds for a big boisterous water fight that left them all
soaked.

Mitch shook out his hair the way Cooley did
and grinned up at Lilith. “I had this idea,” he said to no one in
particular, his gaze fixed upon hers. “How about we take Nana to
the airport tomorrow, then go to the zoo?” This idea was greeted
with great approval, but Mitch was watching Lilith closely. “Join
us?” he asked, the tentative edge to his words making her
smile.

“
I’d love to,” Lilith
replied warmly. Andrea hummed approval but Lilith was much more
interested in Mitch’s flashing grin.

“
Good!” he said, leaving no
doubt of his feelings about the matter and Lilith felt her heart
begin to pound.

“
Lillit!” A bedraggled Jen
tugged on Lilith’s skirt. “Can we take Dartaggin? He can visit the
big kitties.”

Jen looked so hopeful that Lilith didn’t
immediately have a good answer for that. “I don’t think so,
Jen.”

“
Why not?”

Andrea started to chuckle. “Get used to that
one,” she murmured, then ducked into the kitchen. Mitch winked,
then insisted on seeing the state of Jason’s garden, the two of
them soon talking about all manner of bugs and crawly things. Kurt
waved and departed for some big date.

“
Why not, Lillit?” Jen
demanded again and Lilith knew she was going to think of something
but quick.

Talk about trial by fire.

*

When Lilith went home that evening, the next
card had turned itself over.

She picked up The Hanged Man and studied the
card. Pictured was a man, hung upside down. A rope bound his one
ankle to the bough of a tree, a noose on the wrong end of the man,
like the Norse god Odin swinging from the world tree for nine days
and nights in search of illumination.

Number twelve in the higher arcana, The
Hanged Man was a clear reference to Sebastian’s untimely demise. It
was also Mitch Davison after Janice got through with him.

On a third level, it could be Mitch today.
Lilith sank into a chair and thought about it. The Hanged Man has
the courage to challenge what he knows is true, to put aside the
pain of his own experience, and to trust that taking a chance will
win him results. The Hanged Man trusts in what he cannot see, what
he does not really know to be true but
believes
is true. The
Hanged Man sacrifices what he holds dear, counting on forces he
can’t explain to take him to a new plateau of understanding.

Lilith fingered the card. Clearly, Janice
had shaken Mitch’s faith in love and given him a radically
different experience of marriage than the one he had expected. And
just as clearly, Mitch was slowly putting the “lessons” Janice had
taught him aside. Lilith could feel him letting down his guard,
trusting her, showing her more and more of who he was. The way his
gaze clung to hers, the way he worked to make her smile were the
mark of a man preparing to come courting.

Lilith smiled with the realization that
Mitch was taking a chance on love, despite what he had experienced
before, no doubt in the hope that he and Lilith would find a
magickal love well worth that risk. He had to be facing one of his
great fears - for Lilith knew how tender broken hearts could be -
but Mitch faced the challenge squarely. She had to admire his
steady progress and his determination.

But then, they were destined to be together,
after all.

Lilith put down the card thoughtfully. She
considered that Mitch had something to teach her. Her own refusal
to visit this elderly
Rom
woman looked childish in
comparison to his resolve.

Because Lilith wasn’t taking any chances.
Lilith believed in a lot of things that couldn’t be seen, but she
hadn’t been prepared to risk anything beyond that.

She was acting like a coward. The
realization did not sit well.

But as Lilith sat there and considered that,
Mitch’s conviction in the merit of taking a chance fueled her own.
She felt his faith well up inside her and heard again the echo of
conviction in his suggestion that this grandmother might need
Lilith as much as Lilith needed her.

He might be right.

He might be wrong, but there was only one
way to find the truth. And there was only one way to prove that she
wasn’t a coward. Lilith was still afraid of what might happen, but
she had to face her fear.

Lilith knew then that she would go the
hospital.

*

Mitch was a very happy camper. They’d had a
great time at the zoo, just like a family. The kids were so
comfortable with Lilith that he knew he had nothing to worry about
on that score, and she was so clear-thinking and sensible that he
knew she’d take exemplary care of them.

Of course, he’d still worry, but he’d worry
less.

On Tuesday, the hardware store called to say
that Lilith’s new storm door was in. Mitch picked it up on the way
home and installed it that evening, keeping one eye on the kids as
they played. He could hear Lilith reading fortunes in the front of
her house and shamelessly eavesdropped.

Lilith’s advice, without fail, was positive,
caring and compassionate. Even if she had some strange
preconceptions, it was clear that there was no maliciousness or
opportunism in Lilith Romano.

For once, Mitch Davison was very glad to
keep finding reassurance that he had been wrong.

*

On the following Thursday afternoon when all
her appointments and obligations were resolved, Lilith took a deep
breath and dressed carefully. She walked down to the subway, a
scrawled slip of paper in her hand. It was high time she shake
hands with her destiny and confront the legacy in her veins.

Even if the prospect made something tremble
in her belly.

The hospital was bustling with activity, the
emergency ward filled to the brim. Lilith worked her way through
the throng to the main reception and discovered, to her mingled
relief and trepidation, that she hadn’t come too late.

The smell of death, or more accurately the
sense of its presence, grew stronger in the elevator, and stronger
again when Lilith walked down the long pale corridor. Nurses
brushed past her with efficient smiles, but as she drew near the
end of the hall - and closer to the room number she had been given
- the activity slowed noticeably.

And the tang in the air grew stronger.
Lilith realized that no one else could sense it, no one without her
Gift, but to her, it was as unmistakable as the sting of freshly
cut onions.

It was the last room in the hall that bore
the right number, the same room from which the whisper of death
emanated. Lilith tapped on the door and, when there was no answer,
she nudged it open.

An elderly woman sat staring out the window,
as though she would make sense of the rush of traffic on the
highway below. She didn’t even look up when Lilith stepped into the
room, but Lilith knew she had found in the right place. The woman’s
cheeks were hollow, her gaze distracted, a knowledge in her pose of
her own inescapable fate.

Not to mention its proximity.

And Lilith knew from the hook of the woman’s
nose, the squint of her eyes, the determination of her posture,
that this was the
Rom
grandmother she sought. Although she
wore the standard hospital issue backless gown, her feet were
shoved into slippers rich with colorful embroidery. Gold hoops hung
from her ears, a floral shawl was cast over her bony shoulders.

Lilith paused and stared, suddenly awash in
recollections. This could have been Dritta, it could have been a
dozen women Lilith had known.

It could have been herself if she hadn’t
drunk the elixir.

Lilith swallowed hard. The prevalence of
white in the room even made her shiver, the scent of disinfectant
and laundered sheets so far from the fresh breeze of the outside
air.

Lilith bit her lip, recalled the grandson’s
dismay, and considered that this grandmother was in no small pain
herself. It was clear she had no interest in who came to her door,
her manner much like that of Dritta in a temper. Lilith remembered
how she had coaxed Dritta from a foul mood with compliments, and
decided it was worth a try.

She had come all this way, after all.

“
Good afternoon,
phuri
bibi,
” Lilith said softly from the doorway in
Rom
. She
used the term
phuri bibi
, literally old aunt, but its import
was noble, more akin to great lady.

The woman stiffened and turned, her eyes
narrowed as she surveyed Lilith. Her lip curled. “
Posh rat
!”
she charged.

Half-blood.

Lilith swallowed, certain her expectation of
rejection would soon be proven right. But she shook her head. The
Rom
had little use for half-breeds and the woman was
obviously using that as an excuse to get rid of Lilith.

How like Dritta that was!

“
Tacho rat
,” Lilith
corrected softly. Full blood.

The older woman’s eyes widened. She turned
slightly in her chair and her gaze sharpened like that of an
inquisitive bird. When she spoke in full sentences, Lilith knew she
had made progress.

“
But you speak the words
like they do not belong on your tongue,” the woman charged in
rhythmic
Rom
. “You cannot be of us.”

Lilith advanced into the room and paused,
not far from the woman’s bright gaze. “I have not spoken
Rom
for a long time,” she admitted. There was no point in lying, even
if the truth gave this woman the excuse she needed to send Lilith
away.

“
Why not?”

Lilith looked into those dark eyes so like
her own, took a breath and confessed. “I was called
mahrime
.”

The woman’s lips pursed, but she did not
pull away. “Why?”

“
I loved a
gadjo
.”

The woman snorted and fussed with her gown.
“No
Rom
man was good enough for you?”

“
No
Rom
man was my
soul mate.”

The older woman looked up at that. “You have
him still?” she asked with a coyness so unexpected that Lilith
almost smiled. Instead she nodded and her companion’s resulting
smile spread slowly.

Then the older woman abruptly sobered and
looked across the room. “I had a soul mate until they stole him
from me.”

Lilith didn’t know what to say to that, so
she waited.

The other woman finally bit her lip and
looked back to Lilith, her tone brisk once more. “Are you a good
Rom
girl? How did my grandson find you?”

“
I am a
drabarni
,”
Lilith admitted. A fortune-teller. An herbalist. A healer. For the
Rom
, they were all one and the same.

Which was why the grandson had been sent for
a fortune-teller. Lilith knew.

The woman’s eyes gleamed approval. “He is a
clever boy in his moments.” She reached up and pinched Lilith’s
cheek. “And are you a good
drabarni
? Do you have the
Sight?”

Lilith nodded, unable to deny how the woman
reminded her of Dritta.

She nodded approval of that. “You make your
man a good wife, whether he is
gadjo
or no. After all,
shuk chi hal pe la royasa.
”

Beauty cannot be eaten with a spoon.

It was a favorite old
Rom
proverb and
good to hear it on another tongue. The words convinced Lilith that
she had done the right thing in coming here.

“
But I am
mahrime
,”
she felt compelled to remind the woman. After all, any contact with
her could taint this woman as well. “Does it not trouble
you?”

The older woman blew through her lips like
an old horse. “We are not so many that we can stand apart on such
things,” she said regally. “I am too old to care. You are here. You
speak Rom to me. It is enough.”

The relief that flooded through Lilith left
her feeling weak in its wake. She blinked back unexpected tears,
seeing now how foolish she had been to be afraid. Mitch had given
her this. Mitch had given her the gift of confidence to face her
past.

She was going to have to make sure the man
was rewarded.

Lilith’s characteristic determination to set
matters to rights was rising to the fore again. “Your grandson said
you had something to tell him,” she suggested gently.