Page 6 of Chivalry in the Meadow (Hope Runs Deep #2)

Lilly finally spoke. “I thought a reading would be, you’ll marry, have three kids, and live in a small house.”

“You thought the Tarot card reading would be like playing that children’s game you call ‘Life.’ This one has two kids, that one three.

Here is the car, here is the house. That game is only accumulating things and people, it is not real life.

Real life is living, vital, vibrant, like you.

You have a vibration.” She nodded. “Everything has a vibration.”

She watched Lilly for a moment before she spoke again.

“Now you have a lot to take in, and as you’ll be changing, so will your fortune. Try to remember to laugh and relax. Everything does not always have to be so serious.” Madame Merlina winked at her.

Next, she took the full card deck and tapped it three times on the table.

She struck a match and lit a bundle of white sage.

Passing the smoke all around the deck of cards, she said.

“To cleanse them. “Now,” she placed the cards before Mia, “They are cleansed for you to shuffle. As before, three times, and think of your questions.”

Mia had a sudden urge to learn more about her own abilities.

About the knowing, which had passed down to her from her grandmother, and anything else she might have inherited.

So, instead of a question, she thought, teach me the hidden and unhidden abilities I don’t yet understand, and bring me helpers.

Oh, and a handsome hero for me, one who is true and good to me. Help me to find my true love.

Finished with the three shuffles she placed the cards on the table in front of Madame Merlina and then folded her hands in her lap.

Madame Merlina, who’d been watching her, smiled.

Lilly’s eyes lit, excited to hear her best friend’s fortune.

Madame Merlina picked up the deck, cut it in half, and as before, drew from the bottom cards. Placing them down, past, present and future, she then began to turn them over.

“You’ve lived in an imaginary world in your early life,” she said.

“It was a hiding place for you, when you were teased because of your red hair. Bullies knew they could get a rise out of you. Yet you stayed a lively, happy, positive child.” She nodded.

“You learned from stories about others, and you have a childlike curiosity about the world, which you will never lose.”

Mia and Lilly both smiled, at that. No one could have described Mia better.

“Now the present,” Madame Merlina turned over the next cards, looked at them, and took a deep breath. “You are drawn in more than one direction, and your heart is longing for true love. But you are afraid, because in your past, your kindness was abused.”

She closed her eyes, and then her expression grew sad, as if what she was seeing affected her. “You were taken advantage of, for your kindness and empathy.” She opened her eyes again and looked directly at Mia.

“You haven’t had a good man in your life since your father died.

This longing you have, this lack, is pushing the good energy aside which would bring you, your true love.

You want the real, but you also want the magical.

” She smiled. “This isn’t asking too much.

There is no such thing as asking for too much.

You didn’t come down here to earth, to live a small life, hiding away in a book.

You are here to live vibrantly.” She nodded. “And that is what you must do.”

She gathered the second set of cards. “Which brings us to the future.” She set the cards aside and laid out the next cards.

Mia was learning much about how to read cards from watching her. Except for psychic visions, or any knowing’s the fortune teller must’ve had, Mia could’ve done exactly as she had.

Perhaps she could become a card reader.

A thirst to learn more about such all things filled her, as if her curiosity was blooming inside this small tent.

Madame Merlina tilted her head, looking at the cards, thinking. She laid her hands on the table and closed her eyes. Her voice, when she finally spoke sounded different, like an older, wiser woman, lower pitched and strong.

“You must learn to trust your intuition, always, above all else.”

Mia’s hands clenched and chills ran up her spine as the knowing filled her thoughts.

Her third knowing tonight.

Madame Merlina is channeling. She isn’t present in there. Who is speaking to me now?

“When you know something deep inside, that is your soul, speaking to you,” Madame Merlina said. “Sometimes your guardian angel will speak, or your spirit guide. You must learn to listen, for they may speak in whispers. Do you believe this?” Madame Merlina asked without opening her eyes.

“Yes,” Mia said.

Madame Merlina continued in that other voice. “Too much noise around you can drown it out. Too much busy mind can do the same. Once you learn how to listen, through all things, this ability will never leave you. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” Mia said.

“Your strength is your empathy, which comes from your heart. This is why others try to use it, to take it from you. They lack this energy and resent you. It is your strength, but you must control where it goes and not let others drain you. Will you work on this?”

“Yes,” Mia said.

“Fire comes naturally to you, and that inner fire brings strength, with the temper you’ve been taught is bad. Inner fire is not bad, it is what we do with our energies that can be bad or good. This fire has always been with you, yes?”

“Yes,” Mia said.

“It will always be with you. Now you must let your pure heart guide you. Learn to see beyond appearances. Many are not who they seem. When someone is for you, your heart will know. You must be receptive to true love, not seeking and chasing it. Helpers will come to you. Listen for them.”

Madame Merlina gave one nod, and then slumped, her eyes still closed.

She remained silent, unmoving.

Mia and Lilly looked at each other, both afraid to speak.

“Now what?” Lilly mouthed.

Mia shrugged, having no idea whether they should get up and leave, or wait till the woman woke up, if she was asleep.

Was she asleep?

With a jerk, Madame Melina sat up straight and opened her eyes, startling them.

She looked around the tent, before her gaze landed on Mia. “You sent a strong request,” she said. “I trust you received answers. I never remember what is said when channeling.”

“Yes,” Mia spoke quietly. “Thank you. It was much more than I expected.”

Madame Merlina nodded. “Now if you will hang out my closed sign.” She pointed to it.

“You’re closing early?” Lilly said.

“No more tonight,” she said. “I must rest.” She stood, holding onto the table but was clearly exhausted.

“We need to pay you,” Lilly said.

She shook her head. “No.”

“Oh, but we really should,” Lilly started digging in her purse.

“Tomorrow,” she said, and then stepped behind a red curtain in the back of the tent.

“Let’s go,” Mia said. “Can’t you see how exhausted she is? That took a lot out of her.”

“Well, yes, but I don’t feel right not paying her for our readings,” Lilly said.

“We can come back tomorrow, like she wants,” Mia said. “I don’t know what time it is, but we don’t want to miss your cousins show.”

“Right,” Lilly put her money away, and then went to hold the tent flap up for them to slip outside. “My mind is full of the things she told me. Wow, she knew all about my family.”

“She’s the real deal,” Mia said. “No wonder your cousin insisted we get readings.”

“I just wanted to know about a boyfriend,” Lilly laughed. “Those readings got deep.”

“Yeah, a lot to think about,” Mia said. “I’m ready for Finn’s fire breathing, but let’s freshen up first and get some water. I’m parched.”

“Sounds good.”

They started walking back to Finn’s tent.

The moon now up, and the sun long gone to bed, Mia and Lilly left the public area to explore the knight’s encampment on the way back.

“Do you think we’ll run into any of the knights?” Mia asked.

“I hope so,” Mia said.

Up ahead the encampment seemed to shimmer.

“It feels like there’s magic in the air tonight,” Mia said. “Do you see anything shimmering over there?”

“No,” Lilly said.

“By that first tent right now,” Mia said.

“Nope.” Lilly looked at Mia. “Didn’t you bring your glasses?”

Mia shook her head. “No. I left them at home on my bedside table. I don’t need them to read and since I wasn’t driving thought I could do without them.”

She could have sworn the air was shimmering with some kind of magic.