she turned a single card up. The king of spades.
Pointing to it, she said, “You, m’sieur.”
“Are you quite certain?”
“Oui. Were this a tarot deck, you would be the king of swords. A good card. A strong card. A warrior.”
Flattery? Somehow he thought not. “Swords, eh? What am I doing?”
She pointed to a queen of hearts. “Doutant moi.”
Another joke? “How do you know you are the queen of hearts?”
“She is presently close to you and ’as the gift of sight. Do you know such another?”
She had him there. “No,” he admitted.
“Voilà! C’est moi.” There was a note of triumph in her voice, as if she had surprised even herself.
“Will my doubt prevent you from giving me a reading?”
Madame Zoe sat back, folded her hands in her lap. “Mais non, m’sieur. Do not concern yourself. The cards are what they are. But I feel the doubt in you. You do not think telling the future is possible, no?”
“Pray, do not allow my reservations to hinder you. This is my first time at a fortune-teller. You must allow me my little doubts.” He took the chair across from her and folded his arms across his chest.
She appeared to be weighing her words, deciding what to say, or how much. “You are a warrior, m’sieur. You ’ave come ’ere with the…plan. The strategy. There is something you wish to know, but you will not speak it aloud.”
He raised an eyebrow. That was a clever ploy. While quite true of him, the same could be said of nearly everyone who visited a fortune-teller. “Hmm. Must I speak it aloud, madame, for you to answer the question?”
“No. I confess it would be easier, but not needed.” She pointed to the ten of spades. “I think it ’as to do with the revenge. I do not see a ’appy outcome, m’sieur. Revenge is a two-edged sword. It draws blood on both sides, n’est-ce pas? One cannot be certain ’oo will be cut.”
A remarkably good guess, he thought. “Sometimes the reason for revenge makes it worth the risk.”
She shook her head slowly. “Mais non, m’sieur. There are only two reasons for revenge. Both silly.”
“And those reasons would be…”
“L’amour ou l’argent, monsieur.”
Of course. Love or money. One did not have to be a fortune-teller to know this. “Which do you think is my motive?” he asked, unable to keep the challenge from his voice.
Her own voice was steady and sure. “Love. You are not a man to quibble over money.”
“You are very logical, madame. Very perceptive.” Was it perception that passed for fortune-telling? Did she merely tell people what she guessed they wanted to hear? Was she little more than an intuitive observer?
“Not logical, m’sieur. I only speak what the cards say.”
“Balderdash!” The word was out before he could stop it.
A small muffled laugh emerged from beneath the veils. “I am sorry you think so. Néanmoins, you ’ave come for the reading, and I shall oblige.” She bent over the spread cards once again in an attitude of rapt concentration, turning the facedown cards up in a precise pattern. “You, and you alone, ’ave the power to determine your future. What I tell you now is only what could be…what might be. You must choose your course.
“You are now suffering from…’ow you say—chagrin d’amour?”
The corner of his mouth twitched. “You say, ‘a broken ’eart.’” At last Madame Zoe was going astray. Maeve and Hamish’s deaths had not broken his heart, they had hardened it.
“Oui, ’eartbreak. But you must not worry, m’sieur. You will love again. You will love deeper.” She pointed to the queen of clubs. “She was not your grande passion. You will ’ave la grande passion. If…”
“If?”
She shrugged. “If you let go of your ’urt. If not, your quest for revenge will poison you and those around you.”
Dangerously close! How could she garner that from a few common cards? “You misunderstand, madame. What you call revenge, I call justice. As for putting it aside—that’s easy to say, impossible to do.”
“M’sieur, I…” She trailed off in a sigh.
“If you have something to tell me, madame, do so,” he said.
She leaned over the cards again and turned another three up, then another three, stopping to study the way the cards had fallen. “Danger. Clearly, danger. Spreading in a radius around the king—you, m’sieur. Alas, I cannot tell if the danger is to the king or from the king. It may be both. You must be very careful, m’sieur.” She fell silent, her head bent over the cards.
Damnation. Was she about to give him a warning from the cards? Had he just tipped his hand? He stirred uneasily as he waited for her to finish. “Madame? Have you fallen asleep?” he asked when the silence stretched out.
When she answered, her voice was subdued, and he felt for the first time that she was hedging. “You must not worry, m’sieur. The matters that are troubling you will soon come clear.”
“Is that what your cards tell you?”
She touched her forehead through her veil. “I…I ’ave suddenly come over with the malaise, m’sieur. I will instruct my factor to reimburse you.”
“I do not want reimbursement, madame. I want a reading.”
The hand on her forehead began to tremble, and Rob realized she was not feigning to get rid of him. She was actually in distress. He leaned toward her, surprising himself with a quick pang of concern. “Do you require assistance, madame?”
She waved one hand to prevent him from coming closer. “’Ow kind of you, mais non. I must ’ave quiet. I cannot see your future, m’sieur. There are clouds, barriers—”
“Ah.” He nodded “The doubts you spoke of earlier.”
“Oui,” she sighed.
“Then can you tell me the past?”
She studied the remaining cards after fanning them in an arc across the table. “Your past is filled with, ah, turbulence. And much pain, I think. There ’as been betrayal and injury. You ’ave learned not to trust. You…you are a man of strong passions, though you ’ide it well. You are intelligent, thoughtful, deliberate—relentless in pursuing your goal. Alas, m’sieur, you are not ’appy. You ’ave the deep ’urt. You must overcome these things if you are to live again. In the present, m’sieur, you do not allow for the—’ow you say—caprice of life. For the whim, the ’umor or the silly thought. You ’ave not learned that dreams, no matter ’ow impossible, make dreary lives worth living, and that when ’ope dies, the
