“’Twas a dark time,” he said softly.“So much fighting.To return to you… It made me happy.”He didn’t mean to refer to himself in the first person.He held his breath, waiting for her to discover the mistake.Waiting for her to ask.This would be the opening he needed to tell her everything.To tell her he hadn’t been reincarnated like she thought.But she didn’t catch his slip.
“You made her happy, too,” she said.“I think you were the only bright spot in her life as well.”
He rubbed his chin on the top of her head and pressed his lips into her hair.
“Did you love her?”she asked.
“More than anything.”
“And yet you two couldn’t be together.”
“I was a lowly knight, you—she—a countess.We were worlds apart.”
“How sad.”
“Not sad.We took what we were able and were happy for it.Bittersweet, maybe, but never sad.”
“When did you realize you had this whole past life?”
Tell her.“I’ve always known.”
“Did you dream of it?”
“There were dreams.Memories.”
Lainie sighed and settled more comfortably against him.“Did you think you were going crazy too?When you started having these weird dreams?”
“Madelaine, you are not crazy.”
“I know.It’s just sometimes I feel like two different people.”
“There are things about you that are the same as her, but you two are not the same.Your beliefs and your personality have been shaped by the time you are living in, just as Madelaine’s was.That alone makes you two different.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“You have to trust me on this.”
His other hand rested on her thigh and she played with the tips of his fingers.“Sometimes I wonder if my feelings for you aren’t what she felt for you.I experience her emotions in my dreams.And when I awaken, those emotions stay with me.I have to wonder where hers end and mine begin.”
He turned his hand palm up and trapped her fingers in his, stilling her nervous motions.“The only way to find out is to test those emotions.”
“And what if we discover what we feel for each other isn’t real?”
“What we feel for each other is very real.”
Some time passed.Christien stroked her shoulder.She snuggled into his embrace and they watched the moon reflect off the waves.
“How did it end?”she asked.
“How did what end?”
“Madelaine and her dark knight.”
Something cold and lethal sliced through his heart, opening old wounds.
“Not good, huh?”
“No.I’m afraid not.”
