I was bummed out for my great grandma.
But I sat silent and listened.
Ravenna, as usual, had it going on.
“What had to be righted is…love. Harmony was the love of Charlie’s life. Charlie was the love of Harmony’s. Sometimes, this love is so great, it has magical power all on its own. Their love was so great, it had this power. When it was thwarted, it affected the veil.”
This was a little hocus-pocus, but it still made sense.
Ravenna kept going.
“Of course, they both went on to find happiness with others, and that’s good. But it was not what was meant to be. When what’s not meant to be is, the veil is disturbed. And it stays that way until what went wrong is righted.”
“Battle and me,” I deduced.
She nodded.
“Of her blood, of his. Yes. The duke and you.” She studied me closely. “Don’t mistake the forces we can’t explain interfering in this as anything but what it is. The fact your ancestors weren’t, has no bearing on the depth of what you and the duke have. Again, the bottom line of it is, you two were meant to be too. What you have with the duke has its own power, and that power is significant. Thus, the veil around The Downs is at peace once again.”
This was hocus-pocus too.
But to me, it totally made sense.
“So I won’t see phantom dancers in the ballroom anymore?” I inquired.
She smiled, sipped her tea and shook her head.
Well, that was a relief.
Also, I totally knew she knew what was going down.
“I have tons more questions,” I told her.
“I hope I have answers,” she invited me to ask them.
“Okay, you said the last time I was here that the veil was disturbed recently, but just now, that it’s been disturbed since Harmony and Charlie were parted. So what’s the difference?”
“You.”
“Me?”
“It was never right, but in my lifetime, it was all I knew. Until things went haywire, because you arrived at The Downs.”
Okay.
Right.
That made sense as well.
“So you saw in the cards that I saw the ghosts in the ballroom,” I said.
She just nodded.
I kept going.
“Now, I can understand why I saw the scene from when it was a hospital, since that was about Harmony and Charlie. But I also saw a Regency ball, and there were lights coming from there on a night when I was in danger. And I could swear they were calling to me to get to the house and be safe.”
“As they would,” she confirmed. “If something happened to you, the veil would have to wait for some other descendent of Charlie’s to meet some other descendent of the duke’s to make things right. I’m sure it was disturbing to see those scenes, as you call them. But they weren’t malevolent. They were needed. Thus, they appeared for a reason.”
