“I cannot see the details, as you know.” She dismissed them.
“Yes, I am aware. However, you may see something that could help me prepare for my future.”
“To avoid your future marriage more likely.” Madam Boswell snorted before she leaned in closer, looking deep into his eyes. “Or perhaps that is not the case at all.”
Blast! He didn’t really want the full purpose of this visit, whether he should pursue Lady Antonia again, to be revealed to his friends.
He should have left Amcaster and Cassian behind. Then he could have spoken privately and honestly to Madam Boswell and sought her counsel, and his future.
“Sit!” Madam Boswell gestured to the stools surrounding the small fire. “I will send for my great-niece.”
Cassian turned to Philip. “What niece?”
“Is there another who can tell fortunes?” Philip asked quietly.
Before they could discuss the matter further, Madam Boswell returned from the back of her wagon and was followed by a young woman with dark flowing hair.
“Iza, my great-niece,” Madam Boswell said. “She has the gift. She has the sight. She will take over when I am gone.”
Madam Boswell appeared ancient with her black hair, streaked with grey, deep lines in her face, hunched from likely bending over the crystal or cards for so long, and her fingers were bent, crooked, likely from arthritis. Philip did not know her age, but she'd looked the same since he was a child. He supposed he had assumed that she'd live forever.
“Will Iza be looking into my future?”
Madam Boswell studied him, her head cocked, eyes perceptive. “Yes. I believe she will.” She then turned to her great-niece. “Iza, would you like to use tea leaves, his palm, the crystal or tarot?”
Iza took his hand and as her dark eyes stared into his, Philip had the most uncomfortable sensation that she could see into his soul.
“You will face changes,” she muttered.
“What kind of changes?”
“I need to consult the crystal. Come with me.”
She did not let go of his hand but pulled him to the vardo. Philip took a seat after she settled before the glass ball.
As she slowly waved her hands over the crystal, it filled with smoke.
How could she see anything?
“You shall undergo changes, several before the next full moon.”
What the blazes did that mean?
“Not until the sun rises the next day will you know your path.”
The clouds inside the crystal cleared and Iza sat back.
“What kind of changes?” Philip asked.
“They were not clear, but the days and weeks before the next full moon will reveal the path to your future.”
“I came here hoping to learn of when I might wed.” And whom.
“They are all interconnected. Not until the full moon will your mate be determined, and if there is to be one.”
He came here to learn who it might be, not to learn if he would marry.
This was far more unsettling than he had expected. He was the heir and had a duty. One that he might not fulfill.
