"Not really, no. And something tells me that touching someone who can see the world might be a little dangerous. What if you could see all of the secrets inside me?"
She smiled. Touch often gave her insight into a person, sometimes even forcing a prediction or foretelling upon her. Oh, yes, he was very interesting. "Are there secrets to see?"
"We all have secrets." There were shadows in his voice.
"Well then, it seems you have set me a challenge."
The stranger took a step back, but she didn't reach out and grab him.
"Oh, don't be silly, that would be too easy." Cleo felt a wicked smile dawning. She didn't want to simply know his secrets. She wanted to unearth them. There was no fun in simply knowing them, and no guarantee that premonition would ignite at a single touch either. It took long hours of meditation for her to force a foretelling. Otherwise they came at will, and certainly not hers.
"That's what bothers me," he murmured.
"Are you going to stay awhile? I rarely receive visitors, and none of them interested in me."
"What makes you think I am?"
Cleo swung her basket. This was a truth she wasn't certain she wanted to give him, but then she didn't want him to go away either. "People don't talk to me very often. They only ask me questions about themselves. They rarely answer mine. Thus, I suspect your interest lies in me, not in what I can give you."
There was a breathless moment of waiting. "I'll stay awhile," he said finally. He was watching her face when he said it, she could tell, and it made her heart lift a little.
"So what is your name? Am I allowed to know that?" Cleo asked, turning once again toward the pond. He was right. She didn't need his help. Sixteen years of traversing these paths blindly had ingrained them in her head.
He hesitated. "Sebastian."
Sebastian. She mouthed the word, liking it. She hadn't heard that name before, at least, not in connection to her father. "My name is Cleo."
"I know."
How unusual. Cleo had thought herself a well-kept secret, except for within certain circles, but the surety of his tone led her to a suspicion. He had known whom she was, and he had come looking for her in the gardens. This wasn't just some stumbled upon assignation.
His interest was definitely in her.
Not her father.
Truth, said her premonition, lancing through her like white fire.
Cleo hid her gasp in a muffled cough. "Well, what are you doing here? What is your purpose in trespassing?"
"Trespassing?" He sounded surprised. "I'm not trespassing. I was sent here to deliver a message."
"Oh, that." She'd heard the ruckus in the foyer and the cool masculine voice that had left her father sounding faintly subdued. It hadn't sounded at all like this quiet, gentle stranger who liked silences. An entirely fascinating situation, for the Earl of Tremayne was rarely subdued. He wore his anger like a coat, and the usual means of describing him were: blustery, pompous, loud, arrogant... a list that went all of the way to demanding. But something about this stranger made the earl cautious. "That was over an hour ago. Does my father usually allow messengers to linger on his grounds?"
There was nothing but silence.
"Cat got your tongue?" she asked.
"Are you usually so... outspoken? You should be more careful with strangers."
It wasn't a threat. He actually sounded somewhat taken aback. "Nothing's going to happen to me today. I'd have sensed it." She reached up and gestured to her blindfold. "I don't always see everything that's going to happen, but disasters, or catastrophes? Always. Alas, there are no major scandals in my future."
"Scandals?"
"Well, were you referring to a young lady being thrown over the back of a dashing young stranger's horse and carried away to be ravished, or were you referring to something else entirely when you warned me to be careful?"
"Someone reads those newspaper serials to you, don't they?"
"My companion," she replied cheerfully. "She particularly likes the ones where dukes do dastardly deeds. Nothing less than an earl will do." When he didn't answer, she tilted her head toward him. "Oh, I'm sorry. I've shocked you, haven't I?"
