“My goodness,” Laura exclaimed, as The Tower and the Death cards emerged. Although she didn’t understand much about Tarot, she knew they were not the cards one wishedfor.
“Change,” Dora muttered, groping for her spectacles. “It’s everywhere. Understandable.”
“Good change?”
“Good and bad.”
Laura shivered. She pointed to another card. “The Lovers. That’s a good sign, surely?”
“Reversed.” Dora tapped it. “Placed as it is, it reads as a happy ending to a period of difficulty. And it crosses the King of Pentacles, a dark-haired man of means, which could mean that only through you can this man complete himself.”
“Oh!” Laura didn’t know what to make of it. She focused on the happy endingbit.
Dora reached for the deck. “That will do.”
“Wait!” Laura pointed at another. “What about the King of Cups?”
“A fair-haired man, one you must watch out for.”
“Why?”
Her aunt frowned. “I don’t know, but in an unexpected way he will bring an end to a difficult time.”
“I don’t like the sound of that. What about the Knight of Cups, here?”
“The emotional seeker. He represents your quest—your search for something that’s difficult to obtain.”
Aunt Dora began gathering up thecards.
“That wasn’t much of a reading,” Laura protested, faintly alarmed. “You usually say so much more. I suspect there’s a lot you aren’t telling me.”
Dora looked her most mysterious, destroying the arrangement of cards. “Some things are better not to know.”
“You are naughty, Aunt Dora. Can’t you tell me more?”
Her aunt shook her head. “What month was Lanyon born?”
“November.”
“Scorpio. The most murdered sign of the zodiac. And the most likely to commit murder.”
Laura laughed. “He has managed to survive until thirty-two without being murdered or thrown in prison.”
“You can laugh, Laura. But you’re Cancer. You’ll have trouble understanding a Scorpio man. They can be remote. It will be difficult for you to ever know him completely, even though you will fight hard to understand him.”
“I like a challenge.”
Nathaniel hadn’t kissed her again, although to be fair, the opportunity hadn’t presented itself. Since the engagement appeared in the newspaper, and Nathaniel’s return from Cornwall, they’d been caught up in a whirlwind of parties and dinners with her parents. It had become impossible to talk privately. She would be treading on eggshells until she learned more about his life and understood how the past might affect theirfuture.
“I haven’t been alone with him since we became engaged. We’ve been so busy with social occasions. Not to mention fittings for the gown and the trousseau.” Laura knew her aunt would have no interest whatsoever in learning her Mother had engaged Worth for the wedding gown and Lucile for lingerie and tea gowns. She rose from the table to give her aunt a fond hug. “I’m so glad you’re coming to the wedding. Heaven knows when I’ll see you again. We are traveling down to Wolfram Abbey the day after the ceremony.”
“Do you know the abbey’s history?”
“The prior was John of Wolfram during the 12thcentury, Nathaniel tells me. Of the Cistercian Order. Theabbey was dissolved in the 16thcentury after the prior was executed on a charge of treason.”
Her aunt’s gaze settled on her, her brown eyes just as shrewd as her mother’s. “No honeymoon?”
“Nathaniel can’t spare the time. We plan to have our honeymoon later.”
