Goodness gracious!How could Graham have known those details?
He sat back in his chair. “You have no further cause to grieve over Lewis, for you shall see him again soon. You will be reunited with your husband as well.”
Mrs. Green dabbed at her face with a handkerchief. “Sir, you have brought me a great deal of comfort.” Her gaze moved towards me. “I am grateful to you both for your visit. Now, if you will excuse me, I am quite fatigued.”
“We shall take our leave.” I stood, and before we completed our farewells, Mrs. Green appeared to have drifted into a slumber. As Graham and I returned to the curricle, questions filled my head.
I bided my time until we returned to the road, leaving the Green’s home in the distance. “What happened back there? How did you know those facts about Lewis and Mrs. Green?”
He halted the horses, moved the reins to one hand, and faced me. “I have a gift of sorts, an enhanced form of intuition. Certain details pertaining to people living or dead are accessible to me in the form of visions and thoughts. When I apply my mind to the task, I can make a connexion with other people so that images and information are available to me, such as Mrs. Green seated in her favourite chair.” His eyes blazed into me like a fiery probe, and I looked away.
This all seemed too fantastic to be believed, the stuff of fairy-tales, yet he made his remarkable ability sound almost reasonable.
“At certain times, a person’s thoughts may be palpable to me without any necessary effort on my part, such as the final moments before death or when they experience a potent emotion. On those occasions, the mental images create an impression that is visible to me.”
How strange and complex this experience must be. I bit my lip and raised my sight to him. “Do you see these images all the time?”
“No, but it is a common occurrence. Random thoughts of people I encounter might be accessible to me. The reflections of most people, like yourself and Darcy, are unavailable to me unless I am in physical contact and employing my faculties to receive them. In the case of those who have passed on, I can communicate with them via physical contact with their living loved ones as I did with Mrs. Green.”
“I have never witnessed anything so remarkable before. Despite the grievous nature of your revelation, you seemed to have provided her serenity.”
“Yes, I believed that would be the case else I should not have offered her the information.”
Did Graham’s astounding ability amount to more of a curse than a blessing? He must be subjected to all manner of unpleasant feelings and images. The poor man—what an awful burden he must bear!
He moved closer. “Has my explanation disturbed you? I should hate to make you uncomfortable in any way.”
“No. It has occurred to me, though, that your gift must be taxing and must overwhelm you at times.”
“Oh, I see. Your concern is appreciated, but I am well accustomed to my abilities, and they do not distress me in theleast. In fact, I wonder if you have a question I might address with regard to a particular deceased person.”
I sucked in a sharp breath. An image of my Grandmama Bennet shot to the forefront of my thoughts. “Well…um…the concept is interesting, but I should not want to trouble you.”
“On the contrary, I should be pleased to be of service.”
“Are you certain?”
“Yes, very much so.”
“Since you have been so kind as to offer, my Grandmother Bennet succumbed to influenza six years ago.” My voice held a slight quaver. I placed my palms on my lap and attempted to quell my anticipation; perhaps he would be unable to reach her. “She lived in our home in Hertfordshire, and we shared a close bond. She fell sick and died whilst I stayed with my aunt and uncle in town. I wish I had been there to say goodbye. I should be obliged if you would convey that to her.”
“That is easily done.” He held out his hand, and I placed my palm atop his.
My heart thudded as thoughts and images of my beloved Grandmama Bennet inundated me. Might I receive a message from her?
“Pray close your eyes for a moment and imagine your Grandmother Bennet.”
I complied and pictured my grandmama with her familiar smile on display and her favourite green shawl loose around her shoulders. One memorable instance from about fifteen years ago came to mind: after Mama had chastised me for returning home with dirt on my dress, Grandmother came to me. She took me in her arms, her lavender scent surrounding me.
“Cheer up, my sweet Lizzy. I fear your mother will never understand you but do not lose your spirit for adventure and your hunger for learning. These are the qualities in you that I most treasure.”
The silvery tones of her voice, her warm hand holding mine, and her wise, crinkled eyes came back to me. Then Graham’s speech broke through my reverie.
“Your grandmother is showing me a memory—she is teaching a young girl of twelve or thirteen to ride.” He pressed his fingers to the side of his head. “The girl’s fear of horses makes her reluctant, yet her determination to please her instructor overpowers the fright.” His eyelids fluttered and opened. “The little girl is you.”
“Yes.” Hedidreach her! The beginnings of tears blurred my vision, and I removed my handkerchief. “At the age of ten, I suffered a bad fall from a horse. After that, I had no wish to ever ride again. But Grandmama Bennet pressed me against allowing my fear to rule me. Since she had always adored horses, she convinced me to try riding again on her own horse, a wise and gentle old mare named Jenny. Once I became comfortable riding Jenny, I rode her every day until the sweet horse grew sick. She died a year or so after Grandmama’s death.”
“Your Grandmother Bennet wants you to know that she is not sorry to have died while you were away. She much prefers you to remember her as she was when you last saw her—when she hugged you goodbye before you entered your father’s carriage for London.” He removed his hand from under mine.
