Page 67 of Highlander’s Forbidden Fruit

Evanna laughed out loud. “I’ve never heard that one before.”

“May I please invite them?”

“Of course. I dinnae want to miss Tilda having kittens.”

Sarah grinned from ear to ear. Her gloomy mood had suddenly fled, and her good cheer was infectious because Evanna felt a little less gloomy too. They continued on, Sarah chattering away about her plans for Christmas and what she was going to do with her earnings.

They were close to the woods when Evanna saw a woman digging the frosted ground, a basket by her side. The basket was full of roots, herbs, and mushrooms. Her cloak was unusual. It was black with colorful patches and embroidery around the edge. Evanna wondered who she was. She knew everyone who lived on her lands, but she had never seen a cloak like that.

The woman wasn’t from around there.

She was singing a song Evanna had never heard before. It was a nice melody, but the words eluded her. It was a language Evanna did not recognize. But it was beautiful, and haunting.

Evanna guessed she was from the gypsy tribe.

“May I help ye?” Evanna asked, hoping to get the woman’s attention without startling her or coming across as aggressive.

The woman stopped digging and looked up. Evanna gasped. She recognized her. It was the same woman who had read her palm when she was a child. Was this a coincidence or was the universe trying to reinforce the fact that the gypsy had been right all along.

“Just collecting some medicinal roots. I hope you don’t mind.” The woman smiled. She was much older than the last time Evanna had seen her but still beautiful.

“Nae. Yer welcome to them,” she said. “I saw ye when I was a child. Ye read my fortune.”

The woman was taken aback. “Did I? Was it a good fortune?”

Evanna shook her head.

“Then I’m sorry. My name is Kezia.”

“I’m Evanna. This is Sarah.”

“Glad to meet you. If you’d like I can read your fortune again.”

Evanna frowned. Did Kezia take her for an easy fool? “Why would I have the same fortune read to me twice?”

“Fortunes change,” Kezia shrugged. “Life is like the ocean—fluid, and ever changing. If everything was set in stone, why would there be heaven or hell? Wouldn't God know where we belong if everything was predestined?”

“Yer saying destinies change?”

“Yes. They do. The only certainty is death, everything else is sand and wind.”

Evanna considered this and the tiny spark of hope it brought. She crushed it immediately. She could ill afford to go down that path again. What if she got her fortune read again, and it was exactly the same as before? She would be crushed again, and her purse would be much lighter.

“So?” Kezia asked. “Would you like another reading?”

“Nae, thank ye.”

Kezia shrugged. “And you?” she asked Sarah.

“I’m more interested in that. What are they used for?” Sarah asked, pointing at one of the roots.

“These are dandelion roots. They’re good for stomach troubles,” Kezia said. “And this one is vervain,” she touched one of the dirty roots in her basket, soil beneath her fingernails. “It is for both the mind and womb. It brings balance.”

“Could ye teach me how to use them?” Sarah asked.

“Ah, I would have loved to teach you, but it would cost you.”

“I will have money soon,” Sarah piped up. “How much will it cost?”