Garden of the Moon (14 page)

I stood in the background, hugging my sorrow close to my heart. No one noticed me. They were all too busy fawning over Katherine…everyone but Mother. She sat to the side looking almost as unhappy as I felt. Occasionally she’d cast a glance in my direction. Her expression filled with pity. Pity? For me?

My morose mood had just about paralyzed me when Jonathan whispered in my ear to meet him in my mother’s garden
…

The room began to spin out of control. Sara swirled helplessly through a long, bright Tunnel. Colors swam before her eyes. Her stomach heaved. Panic seized her. But this all seemed familiar, as if it had happened to her once before. And it had. The night she’d found herself in the Garden of the Moon with Jonathan on her birthday…Maddy’s birthday.

Elation filled her twisting and turning body. She’d finally found the secret to going back to Jonathan. All she’d ever had to do all along was read Maddy’s diary.

She ceased fighting the whirling vortex and waited, knowing that at the end of this dizzying journey, she would once more find the man she loved.

***

Maddy slipped from the parlor filled with people celebrating the betrothal of her twin and the man she loved to meet Jonathan. Easing down the long hall to the back of the house, she heard voices coming from her father’s study. Careful, and not wanting to risk being discovered, she stopped outside the door. It was slightly ajar, and Clarice Degas’ familiar voice came to her through the crack.

“You must forget her. She’s betrothed to another man now. Pining over her will serve no purpose except to make you ill,
chère
.” A slight pause followed. “Please, my darling, you must move on with your life.”

“I can’t, Mother.” Maddy recognized the anguished voice of Philip Degas, Clarice’s only child. “I’ve loved Katherine for too long to just sweep her from my thoughts and my heart.”

Maddy’s mouth fell open.

Phillip was in love with Katherine
?

That answered many questions she’d had over the years: Phillip’s continual patience with a woman who had a tongue like a viper, his animated face whenever Katherine entered a room, the lavish pearl necklace he’d given her for her birthday, despite the impropriety of such a gift to a woman on the verge of betrothal to another man.

That she wasn’t the only one with a bleeding heart made Maddy feel a tiny bit less alone, even if she couldn’t share her feelings with Phillip.

“He can’t have her, Mother. I’ll stop him. I’m not sure how, but I
will
stop him.” The gritty, threatening tone of Phillip’s voice sent chills down Maddy’s back.

Before Clarice could reply, Maddy slipped past the door and hurried toward the garden. Jonathan waited for her at the far end, hidden by a large azalea bush.

“My love.” He enfolded her in his arms. “I’m so very sorry. I really thought she’d back out of the engagement.”

Maddy said nothing. She couldn’t. Her throat was so full of emotion the words would never have passed it. She buried her face against the soft linen of Jonathan’s shirt front.

Jonathan set her at arm’s length. “All hope is not lost. The wedding date hasn’t been set, and perhaps she’ll call it off before then.”

Maddy pulled from his embrace and moved a few feet away. Thinking about anything while enclosed in Jonathan’s arms, except how very much she loved him, was nearly impossible.

“She won’t, you know. We’re only fooling ourselves if we believe that.” She smiled weakly. “I will always love you, but I think it’s our destiny never to be together.”

“No!” Jonathan strode angrily toward her. “I won’t listen to such talk. We
will
be together. I’ll find a way.” He took her shoulders in his big hands. “I’ll find a way. I promise you, I will and I have never broken any promise I ever made to you. Have I?”

She shook her head. He was right. He’d never broken a promise, but she was very much afraid that this was one promise he would not be able to keep.

Maddy looked into his dear face. There was no way they would ever be together. She knew it in the depths of her heart, and if Jonathan wanted to be honest with himself, he knew it as well.

“Jonathan, I just heard Phillip tell his mother that he loves Katherine, and he plans on stopping you from having her.” Maddy took a step toward him, but stopped before she got close enough to touch him. “He sounded desperate. If he loves her half as much as I love you, that desperation could lead him to do things that he wouldn’t normally even consider. Please be careful.”

Jonathan laughed, the sound strained and bitter. “My God, I’d give her to him gladly, if she’d just release me from this charade of a relationship.” He ran his hand through his thick black hair. “I must find a way to get out of this. I can’t live my life estranged from the woman I love.” He closed the gap between them and hauled Maddy back into his arms.

Maddy knew there was no way. Talking about it further would only hurt both of them. Filled with despair, she pulled from his embrace and kissed him briefly. “We’ll be missed. We have to go back inside.”

She turned and ran from the garden, unable to be near him with such a deep chasm separating them.

Outside the parlor door, she stopped long enough to dab at the moisture on her cheeks. Her eagle-eyed mother would see it immediately and want to know why she’d been crying.

“Ah, Jonathan, my boy, there you are,” her father bellowed.

Maddy assumed Jonathan had reentered the parlor by the dining room door. Satisfied that no trace of her tears remained on her skin, she slipped into the parlor in time to hear her father’s announcement.

“Good news,” her father went on. “We’ve settled on a date. You and Katherine will be married in two weeks at Brentwood. The weather will still be favorable so we’ll have the wedding in the garden.” He raised a glass of Champaign and toasted the couple. “To Katherine and Jonathan. May their lives be long, happy and fruitful.”

Maddy’s head began to spin. Catching hold of a chair back, she waited for the dizzy spell to pass, but it didn’t. The sensation increased. A lightness invaded her head. Soon a swirling mass of light swept her up and away from the mass of people. All sound around her ceased. Her feet seemed to have been lifted from the floor. Just at that moment, she was thrown into a long, endless tunnel of light.

Chapter 11

Sara became conscious of her surroundings with a start. The pain slicing through her heart was almost physical in intensity. She…Maddy had lost Jonathan to Katherine, a woman who wanted him only to hurt her sister. And what of Phillip? The poor man, although she couldn’t imagine why anyone would love Maddy’s sister that much, would be crushed. Like her, he’d suffered a heartbreaking loss.

With a heavy heart, Sara laid the diary aside and gazed blankly out the window. How could she live with this pain? How did Maddy live with it? Why did Katherine hate Maddy so much?

Then she recalled the conversation she’d eavesdropped on between Clarice and Phillip in the Grayson’s library. Clarice would know why Katherine was so bent on hurting her sister and destroying four lives in the process. And what of Phillip’s threat to have Katherine for himself? Had Phillip been the young neighbor man Clarice Degas told her had killed Jonathan?

The last time she’d spoken to Clarice, the old lady had said that Katherine hated Maddy for her beauty, but it had to be more than that. And Sara knew in her heart that Clarice could tell her what the real reason was and if Phillip had made good on his threat. Despite Clarice’s warning not to return to Candlewick, tomorrow Sara would go see her and get some answers. Right now, she had to give in to the sudden exhaustion that claimed her body.

Putting the diary safely away, she crawled into her bed and pulled the eiderdown quilt under her chin. Almost before she had time to think about it, her eyes drifted closed, and she sank into the oblivion of sleep.

***

“Wake up, my love.”

The gentle voice whispered in Sara’s ear. Warm breath wafted over her skin and sent shivers down her spine. She pulled the down quilt closer to her body.

“Wake up, Maddy.”

Maddy
?

Sara’s eyes flew open. Another presence in the room made itself known. Straining against the enveloping darkness, she pushed herself up and gazed around. Sitting beside her on the bed was Jonathan. At first elation filled her. But it was followed quickly be intense fear. If Katherine knew he was here, what new madness would she visit on them?

“You have to leave, Jonathan.”

He smiled, looked deep into her eyes, and stroked the side of her face with his fingertips. “Why? Don’t you want me here?”

Not want him here? She wanted him here more than she wanted her next breath. But Katherine’s wrath was beginning to frighten her more than a little. “Katherine—”

He stopped her words with his fingertips. “Forget Katherine.”

“But—”

“Shh. Trust me.”

Oh, God, she did trust him. She trusted him with her life, but what if Katherine found out? What would she do?

“Why are you here?”

“I’ve missed you.” He picked up a lock of her hair and wrapped it around his hand. “Your hair.” He rubbed a strand of it over his cheek. “Your eyes.” He kissed each eye. “Your creamy skin.” He bent and placed a kiss on the hollow of her throat. She gasped at the strength of the thrill that raced through her body. “Your sweet, sweet smell.” He buried his face in her neck. “Your lips.” He brushed them with a butterfly kiss. “I had to taste the sweetness that is my Maddy.”

Sara’s head was swimming. It cost her every ounce of willpower to push him away. “Jonathan, I’m not Maddy. I’m Sara Wade.”

He shook his head. “You
are
Maddy. You have
always
been and will
always
be my Maddy.”

“But Maddy’s—”

Again he stopped her words, but this time with a feathery soft kiss, then he drew back and looked deep into her eyes. “Maddy is not dead. Haven’t you figured that out yet? She lives in you.”

Sara recalled how easily it had been for her to slip into Maddy’s body when she went back in time. Vaguely, she remembered Gran talking about a Hindu belief that a human soul had the ability to live on beyond the death of one body and then be transferred into another body, but carry the soul of the first. She’d even had a name for it—reincarnation.

Was that what had happened? Had Maddy’s soul taken possession of hers? Had she truly been Maddy in another lifetime?

Before she could make sense of her thoughts, Jonathan was kissing her again. This time it wasn’t just a light brushing of their lips. His kiss had become intense, demanding, hungry devouring her with its passion. The dizzy sensation that had taken possession of Sara at this moment and imprisoned her willpower mirrored the one she’d experienced every time she’d spun though the swirling vortex, and just before she slipped into Maddy’s identity. But this time she retained her identity as Sara and remained in her room and her body.

Helpless to resist, she allowed Jonathan to hold her, to kiss her, to devour her. Exhaustion forgotten, her entire body came alive with a new energy, a need far beyond anything she’d ever experienced before. Even when he slipped her nightdress from her shoulders and trialed kisses down her neck and into her exposed cleavage, she couldn’t find the strength to resist.

Need sprang to life inside her and swelled to overwhelming proportions. She wanted this man as she’d never wanted anything before in her life. Not the return of her beloved Gran. Not her freedom from her mother. Not Harrogate. Not her next breath. She shivered.

Jonathon pulled back. “Are you cold?”

Cold
? Heaven help her. Her body felt like it could rival the fire burning in the hearth for heat. “No, I’m not cold.”

“What then?” When she didn’t answer, he grinned knowingly. “I excite you.”

Suddenly hit by a wash of shyness, she averted her gaze. “Yes.”

Hooking his finger under her chin, he raised it until their gazes met. “Good. I want to excite you. I want you to want me so much you can think of nothing else.”

“I do want you, but—”

His lips stopped her protest. This time she gave in to the arousal rushing through her every nerve ending. Sara wrapped her arms around his shoulders and pulled him down to lay beside her on the bed. Impatient with the blanket and sheet that prevented her from being as close to him as she needed to be, she kicked them aside. They slithered to the floor, unnoticed. The cool night air washed over her burning skin, but it did nothing to alleviate the fire inside her.

Jonathan continued to kiss her mouth her neck and her breasts until Sara felt like the only way to release her emotions was to call out, but she knew that would only bring Julie and Raina and the last thing she wanted right now was anyone to interrupt this exquisite torture.

Suddenly a high-pitched woman’s scream rent the air. It seemed to echo off the walls like a crazed ball bouncing madly from place to place.

Sara stiffened, her own scream building in her throat. She clung to Jonathan’s broad shoulders, seeking protection within his arms. Her ears began to hurt. But the scream continued on and on until Sara opened her mouth to beg it to stop.

But the words never emerged from her throat. A loud crack drowned out the scream for a fraction of a second. Sara’s head jerked toward the side of the room. A shaft of moonlight illuminated the mirror over the dressing table. A jagged fissure ran diagonally across the surface.

Then Jonathan vanished.

The scream ceased.

Sara lay staring at the ceiling, wondering if she’d dreamt the entire thing. Had Jonathan really been there at all or had it been a product of her fevered imagination, her overwhelming need to have him beside her? And the scream…had it been Katherine objecting to what was happening between Jonathan and Sara? Or had that too been her imagination? And the mirror? Had it really broken?

She rose from the bed, lit the candle on her nightstand and carried it hesitantly to the dressing table. Holding it aloft so she could better see, she gasped. Running from one corner of the mirror to the other was a zigzag crack.