Garden of the Moon (29 page)
Read Garden of the Moon Online
Authors: Elizabeth Sinclair
Tags: #Romance, #General, #Paranormal, #Historical, #Fiction
“You said you couldn’t put the letters on the page for her.”
Julie shrugged. “Well, I could I suppose, but they wouldn’t be Maddy’s words.”
Sara grinned, happiness flooding through her. “But they would be if I wrote them.”
This time Julie’s expression turned to utter confusion. “I don’t understand.”
Sara led her to the settee in the corner of the room. “Don’t you see? For the past few weeks I have gone back in time and become Maddy. Jonathan I am Maddy in my heart. For all intents and purposes, I
am
Maddy. If I wrote the entries, then essentially, they would be her words.” When Julie continued to look confused, Sara blurted. “Don’t you see? I can finish the entries.” She kissed Julie’s cheek and then, grabbing the diary, rushed from the room, her heart singing.
***
Sara settled herself at her writing desk, took up a quill and, after studying Maddy’s style for a few moments, wrote several words. To her astonishment, the handwriting was not hers, not Sara Wade’s. It was Maddy Grayson’s.
She began to write. Working meticulously, she recounted everything that had transpired after Maddy left her bedroom on that fateful night. She left nothing out including her emotions and the near run-in with Floree and Daniel, the horseback ride to Harrogate, and an accounting of who had actually pulled the trigger. She even added being wounded and Jonathan’s ministrations. She signed Maddy’s name, just as Maddy had done at the end of each entry.
Then she added the final words.
I shall return to Jonathan as Sara and become Maddy for the very last time. Although I will forever hold them close to my heart, my heart is breaking at the thought of leaving Father, Julie and Raina and never seeing them again. And I’m sure there will come a time when I can think of them with love and not that terrible emptiness of loss. However, if I do not go back to my love, my heart will break and never mend. The emptiness will never go away, and I shall die alone and lonely just as Maddy did.
I know now that Jonathan is my past and my future…my destiny. I will forever belong to him.
For the last time, I sign myself…
Sara Madeline Wade
When she had finished, she laid the pen aside, realizing she had just written the end to her life as Sara Wade. Taking the diary, she went downstairs and outside into the Garden of the Moon. She made her way to the gazebo and sat on one of the benches. With one last look around her, she opened the diary and read her own words.
For the last time, I sign myself…
Sara Madeline Wade
As though allowing her one final glimpse of this world, the vortex began to spin, but very slowly this time. Colors, vibrant and alive, spun on the outer edges like a large oval picture frame. Inside the frame, the garden morphed and changed, flowers disappeared, shrubs and trees shrunk to the size of their original planting. Little by little the vortex closed in on itself, shutting out the garden as it was today, and then shifting and swirling it expanded and into what it had been in Jonathan’s and Maddy’s time.
But that wasn’t the only change Sara detected. Her body began to change, her clothing redesigned itself, her hair restyled itself. Memories of Sara Wade faded to be replaced by those of Maddy Grayson. Very gradually, her last thought as Sara passed through her mind and then Sara Wade almost ceased to be. Maddy Grayson took shape for the very last time.
When the vortex slowed and then stopped, Maddy was sitting in the garden at Harrogate. Jonathan sat beside her smiling. “Hello, my love. Welcome home.”
Maddy wrapped her arms around him and held on, happy to be home…finally. Happy that, with the threat of exposure hanging over her head, Katherine had released him from his betrothal. Happy that she and Jonathan had set their wedding day. There was only one last lingering thought left from Sara.
Maddy took Jonathan’s hand and led him into the house. Inside, she went upstairs to the bedroom where a fire burned in the fireplace, despite it being mid July. From a pocket in her dress Maddy retrieved her diary. She walked to the hearth and dropped the diary into the dancing flames and then watched as the fire consumed it, leaving behind nothing but ashes.
Sara Wade was now completely gone forever. Maddy Grayson had come home for the last time.
***
Julie hadn’t seen Sara since she’d brought her the diary to show her the blank pages. She left her books of account on the desk and went upstairs in search of her friend. Upon entering Sara’s bedroom, she found it empty. About to leave she noticed a piece of paper propped against a candlestick on the mantel. Her name was scrawled across the front in Sara’s handwriting.
To use the light from the waning sun, she went to the window, sat in Sara’s favorite chair and began to read.
My dear, dear friend, Juliana,
By the time you read this, I will be gone. Your friend, Sara Wade will be no longer. Before I go, I wanted to thank you for your belief in me, your friendship, and your love.
I know this will be hard for you to understand. I’m not entirely sure I understand it myself. All I do know is that I am going to be with Jonathan and that I will be happier than I have ever been. Please understand that this was the only way. I could not endure another lifetime without my darling Jonathan. Yes, I know I will change history as you predicted I will, but Jonathan and I will be married, just as we were always meant to be. And, as I’d planned, we will have two children, a boy for him and girl for me. I must do this.
There are several things I want you to do for me. Tell my father I know now that he understands what I had to do and that I love him. I know it will be difficult for her to understand, but try to explain to Raina what happened. And finally, take good care of Harrogate.
Yes, we want you to have it. We know you’ll love our home as if it had always been your own. Be happy and, no matter the sacrifice, find your own true love as I have, my dear friend. Above all else that’s what really matters – love.
Your friend,
Madeline Bradford
Julie dropped the letter to her lap. Tears filled her eyes. She wasn’t sure if they were tears of happiness for Sara or tears of sorrow because she knew she’d lost her dearest friend. She finally decided they were a mixture of both. Though a hole in her heart that had been previously filled by Sara, Julie couldn’t help but be happy that Sara had found love and happiness with her Jonathan.
She sat there for a long time recalling the friendship they’d shared and the laughter. But she couldn’t remember Sara without remembering how fervently Sara had wanted to be with Jonathan. Sara had been a good friend and Julie could do no less than to wish her happiness, no matter where she was.
The shadows of evening lengthened and still she remained motionless, her mind deep in the past. Finally, Julie looked out the big window at the Garden of the Moon dappled in a silvery luminescence of a full moon, her heart alternately breaking and then rejoicing. The snowy white camellias, magnolias, moonflowers, and azalea blossoms glowed brightly, their faces turned to the sky, and their perfume saturating the darkness with their fragrance.
Her gaze wandered toward the back of the garden where the gazebo stood silhouetted against the night sky. On the bench, two ethereal figures sat holding hands. Maddy and Jonathan. She smiled.
“Be happy, my friend, and thank you,” Julie whispered. “I’ll take good care of your home. I promise.”
The couple turned toward her, then smiled and waved. They rose and walked slowly toward the edge of the garden. The woman stopped and looked back at the window.
Promise me you will find your love
, came Sara’s voice from inside Julie’s head.
Promise me
.
Julie smiled through her gathering tears. “I promise,” she told the night.
Then the image of Sara appeared to melt like hot candle wax. Just as quickly, it reformed and in Sara’s place stood a young, vibrant and obviously happy Maddy Grayson.
Maddy gave a brief nod of acknowledgment.
I’ll be watching you
, she said. Then she took Jonathan’s outstretched hand, and they vanished like a wisp of smoke.
“I know you will.” Julie whispered, “I know you will.”
Julie looked up at the portrait of Jonathan above the mantel where Sara had so lovingly hung it. The picture blurred and swirled as though the painter had thrown all his paint on the canvas and stirred them with his brush. Then slowly it began to clear.
Moments later, Julie stared up a portrait of not her friend Sara, but a mirror image she knew to be Maddy, Jonathan and two beautiful children, a boy and girl, both of whom looked exactly like their radiant mother. Around Maddy’s neck hung a gold locket engraved with two forever-entwined roses.
***
Several Days Later
“Miss Julie.”
Julie looked up from her embroidery. Raina stood just inside the door. “Yes.”
“Miss Clarice has come callin’.”
Surprised that her neighbor had come to Harrogate, given she had told Sara she would never set foot here again, Julie laid her needlework aside and stood. “Show her in, please.”
Raina left the room and returned a few moments later followed by Clarice and two men. The older woman leaned heavily on the arm of one man about Julie’s age. An older version of the younger of the two walked beside her. Handsome in his own right, it was not the older one, but the younger of the two men that snagged Julie’s attention. His dark hair lay in heavy waves over his forehead, and his startlingly blue eyes smiled at her in a way that made her heart beat quicken.
Embarrassed that she’d been staring, Julie dragged her gaze away from the young man. “Hello, Mrs. Degas. Welcome to Harrogate.”
Etienne’s smile widened. He bowed over her offered hand and kissed it and then, without relinquishing her hand, straightened and again flashed that enticing smile. Their gazes locked. “I’m delighted to meet you.”
His voice flowed over Julie like warm syrup. Tingles of pure pleasure raced up her arm. What on earth was happening to her?
Promise me you will find your love
.
Maddy’s’ voice echoed through her mind.
I think I have
, Julie replied, her gaze still imprisoned by Clarice’s grandson’s smile.
I think I have
.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Elizabeth Sinclair sold her first romance, JENNY’S CASTLE, in 1993 to Silhouette Intimate Moments, which reached #2 on the Walden Bestseller List and won a Georgia Romance Writers Maggie Award of Excellence. Since then, this multi-published author’s books have sold in ten foreign countries and been translated into seven foreign languages.
Her books have won The National Reader’s Choice Award, The Anne Bonney Reader’s Choice Award, Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice Award, Maggie Award of Excellence, and placed in the Heart of Excellence. She has also won a Gold Medal Top Pick from the Romantic Times Book Club.
Co-founder and member of the Ancient City Romance Authors of St. Augustine, FL, she is also a member of Romance Writers of America, RWA’s Kiss of Death Chapter and Sisters In Crime. Elizabeth served as RWA’s Region 3 Director and chaired the 2001 RWA Annual Conference in New Orleans.
In addition to having presented numerous workshops on the craft of writing and authored the widely-acclaimed instructional books, THE DREADED SYNOPSIS and FIRST CHAPTERS, she has published a total of twenty-three romances with Silhouette Intimate Moments/Romantic Suspense, Harlequin American, Kensington Precious Gems, Medallion Press and Bell Bridge Books.
Her latest release, FOREVER FALL (due out Oct 2012), is the THIRD book in the HAWKS MOUNTAIN series for Bell Bridge Books. Previous Books in that series are: HAWKS MOUNTAIN (book #1) and SUMMER ROSE (book #2). She is presently writing book #4, WINTER MAGIC.
Elizabeth and her husband share their Florida home with their two furry children: Ripley, a seven-year-old Collie, and Miss Lily, a five-year-old Golden Retriever. Elizabeth is the mother of three children, grandmother of five, and great-grandmother to her first great-grandchild, born in August 2012.
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