When Lightning Strikes (17 page)

“What does this ‘oh-kay’ mean? I heard you say it when I first found you. Is it some other language?”

“Well, sort of. I mean it is. It means ‘alright’. I’ll get to that later. Now please just listen to me. This is hard enough for me because I know you are going to think I am out of my mind…that I have lost my wits. But if you love me, if you have ever loved me, then you have to believe what I’m about to tell you. I come from a far away place. Well, it’s not a far away place. It’s close to here but it’s not.”

“Lady, you are talking like you are witless! How can it be a ‘far away place’ but close to here?” He sighed. Here she was lying once more.

“No. No. That’s not what I meant.”

She was blowing this big time. She needed to take a deep breath and start over. Just tell him the truth.

“Let me start over again. Alright. On the night you found me, I was lying under that large tree, correct?”

He nodded.

“Well it was the night before my wedding. I was out walking in the night air and I was struck by lightning and that is how I came to be here.”

“My lady, why in God’s name would you be out walking in the night air in the middle of a field before your wedding with no chaperone at midnight?!”

“Where I come from, it’s not the middle of nowhere. It’s behind my home. I am not from another place. I am from another
time.
”

“What you speak of is impossible. It is sorcery!” He looked at her with wide eyes. “I thought you were going to finally open your heart to me, Sarah. This is ridiculous.” He began to stand up again and she pushed him down hard.

“NO, Dominic. You are going to listen because I am telling you the truth! I come from the year 2010. Two nights ago, I was getting ready for my wedding. My mother came to my room and gave me a necklace that she said would bring me my heart’s desire if I slept with it under my pillow. I didn’t believe her, but when I walked outside into the night, a bolt of lightning came out of the sky and when it hit me I was brought here.”

His eyes took on a look of utter disbelief.
Shock. Anger maybe. She wondered if he even remotely believed anything she was saying. She doubted it. She might as well just give up.

He moved in closer to her before he spoke.

“This is just too impossible for me to believe. How could something such as that happen? Sorcery is not real. It is merely leger de main…a trick of the hand. And how could you think I would believe something so foolish and childlike of a story? Perhaps Mara was wrong and I have given my heart foolishly.”

He got up once more and started to pack up. “I am certain your husband will find you very soon. You are not far from his estate.”

“Dominic, please. I can prove it to you if you will just give me time. I love you.” She pulled the galbi from her pocket and placed it in his hand.

“Here. Here is the galbi that my mother gave to me as a charm. It is very old. Well, it’s very old in my time not in yours. Perhaps you can tell me something about what kind of coin it is. Is it from this century?”

Dominic stared at the galbi for a moment and was about to hand it back when something caught his eye. A tiny nick in the upper right side of it just above the hole that was punctured through it to hang it from a rope about the neck. Comprehension dawned in his eyes and a moment later he sat back down hard dragging Sarah with him.

“Where did you get this? This is not possible.” He shook his head in disbelief.

“I told you…from my mother. She says it’s been in her family for centuries. The night she gave it to me she said something…what were the words she used? Passion, desire, true love. These things know no time be it one night or lifetimes. Indiri said those same words  when we were alone, believe it or not. Maybe it’s a spell?”

He didn’t know how this could possibly be, but it didn’t matter. His fingers traced the galbi across the tiny “M” he knew was inscribed on the top of it. He would explain that to her later just as he would explain to her the story of this coin. She looked up at him and a second later as his eyes met her own with newfound intensity.

“I believe what you have said, Sarah Douglas.”

Chapter Nineteen

Sarah sat there blinking at him for a moment. Had he just said what she thought he said?

“You believe me?”

“Yes. I believe you,” he nodded.

“How? I mean anybody would think I was a lunatic for saying something like that. Or that I was some kind of witch and burn me at the stake.” She looked a little pale as she spoke the words.

“I have told you, I do not believe in witches.” He smiled. “I believe you because this galbi belonged to me.”

“
WHAT?”
Her mouth dropped open.

“Where did your mother get this, Sarah?” He turned it over in his palms touching it lightly like it was an old friend.

“I don’t know.” Damn. She was using modern contractions again. Would he understand her? She would just have to explain it to him if he asked. There didn’t seem to be any need to speak like he did anymore. Although it was kind of elegant, she supposed.

“She said it’s been in her family for a very long time, passed down for generations. How do you know it’s yours?” she asked him.

He handed her the coin. “Do you see that tiny niche at the top of the coin? I tried to put a hole in this with a very sharp piece of metal and I failed, and instead I nicked the top of it. Eventually, I got it right and put the hole there that you see so it could be worn around the neck, but my first attempt was a failure. I had only passed ten winters when I did it.”

“That could happen to any old coin! Perhaps it isn’t the one you think it is.”

“If you look slightly below the niche and to the right you will see a very tiny ‘M’ inscribed there. It was put there by me as well. This galbi belonged to my mother, Mara. The ‘M’ stands for her name. And on the back you will see a ‘D’ for my name.”

Sarah flipped the coin over and sure enough there was a
tiny ‘D’ inscribed on it.

This was unbelievable! His coin had traveled across time to bring her here to him. Had her mother somehow known this? Would she ever get the chance to ask her? Right now she didn’t know. But there was a story unfolding here. And it might hold the answers to getting her back home!

Dominic just sat staring at the coin without speaking as his mind went back in time to the night his mother died.

“Nico,” she had said through her ragged, congested breaths. “You have grown to be a fine man…all I could hope for in a son. You will take care of them – the troupe – after I am gone?”

She coughed hard and winced.. “I fear that my time is coming  fast...my chest pains me greatly”

She had pulled the galbi from her neck and placed it in his palm. “You carry such bitterness within your heart. And the time is going to come for you to let it go, for if you do not, then you are no better than your half-brother.”

“I will never be as he is, mama,” he had said to her with anger.

“If you cannot cleanse your soul and let your heart be free to love, then you already are. Take this coin. I have blessed it with herbs to bring you good luck. Wear it about your neck as I have and I leave you with this: You will know love one day. An act of kindness will set the wheels in motion…across time…across distance. To the very heavens if need be. And then you will find your heart’s true desire. You will know when you have found it. That is my final gift to you.”

She lay there in his arms for a long time dragging in each ragged breath and finally just before dawn his mother breathed her last as he held her. He tied the necklace around his strong neck and went about burying her body and covering her grave with fragrant herbs.

“Are you alright?” Sarah asked him.

“Yes, I am fine.” He told her of the scene that had just vividly played out in his memory.

Sarah stared at him in silence. Somehow this was too
unbelievable to be real and yet it was very real.

“Do you think saving me was this act of kindness?”

Even if it was, how could they allow their hearts to follow the path that fate was trying to lay for them? She swallowed hard and tried to suppress the overwhelming sense of sadness that threatened. She had known all along that it would come to this.

He nodded his head. “It seems that this would be true.”

One thing he did know for certain was that she was indeed Sarah Douglas and not Melissande. There could be no other explanation for the strange garment he found her in, her appearance from nowhere, her unusual language. She was different and he had known it the moment he laid eyes upon her. It was frightening in a way, but it was true. Mara’s galbi had traveled across time and distance and now it had made its way back to its rightful owner.

How could he love her now? She was betrothed. She was from a different world. And yet, he didn’t know if his heart was ready to let her go. He did not think he could do it even though it was indeed the right thing to do.

“Sarah. Tell me what your world is like. Does it still look the same?”

“No. Not even a little bit. Do you have anything to eat? I haven’t had any food and if I’m going to spend the time it will take to tell you about it, I will need some so I don’t faint!” She offered him a weak smile and was relieved that he at least smiled back. She wanted to change the subject because she was afraid it could change history if she told him anything about the future. The thought was scary.

He got some bread and cheese from the horse’s pack and they sat back down on the blanket to eat.

“How did you lose the coin…the necklace
? I mean, you obviously didn’t die and pass it on to someone. That’s how I would have thought it got passed down in my family.” The thought occurred to her that Dominic could be a long ago distant relative if the coin were passed from generation to generation in her family alone. She hoped beyond hope that wasn’t the case.

“After Mara died, I spent a long time lost in my cups, quite drunk. I did not wish to go on living because I just knew that she was the only person who ever really cared for me. Marco and I became much closer and he got me through it.”

He paused to take a sip of water from the skin.

“One day I was in the village about to go into the tavern for my afternoon’s tankard of ale when I saw a group of people standing about. I walked over to see what was happening and as it turns out, Mildred, the baker had died. The soldiers were in her home taking whatever they wanted claiming she had owed taxes or something of the like and the thieves had come to ransack the rest. She had one small child who was left orphaned. Her father had passed on long before, leaving Mildred to raise the girl alone. She was standing outside of that shack crying and I went over to her. One of the soldiers kicked her aside and said something such as “get out of here, whelp. You are on your own.”

“I looked into the haunted eyes of that little girl and saw her future before her. She was now abandoned and left to her own. She would be hated because she had no home, no family and no money and would soon starve to death or be forced to beg. And when she was old enough she would no doubt have to sell her body in street to survive. Something inside of my soul gave way in that moment and my ale did not matter anymore. I did not wish for this child to grow up an outcast as I had been. I picked her up and I carried her to the home of a lady…. this woman that I know.”

He already knew what Sarah was thinking as she raised her eyebrow, wondering who the woman was.

“Yes, Sarah. I have slept with her on numerous occasions.” He smirked, raising an eyebrow back.

Sarah felt a little foolish. Even the minor twinge of jealousy she felt right now was uncalled for and petty in this moment. Her expression softened and he continued.

“This woman was a widow with no children of her own and I knew that she would take care of the child. I brought her to the door and before I left I gave the necklace I had made for Mara to my lady-friend to help pay for food for the little girl. I knew the gold from that coin would buy food enough for them to last through the winter and more. Yes, it was Mara’s last gift to me and for many months I had thought that was all I had left of her to hold on to. But in those moments of need, I realized I had everything of Mara right here.” He pointed to his heart. “I knew Mara would always live as long as I used everything she ever taught me. And that was that. As for the lady, well, I call that woman my friend even now. Her generosity is unsurpassed and I will never forget that.”

Suddenly his eyes dawned with comprehension and he knew that Mara’s words rang true. His heart
was
free. It had been free from the moment he handed that galbi to the woman who was now mother to that little girl.
THAT
was the act of kindness Mara had spoken of.

Something in his heart
had
been set free with that simple act. He had let go of some of the bitterness, and he hadn’t even seen it, until now. Somehow the galbi had passed hands, perhaps to buy food or clothing for that child. It had passed from there over and over through the ages across time and back to him and by doing so, had brought the love of his life with it.

He didn’t know how they would stay together, but he was more certain than ever now that somehow this was meant to be.