Page 60 of Memories of the Lost

He said nothing. Lamplight spilled over his pale hair, picking out sparks of gold, and she imagined adding gold to the painting she wasn’t going to paint.The Listening Angel.

She shuffled the cards again. “What are you hiding, Mom?” she asked capriciously, split the deck, shuffled again.

“Mother card,” she said, declaring the meaning she sought, and turned over The Empress. Her lips quirked. “Daughter.” She pulled The Fool and laid it down. Card three was their relationship, The Moon.

“Secrets,” Liam interpreted.

“Surprise!” she said, laughing, then drew the next card. The Chariot. A card of movement and power.

Liam whistled. “A lot of Major Arcana there, love.”

Challenges: The Tower. “Of course,” she said, rolling her eyes.

The final card was The Hierophant, which represented the need to seek the help of a spiritual mentor, a need for perspective. Tillie frowned, trying to think who that might be in this case. Who could help her sort this out?

“Draw one more,” Liam said.

“Why?”

“Why not?”

She turned it over, and they both laughed. Knight of Wands. “That must be you.”

He spread his hands with a grin. “Ta.”

She absorbed the arrangement, moved the cards infinitesimally, touched The Empress. “This is the wrong card for my mother,” she found herself saying. “She was soft-spoken and kind of ... timid.”

“Maybe The Empress is you.”

She glanced at him, then spoke more honestly than she would have to almost anyone but Jon. “Maybe one day, but not now. I do feel this is right for me, The Fool. Fresh new experiences.” She searched her mind for a powerful woman mentor but couldn’t come up with one.

Abruptly, she scraped the cards into a pile. “The last thing I need is more introspection.” She stacked them together, shuffled, shuffled again, then again. “Tell me about your day.”

His expression had been open and cheerful, but the expression slipped, so classically a face falling. “It was all right.”

“Doesn’t sound like it.”

He touched her thumb, pulled her hand into the cradle of his palm. “I tried to rearrange things to get some time off.” His eyes were a shimmery pale aqua that seemed unreal. She wanted to paint that color, the layers of depth in them. “To be with you a little longer.”

She swallowed, curled her fingers around his. “Doesn’t sound like it worked out.”

“If it was just me, it’d be a breeze, but a lot of people are counting on me.”

“I didn’t go look you up, by the way. Jon told me about you, but I wouldn’t let him keep going. I wanted to respect your wishes.”

“Thank you.”

“It sounds like you’re pretty famous.”

“Must not be too famous, because you didn’t know me.”

“Not really my world.”

“Fair enough.” He traced the edge of her thumb. “Not really mine, either, to be honest. I didn’t really plan for any of it.”

“How did it happen?”

He tugged her hand. “Come here, and I will tell you.”