by Linda Conrad
She loved him. It took him a minute to process the rest of her statement. When he did, he pulled her close.
“There is no curse, chère,” he whispered. “I swear it. And this time I won’t let anything happen to either one of you. We will have this baby…and many more. It won’t make up for the one we lost, but our family will be together and strong in our love.”
Kate touched his face tentatively and gazed into his eyes. “But I saw the gypsy ghost.”
“No,” he said as he pulled the scarf from his pocket. “This is a real scarf. Feel it. You saw a live person, not a ghost. If there ever was a curse, it’s over.”
She took the scarf from him, ran it slowly through her fingers, then broke down. Sobbing, she clung to him.
Chase held her close and fought his own tears of joy. It was a miracle. It was magic. It was his heart’s desire.
The gypsy. He didn’t know why, but the old woman had saved his life. He vowed to someday find the real reason.
“Tell me again, chère,” he whispered against her hair.
Kate pulled back with a wet twinkle in her eyes, knowing exactly what he wanted to hear. “I love you, Chase Severin. I always have. And I always will.”
Epilogue
Passionata Chagari stood in the shadows of Blackwater Bayou and watched as the lost heir to the gypsy inheritance married his heart’s desire.
At last, she thought. Chase Severin had finally received his bequest. He’d become worthy of love.
She knew there was one more thing this particular heir would need to make her task complete, though. So when the wedding party congregated on the terrace for the reception, Passionata turned her thoughts toward making him aware of her presence. He deserved his answers.
Chase caught a glimpse of wild colors, flashing like a neon banner through the swamp brush. He made sure Kate was okay and occupied, then stole away and headed out.
He didn’t have to search for long. The old gypsy that had given him the egg stood waiting for him under a willow.
“Tell me why you’re here,” he demanded. This was just plain creepy, and he hoped Kate wouldn’t catch sight of her.
Passionata lifted her lips in a toothless grin. “You want one more story, Severin. I’m here to tell the tale.”
He folded his arms across his chest. “Go ahead. But I don’t believe in gypsy curses.”
“You believe in the magic now, though, don’t you?”
Chase had admitted to himself that his egg was truly magical, but he’d be damned if he would tell her that. “Just tell your story, old woman. What did my grandmother do that deserved such a legacy?”
She wasted no time in the telling. “In days gone by, gypsy troops were looked upon with distrust and distaste…perhaps we still are,” she admitted. “When I was a young woman and round with my first child, something went terribly wrong. This was in the time before my father had found the magic. He wisely decided that my child and I needed a medical doctor since nothing else had worked.
“But none would attend me,” the gypsy continued with a sad shake of her head. “My unborn child and I were mere hours away from leaving this earth when Lucille, herself a young girl at the time, found me, sneaked me into her father’s mansion and begged her own doctor to come to my aide.”
Chase was fascinated. But her tale seemed a little too close to his and Kate’s story of a lost child. He rubbed his arms to stem an unusual and sudden chill.
“Without Lucille’s kindness, my child and I would not have survived.” The gypsy scowled at her memories. “For many years my father searched for a way of repayment. But Lucille seemed to need nothing we could give. Shortly before my father’s death, he finally captured the magic…”
“Wait a sec,” Chase interrupted. “How do you do that, exactly?”
Passionata waved his question away. “It is for gypsy ears alone, Severin. Ask not.
“The one thing Lucille wanted,” she continued, “was a reunion with her only daughter, but that was beyond my father’s power to grant by then. Her daughter, your mother, had died years earlier.”
The gypsy’s eyes grew watery with unshed tears. “My father was on his deathbed when he learned Lucille was nearing the end of her own time. So he fashioned his legacy and made me swear to fulfill it.
“I took his charge gladly as I too owed the debt,” she continued. “The young Steele descendants were to receive a magical gift designed just for them. The bequests had been made to bring them love. The one thing each lacked but desired above all else.”
She leaned back on her heels and folded her own arms over her chest in a mimicry of his. “And so it has been done.”
It was an odd story, but Chase believed every word. He’d seen the magic work with his own eyes.
“I didn’t search you out to hear your story, old woman. But I’m glad you told it.”
Passionata tilted her head to question his motives.
Chase smiled at her. His life was filled with such love and happiness that he felt he would forever keep smiling.
“I came to give my thanks,” he told her with a chuckle. “You saved my life with your magic, gypsy woman. Consider your obligation paid in full.”
He turned away then, eager to return to his new wife. But he would always be grateful to a grandmother he had never known. And to a gypsy king that had captured the magic.
Life was good at last. And as long as Chase kept the love in his heart, it would always be magical.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-7406-2
A SCANDALOUS MELODY
Copyright © 2005 by Linda Lucas Sankpill
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*The Gentrys
†The Gypsy Inheritance
