Tarot's Kiss (Tarot Chronicles)

by Nichole Blackfinch

  “How do you know that?” he asked, “I could never get your Grandmother to say much at all about my father or their years in the Guild.”

  “Because of these letters that I found,” I replied. I explained then about finding the letters in the quilt, that my grandmother had gotten married to another Guild member in secrecy, and that they’d feared being held captive, so someone, likely my grandfather, had started a fire as a diversion to escape. My dad asked if he could see the letters, so I ran up to the bedroom to get them. I brought them back to the kitchen and handed the thin stack to my dad, giving him a moment to read each letter.

  “One thing I don’t get, though,” I said, once it appeared my dad was finished reading, “The first letter is addressed to E., which I’m guessing is Grandma Eleanor, but it’s from someone with the initial M. So I thought maybe it was a boyfriend before Grandpa, but the timing doesn’t work out.”

  “Oh, I can explain that,” my dad said, “The card wasn’t addressed to Eleanor—it was addressed to the Empress. And it was from the Magician.”

  “What do you mean,” I asked, downing the rest of my lemonade.

  “I don’t know everything about the guild, but I’ll tell you what I do know, which will help explain some of your questions,” he replied.

  “Lucy?” Gavin’s voice rang out from the doorway, interrupting my father. We both looked up as Gavin entered the kitchen. “We’ve brought you some dinner, Lucy, I do hope you like it,” Gavin stopped short as he saw that I wasn’t alone. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t realize you had company.”

  My dad stood up and extended his hand, “You must be Gavin Cadeaux. I’m Tyler Auburn.”

  “This is my dad, Gavin,” I said quickly. Gavin looked understandably confused, so I brought him up to speed on why my dad had suddenly re-entered my life.

  “I was just about to share with Lucy what I know about the Guild. And I’m not at all happy that you dragged her to Nathaniel’s today,” my dad said.

  “I didn’t exactly drag Lucy there,” Gavin said. “Frankly, I’d quite fear for the person brazen enough to drag Lucy anywhere.”

  “Go on with your story,” I interrupted, turning to my dad. Gavin sighed and walked to the sink and began to make a pot of coffee. He continued to eye my father warily, as if ready to pounce on him at any moment.

  “As I was saying,” my dad continued, “the letters you have are from your grandfather—my father—Richard to your grandmother. They’ve referred to themselves as E. and M. because they were the Guardians for those cards in the Guild. I’ll explain what that means in just a minute. Now, the Guild had one particular deck, the Oracle Deck, which they’d owned since the Guild began in the mid-1800’s. The Guild’s founder apparently brought this deck with her from France when she came to the States. Since that time, it was customary that each person in the Guild hold a certain position, and would be a Guardian of the Oracle Deck card associated with that position.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  He replied, “For example, your grandma Eleanor was in the Empress position, which meant she was the Guardian of the Empress card. It also meant she was responsible for making sure that the Guild was involved in good works, charity, that sort of thing.

  “Good works and charity?” I interrupted. “I thought these guys were bad news.”

  “I don’t think it was that simple. Try not to think of them as good or bad, at least for now.”

  I nodded. “So if grandma was the Empress, what was her husband?”

  “ My father—your grandfather, Lucy—was the Magician, the position responsible for bringing in outside members.”

  “Outside members?” I asked.

  “Yes, people who didn’t inherit a position in the Guild.” My dad paused, drumming his fingers on the table. “Most Guild members had ancestry within the Guild. From what little information my mother shared with me, I know that my father’s family had been in the Guild since the beginning, right back to the 1860s. But your grandmother was an outside member, Lucy. She was recruited to the Guild by your grandfather, as per his position as Magician.”

  “In that case,” Gavin interjected, “Why hasn’t anyone else ever taken my grandfather’s place? He passed away some time ago and no one from my family was recruited.” Gavin poured each of us a cup of coffee and carried the mugs to the table.

  “That’s a good question,” my dad replied. “I’m not sure what happened, but for all intents and purposes, the Guild fell apart many years ago. As long as I’ve been tracking the Guild, I’ve only found three members other than my mother: two of which were Nathaniel and William—your grandfather, Gavin. Obviously there were once more members, but from what I gather from the letters Lucy found, it looks like the Guild structure really ended in the spring of 1969. I don’t know why.”

  “Who was the third member?” Gavin asked.

  My dad took a sip of his coffee and was silent for a moment before continuing. “About two years ago, purely by chance, I met a woman named Adelaide in Cincinnati who’d been a Guild member. She approached me in a coffee shop and asked if I had a father named Richard. She’d known Richard back in the Guild days and she said my resemblance to him was striking. ”

  “Had you ever seen a picture of your dad,” I asked him. I made a mental note to ask him to see any old pictures he had.

  “Yes, and Adelaide was correct, we look very similar. It must have startled her to see a face from her past, and Richard’s face at that,” my dad said. “Especially since she remembered attending funeral services for him.”

  “Not from Vietnam, I’m guessing,” I said.

  “No,” my dad replied. “Adelaide said he died in a fire at Durendal. I’m assuming this was the same fire mentioned in your letters, Lucy.”

  “So Adelaide wasn’t still active in the Guild? I’ve never heard mention of her,” said Gavin.

  “No, Adelaide told me she left the Guild years ago and hadn’t been back to Savannah since. She was the first to tell me about the Oracle Deck and Guardians. She told me my father had been the Magician, but oddly enough she didn’t appear to know that Eleanor was my mother and I didn’t tell her.”

  “What position did she hold in the Guild?” Gavin asked.

  “I’m not sure. At the time, it didn’t seem significant to ask. Interestingly, she remarked it was a week for old memories. I asked why and she told me that she’d had a visit from a stranger the week before and that he’d asked to buy her Guardian card. He told her he was representing a client who was attempting to rebuild and preserve the Oracle Deck for its historical significance. She said she hadn’t even looked at the card in years so she sold it to him.”

  “This was the first I’d heard of the Oracle Deck, so it was Adelaide who explained the Guardian system to me. It was a piece of my parents’ history that I’d never heard, and I was curious to find out more. That was the day I began tracking the Guild and the cards.”

  “Nathaniel thought my father had a card,” Gavin said, almost to himself.

  “Did Nathaniel ask you about it today?” My dad looked intensely at Gavin.

  “No,” Gavin said, “He didn’t. But shortly before my father died, Nathaniel had come to visit, had asked about a Guild artifact. He implied that my father might be in danger, that there was someone chasing the cards. My father’s death was supposedly committed during a random act of burglary, which I certainly do not believe. I’ve been doing my own tracking, looking for the person who murdered my father for what they thought he had.”

  My dad looked intently at Gavin. “And it didn’t occur to you that maybe Nathaniel was behind the whole thing? He comes looking for a card and soon thereafter your dad dies under suspicious circumstances.”

  “I hadn’t believed that, no,” Gavin said. “As I told Lucy before, Nathaniel was my grandfather’s closest friend. He’s vacationed with us, been there for holidays, all of that. He’s always been rather close to my family. But, I’ll admit, I’m b
eginning to wonder.”

  I refilled my dad’s mug and my own. “So, after you met with the chick in Cincinnati, did you meet any other Guild members?”

  “No,” he said slowly, “After that, I was concerned for your grandmother. So I came home.”

  “Back to Colorado?” I asked.

  “Yes, I was still concerned about the reading I’d done years before that, about my presence causing you harm, but I felt I needed to ask your grandmother in person if she’d been approached by the Guild. She’d always been so secretive about her past and I was beginning to wonder if she had feared the Guild for some reason.”

  “So what happened when you talked to Grandma?” I asked.

  “At first, she refused to discuss it whatsoever. I mentioned the words ‘Divinatory Guild of Savannah’ and she went pale as a corpse and said nothing. I told her then about meeting the other Guild member, Adelaide, and that someone was attempting to rebuild the deck. She responded very harshly, I remember. Very uncharacteristic of her.”

  “What did she say?” Gavin asked.

  “She said they’d never find her and that they’d be rotting in hell before they ever found her card. I begged her to let me take the card back so I could anonymously give it to back to the Guild. I didn’t want anyone to come looking for her.” My dad continued, “But you know how stubborn your grandmother could be, Lucy. I couldn’t change her mind and so I left. Flew back here to Savannah.”

  The three of us were silent for a moment, reflecting on what we’d heard. I glanced at my dad, a good-looking guy, I thought, and nice as well. I knew all too well how powerful a tarot reading could be, but I still couldn’t help but be angry with him for leaving me and my mom alone. A new thought occurred to me.

  “So, Tyler,” I addressed him, “You’re telling me that Grandma and you kept in touch all these years and she never said anything?”

  “Well, prior to me asking about the Empress Card, I had come to visit her only once before, many years earlier. It was painful—visiting that is—so I avoided it again for years.”

  “What was so painful about it? You should have been pretty freaking happy to see her,” I retorted.

  “It was painful because I missed you and your mom so much, Lucy,” he said. “The first time I visited, I’d been gone for several years. I surprised your grandmother with a visit, and while I was there, you showed up. You were only about six at the time, so I doubt you’d remember, but apparently she’d promised to take you out that evening.”

  “The comet. It was the night she was going to show me the comet, wasn’t it?”

  “You remember? I always wondered if you’d caught a glimpse of me when you walked in. Your grandmother and I had been in the kitchen doing a reading, and I darted back to another room when you showed up. That brief moment I saw you, though, it broke my heart, kiddo. I knew then I couldn’t come back. I didn’t want to tempt myself to see you or your mother. And so I stayed away. At least, up until my second visit a few months ago.” My dad’s eyes were wet. I quickly looked away.

  “Why were you there on the morning she died?” I asked gently.

  My father leaned forward, cradling his head in his heads, saying nothing. Hesitantly, I reached out and put my hand on his back. He looked up at me, his eyes glazed and bright.

  “I wanted her to help me pick out a gift for your eighteenth birthday. Of course, she would’ve had to have said it was from her. I got into town late that night, so I figured I’d surprise her for breakfast the following morning.”

  He rubbed a hand down his face and sighed. “That morning, I got to her house and…found her. Just moments before you arrived at the door, actually. I didn’t know what to do. After all, how would it look for her long-gone son to suddenly surface on the morning she passes away? I also worried that someone—or Nathaniel—would somehow find out that she’d passed away and come looking for that card. And I didn’t want them coming for you or your mother, Lucy. So I locked the door and started to search. I thought I’d find the card then head out of town and put through an anonymous call to the local police.”

  “So it was you, then, in her house and car?” I asked.

  “I was feeling beside myself. Grief, panic, frantic to find that card. I was planning to search through the house when you showed up and I ran out the back door.” My dad exhaled and leaned back. “You really have a knack for turning up at the least expected moments,” he laughed quietly.

  “Hummph,” said Gavin, likely remembering when I’d caught him rummaging through my house. I stuck my tongue out at him.

  Gavin ran his hand through his thick hair and turned to my dad. “I think we need to decide upon our next steps. What do you think, Tyler?”

  “Ahem. I have an opinion, too,” I said.

  “Really? You don’t say,” Gavin replied dryly.

  “Yeah, we don’t know if Nathaniel’s the one looking for the cards. But in case he is, we should head back to Durendal and tell Nathaniel to get over it. He lost access to those cards like forty years ago. It’s seriously time to move on. Get therapy. I don’t want to sound super cold here, but the guy is ancient. Like his first vacation was on the Ark,” I said.

  My dad grinned. “His high school job was building pyramids.”

  “His car had stone wheels and he had to push with his feet to get it going,” I shot back, giggling.

  “Did you have a point, Lucy?” Gavin interrupted.

  “Yesss,” I replied, “My point is, I can’t really picture Nathaniel opening a tarot business at this point in his life. And it’s not like he needs money. So why does he want the cards so badly? I think we just tell him no.”

  “Lucy,” Gavin sounded exasperated, “Your grandmother despised, even feared, Nathaniel. Though I doubt it, we can’t rule out him being behind my father’s death. So your bravado, while cute, is ill-advised.”

  “My opinion is not ‘cute’ Gavin.”

  “Actually I agree with Gavin,” my father cut in. “Lucy, it isn’t a great idea to confront Nathaniel. I’d think it will be safer to find the card and give it to him. Get him off your case and spare yourself any possible danger,” my dad said.

  “Grandma didn’t want him to have it!”

  “No,” my dad admitted, “She didn’t. But nor did she probably think you would ever meet Nathaniel. So again, let’s find the Empress and just give it to him.”

  I sighed and slumped down in the wooden kitchen chair. I saw my dad’s point, but hated feeling disloyal to my grandma.

  “The question remains,” said Gavin, “Of where, exactly, we will find the Empress.”

  “Have you done a reading on this yet, Lucy?” my dad asked.

  I dashed to the foyer where I’d left my bag earlier. I pulled out the carved wooden box that held my cards and carried it back to the kitchen table. I also brought the hard-backed purple journal that I’d bought to record the spreads I invented. Gavin and my dad helped me clear away the glasses and mugs, and we moved away the decorative centerpiece and placemats.

  I sat back down and thumbed through the journal, looking for a spread that would address my question. About twenty pages in, I found the spread I was looking for. I opened my box of cards, pushing aside the purple silk I’d wrapped around the deck. I shuffled the cards and began to lay the spread.

  “Well the Four of Wands seems to tell me that the card is at home. And this second card usually stands for like talent, so I don’t know what it’s telling me…”

  “Sometimes the Star’s associated with water,” my dad chimed in.

  I felt flustered a little, reading in front of my dad. I didn’t want to screw up. “Right, so, it may be near water, and it’s at home. The last person to see it was is shown as The Lovers, so it could have been her husband, but I don’t think that’s it. The Lovers card also represents the Gemini sign, which Grandma was, so it probably just means she was the last one to see it. And the Six of Cups usually means nostalgia, so I’m thinking it means the card is in a
place that’s nostalgic for me. Which makes since if it’s at home.”

  “Sounds like a pretty solid interpretation,” my dad said. “Does it help you at all?”

  “Not really,” I sighed.

  “Perhaps the clue about the water will prove helpful,” Gavin said.

  “Maybe. But it looks like I need to go back home and look some more,” I replied. Despite my long nap earlier in the day, my body was heavy with the need to sleep. I yawned and lay my head down in my folded arms on the table.

  “Looks like it’s time to call it a night, kiddo,” said my dad. “I don’t live far from here if you’d like to stay the night at my place.”

  I was intrigued by the prospect of seeing where he lived, getting to know more about him. What would his house look like? Was it like mom’s? Were there pictures of me—of his family? A horrifying thought struck me.

  “Do you have other kids or a wife or anything?” I asked him. He shook his head from side to side and I was relieved. I told him to wait for me and bounded upstairs to the guest room to gather my toothbrush and pajamas. After throwing my things in a bag, I tidied the bed from my earlier nap. I swung open the bedroom door, ready to meet my dad downstairs, and ran smack into Gavin.

  “I’m sorry…I was just about to knock,” he said.

  “No biggie,” I replied, “What’s up?”

  “Lucy,” he began, his accent turning my name into a delicacy. He was silent for a moment and I was suddenly aware of how close I was still standing to him. I could feel the heat of his body as his deep, faintly cedar smell washed warmly around me in the silky Savannah air. I looked up at him, the broadness of his shoulders under his thin tee shirt, the slight stubble on his solid jaw. He looked down at me, fixing his dark eyes on my own. He cleared his throat and began again. “Lucy, I think you should stay here tonight. We can meet up with your father in the morning.”

  I took a step back from Gavin. “Why don’t you want me to stay with him?”

  “You’ve just now met him,” he replied. “We need to make sure you’re safe.”