Wherever She Goes (Psychic Seasons, ReGina Welling [novels to improve english TXT] 📗

I received signs, symbols, feelings. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I was very good at interpreting those messages, but I never heard spirit speak directly to me. Your blindness forced you to develop clairaudience as a second ability so you went from seeing distinct presences to hearing them clearly as well. It’s quite remarkable.”

“You’re telling me my blindness was not a form of psychosis? A subconscious response to fear?” An unbelievable weight lifted from Kat. It had been a constant worry to her that any fright might cause a relapse or that she might pass some type of genetic response to fear along to her own children should she choose to have any.

“Absolutely not. Fear may have played a part in lengthening the experience, but not in causing it.”

Kat felt anger creeping back, “And you couldn’t have shown up here before now to let me know? Maybe speed up the process, make it a little easier on me?”

“Yes, mother, why now?” Anne demanded.

“Special dispensation. Galmadriel is busy elsewhere and asked Estelle to handle this but I begged to be the one to come and explain, to have the chance to spend just a little more time with my girls. Oh, Annie, I’m so proud of you. Of both of you. It takes a strong woman to go against every instinct and force your child to stand on her own when all you want to do is protect. Look what you did for Kat and I know exactly what it cost you. The tears you’ve cried in private were never tears cried alone, I was always beside you.”

“Thank you.” Annie whispered, her voice rough with emotion.

“And Kathleen, trees grow the strongest roots when they are clinging to rocky soil. I hope you won’t allow bitterness to taint your experience because then it will have all been for nothing. There are many paths open to you don’t let anger blind you from seeing them.”

With a final smile and a longing look, Nora laid one hand on her heart, reached the other toward the two women standing before her, and faded away.

_,.-'~'-.,_

Heavy silence filled the room for a long time after Nora was gone. Kat opened her mouth several times to speak but words wouldn’t come. Still staring at the point where her mother had been standing, Anne finally mustered up the courage to ask, “Do you hate me?”

“Oh, Mom, no. How could I?”

“I should have told you.”

“What difference would it have made? It changed nothing probably would have resented you for making the choice I would have made given the chance. At the time.” When she made the qualification, Kat knew it was the truth.

“And now?”

“It wasn’t “hysterical blindness,” she spat the words as though bitter in her mouth, “that term has been hanging over my head like a wrecking ball because it made me feel like a victim who was too fragile to handle life. Yet, look around. I’ve done all right for myself and I’ve helped a lot of people in the process.”

Kat stood taller, “I think I’m okay with that.

Chapter 11

Only two blocks from the waterfront, Kat’s street was one of the shortest in Oakville. It was also one of the most crowded. None of the properties qualified as historic but as neighborhoods went, it was the oldest in the town’s centralized area. A row of narrow houses painted in Easter egg colors with gingerbread trim lined both sides of a relatively short street.

The third house on the left, painted a cheerful yellow with its bright blue door, white trim, and tiny picket fence fit right in with the rest. Except for the words Madame Zephyr painted on a small sign, there was nothing about the house that screamed a psychic lives here, and even then, the sign barely whispered.

Most of Kat’s business came from word of mouth advertising and the rest she inherited from her grandmother along with the house.

As he steered the little hybrid into her short drive, Zack thought he saw movement through the curtains. In a low voice he said, “I thought you lived here alone.”

“I do. Why?” Kat frowned.

“Then you have an unexpected guest. Wait here. I’ll go check it out.”

But Kat had already recognized the figure inside from the shadow it cast behind the white eyelet window covering. Before she could catch up to him, he was already halfway to the door and there was no way to warn her uninvited guests.

On a half run, she caught up and grabbed his arm. “No, it’s fine. I know who it is. Nothing to worry about.” But he’d seen the surprise in her eyes and was not fooled.

“Then you can introduce me because I’m not letting you go in there alone.”

No amount of argument changed his mind so with a sigh of resignation, she unlocked the door and stepped inside to key in the alarm code.

Zack could already hear voices and one of them was male. Jealousy, like a bolt of lightning, slammed into his gut.

He should have been surprised by the feeling but he wasn’t.

Julie, forgive me, Kat thought to herself as she followed Zack into the dining room. Too close, she almost slammed into his back when he stopped short. In an instant, Zack felt jealousy die within him. . Judging from the surprised looks mirrored on both faces, neither Estelle nor Julius had been expecting Zack to walk through the door. Estelle looked past him to Kat who shrugged fatalistically. It was already too late to change the situation. Zack was about to meet a pair of nosy ghosts.

“Sorry to barge in like this…” he began then his eyes widened as he recognized the woman sitting at the dining room table, “wait a minute. I saw you the night Gustavia was taken. You showed up at the bar to warn us. I wanted to thank you but when I turned around, you were gone.” The whole time he was speaking to Estelle, Zack’s eyes kept darting past her to Julius. The