Lost Love Found Read Online Free PDF Page B

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    Also attending the wedding were Sir Robert Small, Lady de Marisco’s business partner, and his elder sister, Dame Cecily, who was a grandparent to all of Valentina’s generation of cousins and the generation that followed as well. The Smalls were very much a part of the family. Outsiders assumed some blood tie, which neither the St. Michaels nor the de Mariscos bothered to deny. Sir Robert and Dame Cecily were in their early eighties and as lively as ever.
    Originally from Devon where they had owned an estate called Wren Court, they now lived on a small estate near the de Mariscos called Oak Hall. Wren Court had been turned over to Willow. She had been born there. And because neither of the Smalls had married, Willow was their heiress. Sir Robert, or Robbie as they all called him, had only recently and with great reluctance retired from the sea.
    Anne St. Michael’s wedding day dawned fair and hot. After an unusually rainy spring the entire month of July had been sunny and hot. The bride, lovely under any circumstances, was proclaimed by all uncommonly beautiful in her wedding gown of creamy satin with a heavily pearled bodice. Atop her flowing dark tresses she wore a delicate wreath of gold-washed silver filigree, pearls, and amethysts. Her bouquet was of pink and white roses. She was attended by her two younger sisters, who were garbed in pale green silk, their bodices embroidered with tiny seed pearls and gold-thread butterflies. They wore wreaths of field flowers in their unbound hair and carried matching bouquets tied with gold ribbons.
    The groom, a handsome young man with dark blond hair, was garbed in a suit of pale blue silk. He stammered his vows nervously, to his father’s amusement, while his mother dabbed at her eyes with a white lawn handkerchief. The bride blushed becomingly, to her parents’ pride and the giggles of her younger cousins and siblings. When they were pronounced man and wife and Robert Grayson kissed his new wife, everyone cheered mightily.
    Afterward there was feasting and dancing on the lawn of Pearroc Royal. The tables overflowed with the bounty offered by the bride’s family. The feast was shared by the wedding guests and also all of the tenants belonging to Pearroc Royal as well as its servants and the villagers. A caravan of gypsies was seen traveling nearby, and it was invited to join the festivities. In gratitude to their hosts, they told the guests’ their fortunes.
    Taking Valentina’s hand, an old woman who was the tribe’s elder stated, “You are newly widowed, but there was no love.”
    Valentina said nothing. Her gaze did not waver from the gypsy’s.
    “Soon,” the crone continued, “you will learn a secret long kept. You will journey a great distance to seek that which you already have. You will also find that for which you have long sought, that which you believe has eluded you, a lost love found. It has been here all along, but you cannot see it, and you will not see it until you have fulfilled your destiny.”
    “Tell me what you mean,” Valentina begged.
    The old woman shook her head. “In time, lady, all will be clear,” she said, and moved away to tell another fortune. Valentina looked after the Gypsy, confused. Then, shaking her head, she laughed. Who knew if the woman had really seen anything in her hand? Gypsies could be such frauds, but then the woman had known that she was newly widowed, that there had been no love between herself and Edward. For a moment, Valentina felt uncomfortable, but then chiding herself for being a fool, she rejoined her happy family.
    Huge barrels of cider and brown ale were emptied and rolled away several times before the moon rose. The guests drank rich, fragrant wines from the vineyards of Archambault, the château belonging to Adam de Marisco’s half brother, Alexandre de Saville, the Comte de Cher. Finally, when the barrels and kegs had been emptied a final time, the ceremony of putting the bride and groom to bed was