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so." She looked into his eyes although
they tried to avoid her gaze. "This chafes like sand under your
robes and in your shoes. You desire to show them—"
    "Enough," he snapped. "Move on, woman.
What does the next card say?"
    Smiling inwardly she turned another
card. The two of Pentacles. Her smile, even though it was tucked
away out of his sight, died as abruptly as a snuffed
flame.
    Wait...that was wrong.
    A great love
affair. No. That card had not been there
before when she read his destiny.
    Jesamyn's gaze narrowed on the card in
her hand as she thought quickly. "A troublesome woman enters your
life."
    "Well, that's an easy one," he
scoffed. "Most wenches are troublesome, and there is always at
least one around."
    She moved on to the next card. "The
ten of Swords..." She paused. Had she dealt the cards wrong? This
could not be. The ten of Swords was a powerful good luck card and
often meant a misfortune averted. It should have been the four of
Swords, as it was when she looked before — a warning to be wary of
friends who are not all that they seem, a danger card. Somehow,
overnight, he had gone from danger to good fortune. Something was
amiss.
    She flipped another card. This time it
was from the Major Arcana.
    The
Lovers .
    He looked at it and grinned. "I know
what that one means."
    The illustration, of course, was
plain, even to a layman.
    "The cards are difficult this night,"
she muttered. "Sometimes they like to lead me astray, or they have
hidden meaning. The moon is full tonight, and this influences the
cards. I— my head hurts and I am out of sorts with my monthly flux
soon upon me. This too can adversely affect the reading of a
destiny." All lies, but what would he know?
    He laughed. "You seem disappointed to
find my fortune favorable."
    Saying nothing, she quickly gathered
up her cards and slid them back inside the leather purse along with
her hard-earned coins.
    "Why don't you read one for yourself?"
he demanded.
    "I cannot," she muttered, sullen. "It
is not possible to read for oneself." Another lie. She simply never
wanted to know her own future. What was the point?
    Suddenly he grabbed her hand and
pulled her down into the straw, rolling over to secure her body
beneath his. "Then I shall tell you your fortune,
wench."
    "The name is Jesamyn," she reminded
him.
    "Jesamyn." He let the sound slide off
his tongue like a sensuous snake and then his grin broadened
cockily. "I like the way it sounds. The same way you dance. To
twist and tie an honest man in knots."
    "Honest man? Do show me where he is,
for it is surely a rarity. An oddity." She rolled her eyes, still
peeved at the cards being so mischievous. And at him for being more
handsome than she expected, not to mention better
humored.
    He closed his eyes and ran a fingertip
over the lines of her palm. "I see that you have traveled a great
distance, fair one. But that you have another journey still to
come."
    "How clever you are," she exclaimed
scornfully, trying not to laugh as he tickled her hand. Oh, why was
he talking to her. She did not care to befriend him.
    Nino tightened his hold on her fingers
and drew them to his lips for a kiss. "You will soon have a journey
with me."
    "To where?" She couldn't seem to catch
her breath, the sight of those changed cards and his altered
destiny had knocked the beat of her usually steady pulse,
scattering it just as she had longed to throw those cards
asunder.
    "To ecstasy."
     
    * * * *
     
    Something had upset her. He saw that
in her face as she turned the last Tarot card. The Lovers. But even
if he had not looked at her expression, he would have known it from
the sudden improvement in her speech. Quite suddenly she went from
disjointed sentences to long, flowing, angry explanations for why
the cards might be wrong tonight. Not to mention a bitter tirade
against men in general.
    She had deceived him. No doubt it was
all part of her performance.
    Yet whatever she saw in those cards
had shocked her enough to make her