Blood Red Read Online Free Page A

he performed a plaintive and beautiful tune.
    She looked up at the sky. Clouds still rode heavy over the moon, like a red curtain in the air.
    She studied Susan. The woman was soft spoken. Elegant. Not at all what she had expected. Her pencil moved over the paper. She drew the lines first, then filled in the shades and shadows. Finally she added background, the greenery around the Square, the sidewalk, the tent, the statue of Andrew Jackson rising far behind Susan’s back.
    â€œUgh! What does that mean?” Heidi asked, drawing Lauren’s attention to the table, where Heidi had turned up a card with a skeleton.
    â€œIt’s…death, isn’t it?” Heidi asked.
    Susan shook her head. “It often signifies change, an ending so that there can be a new beginning. You are about to end your single life. You will start into a new life.”
    â€œWhew,” Heidi murmured. Though she spoke lightly, Lauren thought she was seriously relieved, and she felt a new wave of discomfort.
    â€œWhat’s that?” Deanna asked, pointing to another card.
    â€œLove.” Susan looked at Heidi. “You can rest assured in this—your fiancé loves you very much. You are all he has ever wanted, all he could ever need in life.”
    â€œOh,” Heidi breathed happily. “Ditto.”
    â€œYes, I can see,” Susan murmured.
    â€œWill the wedding go off without a hitch?” Heidi asked.
    â€œNo wedding goes off without a hitch,” Susan said dryly as she scooped up the cards, patting them back into a neat pile. “But you are deeply loved, and you love deeply in return.”
    â€œThank you.” Heidi rose and looked at Lauren with an expression on her face that plainly said, See? Nothing to be afraid of.
    Lauren smiled back weakly, wondering if Heidi had really been listening. Susan hadn’t said anything specific about Heidi’s wedding at all—she had just generalized about weddings. And she had said the skeleton card often indicated a change.
    Then again, Lauren told herself, maybe she was the one hearing words that weren’t being said.
    â€œOn to the palm,” Deanna said. She and Heidi changed seats. As Deanna started to sit down, she glanced at Lauren’s drawing and frowned.
    â€œWhat is it?” Lauren asked.
    â€œUh, nothing, I guess. It’s a great drawing. It’s just that…well, you made the skeleton card the focus of it.”
    â€œI did not!” Lauren protested and looked down at the sketch. It was one of her best, she thought. She’d captured not just a two-dimensional image but given it great depth. She’d found the strange and arresting beauty that was Susan’s. She’d caught the atmosphere of the Square. You could look at the drawing and almost hear music.
    And yet…
    Deanna was right. Somehow she had detailed the tarot card down to the finest line so that it unerringly drew the viewer’s eye and became the focus of the picture.
    â€œDon’t draw me,” Deanna whispered to her.
    â€œOkay,” Lauren assured her quietly in return.
    Susan was watching them both. Deanna noticed and gave her a rueful smile. “Lauren was engaged once.”
    â€œAnd her young man died,” Susan said. Wow, damned good guess,
    Lauren thought irritably. Though it was a fifty-fifty shot. Either they’d broken up or he had died. She knew that she was just one of many young women of her day. She’d fallen in love with a soldier. He’d gone to war. They’d emailed for six months, and then she’d stopped receiving replies.
    Until the army lieutenant had come to her house.
    She’d gone through it all. The devastation, the anger. And the healing. She didn’t feel that she had any terrible psychological hang-ups. She just wasn’t actively looking to find love again. But if the right person came along…
    Would she be ready?
    She really didn’t know.
    â€œI’m so