The Seer's Choice: A Novella of the Golden City Read Online Free Page B

she’d stolen, she must not have done it right.
    She turned to Mrs. Anjos. “Is he going to recover?”
    “Give him time,” Mrs. Anjos said. “He’s disordered now, but he will come back to rights.”
    

    Rafael was glad of that verdict, although he suspected Mrs. Anjos was stretching the truth. It was more like Miss Jardim had removed the contents of his armoire and then stuffed them all back in without order. He was all there . . . but definitely not at his best.
    “This is why a man who marries a healer must be very careful of her temper,” Mrs. Anjos told him. “There is no argument he can win, not with violence.”
    He chuckled under his breath. Yes, that point had been made very clearly. He would not forget it, not for the rest of his life.
    But if he felt bad, Miss Jardim must feel worse. She was pasty-pale, her eyes wide in her face as she watched him sitting there. “I wanted you to understand, Miss Jardim,” he managed. “This is why you don’t have to be afraid of any man.”
    She regarded him with a furrow between her brows.
    “Why don’t you go catch a breath of air,” he suggested. “I’ll escort you back to your flat in a few minutes.”
    Her eyes flicked between him and Mrs. Anjos, but she grabbed up her hat and went.
    “You will be well enough in a day or two,” Mrs. Anjos reassured him once Miss Jardim had fled.
    “I expect so.”
    “But things will always be different between you now,” she added. “You understand?”
    His gut instinct agreed. “How so?”
    “She will always carry a part of you inside her, and you will always bear her touch. When a healer has acted on you that way, it is like a brand. Usually this occurs with a healer’s first lover, but . . .” Her head tilted. “But you suspected that before we started, did you not?”
    He nodded. “Better me than anyone else.”
    “You would not have offered yourself if you thought it dangerous to your own future.”
    His own future? He sometimes forgot how old Mrs. Anjos actually was. Her young face was deceptive. She understood people and their motivations far better than most. “She came to me for help. I offered. I didn’t think it out of line.”
    “What have you seen?” she asked, eyes narrowed.
    He’d known the first time he’d laid eyes on Genoveva Jardim, standing in her family’s sitting room on the day her youngest sister had been kidnapped.
    He’d thought her a spoiled society girl who’d never had a day’s responsibility in her life. He’d kept his distance, but her path kept crossing closer and closer to his. First she’d joined the Special Police, then she’d come to his office to ask him to intercede with Medeiros . . . and then she’d sought him out at the football field and asked for help in a personal matter. It was as if he couldn’t avoid her, as if Fate was drawing her closer and closer to him like a fish on a line.
    The very day he met her, he’d foreseen that Genoveva Jardim would one day become his wife. This was the first time that had made any sense.
    

    “What were you talking about?” Genoveva asked as soon as Captain Pinheiro emerged into the courtyard.
    He settled his hat more firmly on his head. “She reassured me that I would be completely back to normal in a day or so, and suggested that I get something to eat. If you don’t mind, Miss Jardim, she recommended I do that first, so would you care to join me for a friendly supper, and then I’ll escort you home?”
    She would like to think she didn’t need his escort back to her flat, but it was a welcome offer anyway. And she could hardly turn down his suggestion of a shared meal since she’d nearly killed him. “That sounds fine. I’m actually quite thirsty. I’ve been eyeing the fountain on the wall, wondering if the water’s safe to drink.”
    “Shall we go then?” He didn’t hold out his arm for her to take, but gestured for her to walk at his side.
    A quarter of an hour later they sat in a tiny café