Beyond Time (Highland Secret Series) by Elizabeth Marshall Page A

medium said, in a stern tone.
    Grace did as she was told and sat down but wondered why she had. She felt like an animal in an experimental laboratory. She turned her head to her friend and raised her eyebrows.
    “If you insist on moving all the time I won’t be able to do my job. The sooner you sit still the sooner I will be done.”
    Grace obliged and turned to face the woman.
    “You don’t belong here,” the old lady said abruptly. Grace drew a sharp breath. How could this woman know she had left Jack?
    “You are married but not to the one whose ring marks your finger.”
    Instinctively Grace looked toward her left hand, fearful that she still wore her wedding ring, but she had left it on Jack’s bedside table. Her fingers were bare.
    “What do you mean?” Kate asked.
    The medium ignored her question again, shaking her head and muttering to herself.
    “I told you this wouldn’t work, not with two of you here. This isn’t right, it's all wrong.”
    “Just tell us what you can see,” Grace blurted in frustration.
    “I can see you in your lover’s arms, but ... beyond that... I’m sorry...”
    “Sorry for what?” shouted Kate, “what is going to happen?”
    “She will not exist, is no more... that is what ... she is going to die,” the old lady said, clasping her trembling hands together.
    Both girls stared in shocked silence at the old woman as she stuffed the twenty pound notes into her bra and rose unsteadily from the chair.
    “Don’t call me again until you are prepared to have individual readings,” she said, making her way to the door. Without as much as a goodbye she opened the door and disappeared through it.
    Grace lifted her glass to her mouth and drained the content.
    “What the hell was that all about?” she asked, turning white-faced toward Kate.
    “I am so sorry, Grace. I can’t imagine what Harry was thinking getting you to see her. If I had known she was a nutcase I would never have gone along with it. Take no notice of her, Grace. It was rubbish, all of it. You said yourself you don’t believe in all this.”
    Grace rubbed her forehead. She felt emotionally exhausted and engulfed by an ache that filled her whole body with a deep sense of foreboding.
    “Kate I think it’s time I went home. It’s getting late and I’ll never be up in the morning if I don’t get to bed soon.”
    Her friend rested her hand gently on her shoulder. “Take the day off, Grace. We are on top of things; I will manage just fine tomorrow.”
     
    The moon glistened like a giant ball of crystal in the night sky, illuminating the ancient city as she traced her steps back to her hotel. The hotel manager was sitting at the reception desk, still reading his crime thriller. Grace nodded and smiled politely. His eyes peeped over the top of the book; she didn’t need to see his mouth to know it held a smile.
    “Good evening, Mrs. Evans?”
    She had hoped he wouldn’t engage her in conversation but, now that he had, she found the sound of his voice reassuring.
    “Yes thank you. How’s your book?”
    “Oh it’s very good.”
    “Great things, books. I don’t know what I would do without them,” Grace said, thinking how utterly lost she would be without her books.
    “That they are. The missus used to say they kept me out of trouble,” he said, with a gentle laugh.
    The sound of his laughter lifted her spirits and she felt a smile creep onto her lips.
    “Good night, George. Enjoy the rest of your story,” she said, heading for the stairs that would take her to her room.
    “Night Mrs. Evans.”
     
    Back in her room she enjoyed a warm shower and a cup of coffee before sliding into bed. Too tired even to read, she kissed the photograph of her daughter and let her head fall heavily onto the pillow. The room was dark save for a tiny thread of moonlight which beamed through a gap in the curtains.
    She lay staring at the light, replaying the words of the medium in her mind. What possessed the woman to say a