Page 114 of The Keeper and I

He’d said Caroline’s name when he’d gotten his concussion.

When they went to her parents, he heard her voice and his own calling out to each other.

Laci admitted that she had heard their voices as a child as well.

She’d awoken Christmas morning to the sound of the voices.

He had the dream of them sneaking away during a ball. On the side of the house near the bins, he’d heard them again.

The first time they had sex, Laci had that snippet of a vision.

But that didn’t necessarily mean past lives, did it? Soulmates? If they were soulmates, why was it so hard for him to say I love you? Shouldn’t that have made it easier?

He shook himself into focus when he realized Laci was speaking.

“This weekend, when I went to take the rubbish out to the bin, I had the clearest vision of all,” she said. “It was me, in Caroline’s body, looking through her eyes while she stole a moment with Samuel. She—that is, I—told him—or rather, you, I suppose—that someone else was asking for her—er, my—”

“Why don’t we stick to addressing them in third person?” Billie suggested. “For simplicity’s sake.”

Laci nodded and went on. “There was someone else asking for her hand.”

Jordan’s stomach gave a furious lurch at the thought, and he realized some part of him must be buying into this because it was pissing him off to think of anyone other than Samuel marrying Caroline.

“She was afraid of him. She told Samuel that they should consider sneaking away so that they could elope to Scotland without her family’s interference. He refused, saying it would be like stealing, but said he wanted to speak to her family soon, before this other man could propose. They arranged to meet that night, and Samuel said…” she shot Jordan a meaningful look. “He said he had a painting for her.”

Jordan blanched. If nothing else could convince him, that did the trick. Samuel painted. Just like Jordan. Samuel painted Caroline as Jordan painted Laci. Jordan saw Laci’s face because it was the face of his soulmate. Samuel’s love. One and the same.

“A painting?” Ethan questioned, and Jordan jumped, forgetting they were with other people in his stupor. “What’s important about a painting?”

“Jordan paints,” Laci said, and Jordan didn’t even care that she told them. He would have said the same thing if he could find his voice. “He’s painted me since before he knew me.”

Billie and Ethan turned shocked, curious eyes on him. Still unable to speak, he nodded. He was afraid that if he opened his mouth, he’d either scream or throw up, and neither was appropriate as a guest in someone’s home. But the way his mind was warring with his heart, what else could he possibly do?

“Things carried over for us too,” Billie said. “I was terribly afraid of loss because Maggie had lost her parents and then Henry got killed. Ethan hates the cold because of how he froze in the woods outside of Bastogne. What about you, Laci? Anything you’ve never been able to explain?”

Laci pondered it for a long moment. “I’ve got an irrational fear of gunfire, which, thankfully, I don’t have to deal with very often. But I don’t know what that has to do with Caroline and Samuel.”

“I think we should confirm it first,” Jordan finally spoke up. “There must be something at the estate, anything that can prove they were there and what might have happened to them.”

Laci shook her head. “I dunno, Jordan. My parents have searched every inch of that house for bits of its history. Anything they found would’ve been in Dad’s study, and there’s hardly anything. Tessa found Caroline’s birth certificate, but there’s nothing at all on a Samuel.”

Jordan racked his brain for where else they might look. Then it hit him. Some of the most powerful moments occurred outside the mysterious locked door.

“The cellar,” he said, and his heart quickened. “The one with the rusty lock that you’ve never been able to get open. I bet you anything, there’s evidence in there.” He got to his feet so abruptly, he knocked his chair over. He held his hand out to Laci. “We’ve got to find out.”

She blinked. “What? Right now?”

“Right now.”

“We’re at dinner!”

“He’s right, you should go,” Billie interjected. “We understand.”

“Probably better than most,” Ethan added with a chuckle.

Laci got to her feet and took Jordan’s hand, letting him lead her out the front door.

“Thank you for having us!” she called back to them. “We’ll see you at the wedding!”

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