Page 47 of Of Fate and Phantoms
"Was he a good father to him?"
Hell. How to tell a mother that the son she gave up endured a terrible childhood? "The general was often absent, but Lincoln grew up to become a good man despite the loneliness."
"You choose your words carefully," she hedged.
"You're very observant." I set down my teacup. "Leisl, you should be telling Lincoln these things, not me. Let me fetch him."
"He will not listen."
"He will if we make him sit here."
She smiled sadly. "He will hear, but he will not listen. Not with this." She tapped her chest over her heart. "Not to me. But to you, perhaps."
"Perhaps."
She put down her teacup. "Thank you, Charlie. You are good girl. You will be good wife."
"Wait, you can't go yet. I still know nothing about you." I handed back her teacup and picked up my own. "Where are you living?"
"A cottage in Enfield."
"Not in a gypsy camp on one of the commons?"
"No. That life is hard, and the general gave me money. I am comfortable."
She waspaidto give up her son! How could financial compensation ever be enough? I wasn't sure how the arrangement sat with me. On the one hand, money couldn't replace what she'd lost, but on the other I was glad she had a home and was not roaming the streets trying to sell rags or flowers like the other Romany folk.
"The general died recently," I said. "I'll make sure Lincoln continues the payments to you. What of your family? Do you have a husband? Other children?"
"I married but he died eight years ago. We had two children, a boy and girl."
"Lincoln has a brother and sister!" I pressed a hand to my rapidly beating heart. What would it take to get him to meet them?
"They know nothing about him, and I do not wish them to know."
"Oh."
"My past with the prince…it is painful." She tapped her chest again and her face fell.
Painful because he'd forced himself on her or painful because she still loved him? "How did you meet him?" I asked gently.
"At a fair." She smiled wistfully. "He was so young, so handsome and charming. I tell him his future."
"You can tell someone's future at will? Did you read the lines on his palm?"
"No. I need to have vision." She held up a gnarled finger. "Do not trust gypsies at the fair, Charlie. They cannot read your palm or your tea leaves. Understand?"
"Thank you for the warning. So did you have a vision about the prince?"
She nodded, smiling again. "I knew that we would be together as soon as he walk into my tent. I saw our child when I touched him. I knew our baby would grow up to be an important man, but a troubled one, too."
"Did you tell the prince any of that?"
"No. He would think me mad, or using him for money." Her smile turned sad. "I tell him what he want to hear—that he will be king one day, he will be a good king, and have children and many mistresses."
"How did he take that?"
"He laughed and said I wasn't reading his future but his present. I laughed too. It was enough."
