Page 27 of The Seven Rings
“We’ll keep your things, Lissy. We’ll polish the picture frame and set it out. And we’ll use the desk. It’s going in the guest office.”
She noted it on the sticky note, started to move on.
One of the dustcovers slid to the floor.
“I see. Thanks.” She wound her way to the chair, one with that same finish and an inlaid fabric pad with pastel pink and blue flowers.
“It’s perfect, of course it is. This is her desk chair.”
As she ran a hand over its back, she felt the pull.
And saw she now stood in front of the mirror. The glass blurred with color, and she heard music. Something tinny and far, far away.
“Now? Here?” She looked back, wishing for Cleo, but the pull proved too strong.
“All right, all right. I want answers, so…”
She took a breath; she stepped through the glass.
Someone sang about hearing a nightingale’s song.
Sonya felt dizzy, out of place, everything stayed blurred, but the voice singing:I’ll be warbling love’s old sweet tune.
Then she heard a voice, young, bright, join the other.
In the valley of the moon.
And her vision cleared.
Not the attic, but the desk and the chair. And Lisbeth Anne Poole. Lissy singing along with a record on a small Victrola as she filled her fountain pen with ink.
She wore a green dress—it might have been velvet. Long sleeves, a nipped-in waist. Her hair, tied loosely with a green ribbon, spilled down her back as she sat at the desk in a bedroom with wallpaper of big, rosy pink flowers that faced the gardens and the woods.
But snow fell, thick and steady, beyond the windows, and a fire crackled cheerfully in the hearth.
Stepping closer, Sonya caught her scent—young, sweet, floral—as Lisbeth began to write.
Dearest Dina,
You won’t believe it! I hardly believe it myself.
I’m engaged!
Edward took me on an afternoon sleigh ride. It’s snowing to beat the band here, and we had such a time with the horses prancing, their bells jingling! Everything was so white and pretty.
Then he stopped, and he took my hands, and he kissed them both.
Oh, Dina, my heart just flew!
He said he loved me, that I had his heart in my hands. He promised to love me to his last breath and beyond.
Can you imagine?
Then he took the ring out of his pocket—oh, it’s a pip, Dina—and he said: Marry me, please, Lissy. I think I’ll die if you won’t.
I was laughing and crying and pulling off my glove.
Yes, yes, yes! I don’t know how many times I said yes, but I couldn’t stop. At least I couldn’t until he kissed me.
