Girl of Shadows (37 page)

Serafina coolly returned Sarah’s gaze. ‘What would you like to know?’

‘Well, for a start, what brought you to New South Wales?’

‘I was transported.’

‘Ha! See!’ Sarah was triumphant. ‘She’s as crooked as we are!’

‘Speak for yourself!’ Harrie said.

Serafina added, ‘As were the three of you.’

‘Lucky guess, especially in this town,’ Sarah said. ‘Transported for what?’

‘Fraud.’

‘What did I tell you?!’ Sarah crowed. ‘You might as well chuck your money down the crapper.’

Frowning, Friday asked, ‘Fraud with the cards?’

Serafina said, ‘Not directly, no.’

‘But you can really read them?’ Friday persisted.

Serafina didn’t seem at all perturbed by the question, or Sarah’s derision. ‘Yes. Among other things.’

Friday barely hesitated. ‘Bugger it, I’m getting mine done. It’s only four bob.’ She slid her money across the table.

Sarah shook her head despairingly.

Harrie thought four shillings was a bit steep, but opened her purse and handed over the money.

Serafina unlocked her tin, dropped in the coins with satisfying clinks, closed it and returned it to the larger box.

‘Who would like to go first?’

‘I will.’ Friday hitched her chair closer to the table.

‘Right, then.’ Serafina was businesslike now. ‘Do you prefer a particular deck? French? Italian? The Visconti, perhaps?’

‘Just the usual,’ Friday replied, clearly having no idea.

Serafina took a red cloth bundle from the box, unwrapped it and extracted a pack of large cards. She shuffled them expertly in spite of their size, tossing them from hand to hand so dextrously the images on them blurred. Harrie, Friday and Sarah glanced at one another, expressions bleak, mouths pressed shut against raw memories. Rachel had shuffled the cards like that. Harrie brushed the heel of her palm against her eye and swallowed hard.

Serafina set the cards before Friday and, with a sly sideways glance at Sarah, said, ‘I’ll do a general reading first, to assure you I do have the necessary skills. Touch the cards, please.’

Friday did, Serafina took them back and shuffled again, then asked Friday to cut the deck. From the bottom half she laid out five cards in the shape of a cross. The cards were beautifully but quite bizarrely illustrated. Serafina tapped her teeth while she studied them.

‘You live by your wits and your personal charms, and at times this causes you sorrow, anger and pain. You’ve never known the passion of real love. You once
thought
you did, but all you’d done then was confuse love with the bonds born of dependence and desperation. And now you fear you never will know true, deep love, because of what you —’ She abruptly stopped and glanced up at Friday. ‘Well, you don’t need the cards to tell you that, do you?’

Friday stared at her, her mouth unbecomingly open and a faint tinge of red blooming on her cheeks.

Serafina returned to the cards. ‘Your mother left you — died or disappeared? — some years ago and your father was nothing more than a shadow. Your closest family are not connected to you by blood, but they mean more to you than blood ever has. You have suffered much loss. You have borne a child and lost her.’ She looked up again and said bluntly, ‘You should stop grieving, girl. She would have died anyway, whether you’d been with her or not. The poor little thing was defective.’

Friday and Harrie gasped. Even Sarah felt her heart jolt; how could this woman have known that Friday had left her baby alone?

‘There is a core of darkness within you and you must be wary of it,’ Serafina went on. ‘If you’re not vigilant it will literally be the death of you. You should strive to choose a path that is not so self-destructive. There is also a darkness without, in the form of …’ Frowning, she picked up a card. ‘This is the Magus, but manifesting as he has in this spread between
these
cards —’ she tapped two others ‘— signifies almost a complete inversion, with the Magus exhibiting attributes remarkably similar to those of the Empress. Very unusual, I have to say. Anyway, this external darkness represents a very significant threat to you. And this card here?’ She pointed to one depicting a tier of goblets. ‘You drink far too much.’ She gathered the cards and shuffled the deck again. ‘Do you have a specific question you’d like to ask?’

Friday swallowed, then nodded.

‘Keep it to yourself.’ Serafina set the deck before her a second time. ‘Hand, if you will.’

Friday placed her palm on the cards, Serafina cut and spread seven.

‘This is interesting. The answer is yes, and before too much time has passed.’

Friday’s face lit up and she almost clapped.

‘But be warned,’ Serafina said quickly, ‘the path won’t be easy, and there will be considerable resistance from external forces. However, if you persist, you will be rewarded beyond anything you might ever have dreamt. As to the specifics — tall and strong and, yes, definitely dark. There is this, however.’ From the spread she slid two cards across the table.

Friday eyed them uncomprehendingly. ‘What do they mean?’

‘Justice, and the Eight of Swords? Quite possibly more gaol time, which could be connected to your first reading, but more likely to this one.’

‘Well, that stinks.’

Serafina shrugged. ‘Everything has a price. Who’s next?’

‘Did you get a good answer to your secret question?’ Harrie asked Friday. She felt decidedly nervous now. The woman’s comment about Friday’s baby had been uncanny.

‘Bloody good, actually,’ Friday said. ‘Except for the gaol bit.’

‘If the cards say something’s going to happen,’ Harrie said, ‘does it always
have
to happen?’

‘I can’t really tell you that,’ Serafina replied. ‘I read the cards for a lot of people, but I don’t always hear how things turn out for them. In fact, hardly ever.’

‘All right, do mine, please,’ Harrie said in a rush, before she could change her mind.

Sarah felt uneasy, and more than a little angry; Harrie, as usual, was being far too trusting with someone she didn’t know. It was probably all right for this Serafina woman to tell Friday things — Friday was tough, but Harrie wasn’t, especially not at the moment. And Serafina appeared to have been disturbingly accurate so far, which frankly was a real shock.

Sarah
had
seen this kind of thing before — she
didn’t
altogether disbelieve in it — and it gave her the willies. Maisie, a girl in Tom Ratcliffe’s crew in London, had been able to read the cards, and scry, but she’d been so raddled by opium she’d never had the wits to harness her talent. Serafina Fortune clearly did, however. What if she actually did tell Harrie something really awful, as Harrie herself had suggested on the way here? Sarah had done everything she could to deter her and Friday, and it hadn’t worked, and the worst thing about it was she suspected Serafina could see right through her attempts.

The first spread of five cards told Harrie she was surrounded by children — hardly a revelation — that her mother was very unwell and hovering between this world and the next, and that someone in her family would soon be in trouble with the law.

As soon as Harrie heard this, her bottom lip quivered, then she burst into tears. ‘Robbie!’ she sobbed. ‘That’ll be Robbie!’

‘That’s enough!’ Sarah moved to collect up the cards, but Serafina blocked her.

‘Leave them. I haven’t finished.’

‘You bloody have.’

‘This isn’t your reading,’ Serafina said, indicating Harrie, now noisily blowing her nose. ‘Ask her what she wants.’

‘I think you’ve heard enough,’ Sarah said.

‘No, I want to know the rest. I do,’ Harrie replied through her handkerchief.

Sarah shot a glance at Serafina, expecting to see at least a small smirk, but her face was impassive.

‘Are you sure?’ Friday asked, her arm around Harrie.

Harrie nodded, hiccupped and tucked her handkerchief into her sleeve. ‘Sorry, it gave me a fright, that’s all. Really, it isn’t unexpected. He’s been heading that way for a while. And so’s the prediction about Ma. She was sick before I left. Really.’

Serafina went on to tell Harrie she had considerable artistic ability, and that soon she would ‘grant her illustrations life and breath’.

Harrie frowned. ‘I’m not sure what that means. Do you know?’

‘No. I expect you will, when it happens.’ Serafina slid a card from the spread. ‘This card, the Moon, is a concern. It can be associated with tension, confusion, fear and worry, imagination and illusion. And pregnancy, so beware of that.’

Sarah and Friday exchanged a startled glance.

Harrie flushed. ‘Well, there’s not much chance of that, is there?’

‘The Moon is mistress of the oceans within the mind. When the tides are out of kilter, we become ill. You’ve been unwell, haven’t you? A time of darkness and despair?’

Harrie shook her head.

‘There isn’t a lot to be gained from lying to the tarot, you know,’ Serafina said matter-of-factly. She indicated a third card, a naked girl pouring water from a jug into a pool. ‘This is the Star and,
in this spread, for you, she brings enlightenment. Do you believe you have visitations? From a spirit who gives you peace of mind, perhaps?’

Her eyes shining with delight, Harrie exclaimed, ‘I do! Yes, I do.’

Sarah mouthed ‘Jesus Christ!’ at Friday, who nodded wearily back.

‘Take comfort where you can. Sometimes there is precious little to be had.’

Serafina gathered up the cards. ‘Any specific questions?’

Harrie nodded. ‘Two. Can I have two?’

Serafina shuffled, cut and lay out the cards again. She studied them for a full minute, then said, ‘The answer to the first question is yes, but you will have to suffer more loss to achieve it.’

The look on Harrie’s face was an odd combination of hope and dismay; it was obvious to Sarah and Friday what the question had been.

‘And like her —’ Serafina indicated Friday, ‘you’ve suffered plenty already. The love of a child will be involved, and commitment to a promise you’ve made. The answer to the second question is also yes, though again, initially you’ll have your share of heartbreak around that.’ She looked Harrie directly in the eye. ‘Most women do, you know, one way or another. But there’s also a warning here, involving water and tides, which connects back to the Moon and Star cards.’

‘What sort of warning?’ Sarah demanded.

‘Who can say?’ Serafina opened her hands, palms up. ‘I’m only the oracle. I only pass on the message.’

Sarah didn’t believe her. As Serafina gathered the cards, she said, ‘You can do my reading now.’

‘I thought you weren’t having one?’ Friday said. ‘Didn’t you say this was a load of old shite?’

‘So? I’m allowed to change my mind, aren’t I?’

‘God, you’re contrary sometimes,’ Friday grumbled.

Ignoring the bickering, Serafina prepared the cards and set the cut deck before Sarah, who gave the topmost card the lightest of touches.

Serafina lay out the five-card spread and studied it. ‘You’re a very complicated person,’ she said eventually.

Friday let out a bark of laughter, which turned into a grunt as Harrie elbowed her in the ribs.

‘Do you want the short or the long version?’ Serafina asked.

Sarah shrugged.

‘Short, then. I’m getting tired. You’re fierce and cunning and you don’t trust easily. Your blood family has been largely responsible for that. Your mother was weak. Dead now, is she?’

Sarah nodded.

‘And your father is a selfish, childish and possessive bully. Who hides behind … what?’

God, Sarah thought. He hides behind God.

‘Sadly, not dead,’ Serafina went on. ‘But when you do finally allow yourself to trust, you are eternally loyal. In the past you’ve been a loner, though that’s changed over the last couple of years.’ She moved a card out of the spread. ‘Three characters moved into your orbit who have become extremely important to you, and now there is a fourth.’

‘Adam?’ Harrie suggested.

‘I see he is in trouble,’ Serafina remarked.

Sarah said tersely, ‘Well, obviously, I know all this.’

‘I’m sure you do,’ Serafina said, sweeping the cards into a neat pile.

‘So tell me something I
don’t
know.’ Sarah snatched up the pack. ‘Sarah! Give them back!’ Harrie protested.

‘She doesn’t need them,’ Sarah said. ‘Do you?’

For a long moment Sarah and Serafina stared at each other, neither willing to be the first to look away.

At last Serafina said, ‘Actually, no. Not really.’

Friday was confused. ‘Why not?’

‘She has the sight.’ Sarah raised the cards. ‘These are just a front, something she hides behind.’

Friday and Harrie gaped at Serafina as though she’d just grown a second head.

Serafina gave a small, one-shouldered shrug, as if it were really neither here nor there that her secret was out, and settled more comfortably in her chair, her pale, long-fingered hands in her lap. ‘You have a specific question?’

‘I do.’

Serafina remained still for a moment, her eyes half closed. The left side of her top lip twitched once, then she spoke. ‘Yes, you will.
He
will.’

Her shoulders slumping visibly with relief, Sarah used her sleeve to wipe away the sheen of nervous sweat that had suddenly appeared on her forehead.

‘Furthermore, there’s a very strong connection between how that comes about, and these two.’ Serafina indicated Harrie and Friday. ‘In other words, they’ll help you. But of course you know that.’

Sarah nodded.

‘Also, and using the imagery of the tarot, there’s a powerful link with the Magus. The same Magus, perhaps, who appeared in her reading?’ Serafina nodded at Friday. ‘Hers as well,’ she added, indicating Harrie, ‘though I didn’t mention that, not after the other bad news. I’m seeing a very unpleasant and dangerous force. Do any of you know who this man is?’

Sarah raised her eyebrows at Friday. ‘Gellar?’

‘Could be.’

‘Someone known to the three of you for some time?’ Serafina suggested.

‘But we haven’t known Jared Gellar that long,’ Harrie pointed out.