Rayne Ch. 04

Rayne looked at the old crone as if she had sprouted two heads. "What is this you babble about old woman?" Rayne demanded.

"I, sir, do not babble. In my lifetime I have foreseen many visions, and they have all come to pass except for two. You are the dark one in my visions, sent to protect Gabriella. You already feel the ties that bind the two of you together. You will fight the attraction, but it will be to no avail. It is destiny; it is your fate. Yours and Gabriella, even an ocean apart, she felt herself pulled to you. That's why she..but, I say too much. It can't be told, it must unfold itself, only then will you believe, as will she."

"Who are you? Where do you come from?" Rayne was beginning to feel a little uneasy with her talk on the heels of Javonnie's "feelings or visions" as he too thought of them.

"I am Maria, I have been Gabriella's nurse since the day she was born, and her mothers before her."

The woman certainly looked old enough to be what she said she was. "Speaking of which, where are Gabriella's parents?"

"Dead."

Rayne, taken aback apologized, "I am terribly sorry, I had no idea."

"How could you? It was their destiny, it was fulfilled many years ago."

"How did they die?"

"Gabriella will tell you, when she is ready for you to have that information. It is something that she has not spoken of since it happened. But it is a driving force in her life and a destructive one as well."

This old crone fascinated Rayne with her half-truths, innuendoes, and riddles. But it was late and he obviously wouldn't find the answers to his questions tonight. He turned to leave and Maria placed her gnarled old hand on his sleeve, "Thank you for seeing her safely home. She will probably not remember much of what happened tonight. She can't accept some of the things she has seen in her life, things that haunt her still. I'm sorry if I sound like I'm trying to be mysterious. There are so many things that will be clearer to you once Gabriella explains who and what she is."

Rayne knew it had taken much for the old woman to share this with him. He put his large tanned hand over hers and a smile graced her lined, aged face causing her blue eyes to sparkle. He suddenly knew that he believed the things she had told him, and he knew that he would grow to love this old lady.

Rayne arrived home and sat before the fire sipping cognac and smoking a cigar. His thoughts were filled with many things. He thought about the happiness of his friend Javonnie, the tears of Gabriella and wondered not for the first time what could cause one so lovely as she to know misery such as was revealed on her face when she had sat in the garden crying. Then there was the mysterious Maria. He firmly suspected that beneath that gruff, grouchy exterior beat a warm and loving heart. He had planned to take care of his business here in London, tour the estates he had inherited and leave as quickly as possible to his carefree life in Tahiti. He realized with a start that not once since the night he had met La Gata had he given Navia more than a passing thought.

Perhaps Javonnie was right, maybe she wanted a permanent relationship, but he also knew that relationship would never be with him. He cared for her, she was a bright, intelligent and extremely sensual woman, but he felt only affection for her. He remembered the conversation he had had with Javonnie about marriage and he had a strange feeling that Javonnie might have been right. Mayhap he had met the woman that would turn his world upside down and steal his heart. Funny, he had never envisioned himself settled with a wife. He rose from the chair, finished off the cognac and tossed the half-smoked cigar into the fire. His thoughts had turned melancholy, something that had not happened since the loss of his parents. What a coincidence that both he and Gabriella had both lost their parents at such a young age.