Lightning Game (GhostWalkers 17)

Rubin glanced up and smiled at her. Good work. I fixed the main problem. You fix the vein.

She tried not to glow. She had never been praised in her life and it felt good to have someone acknowledge she did something right. The vein took longer than she would have liked, mainly because she wasn’t certain what she was doing. It had been a while since she’d studied every aspect of the human body, and she went slow until she felt confident she was on the right track again. By the time she was finished, Rubin had completed working on Patricia’s entire right side.

“You’ll have to turn over, Mama Patricia. I want to examine your back,” Rubin said gently. There was the merest hesitation on her part. Rubin smoothed the pillowcase. “We want to finish before Edward and Rory get here. They’ll be pulling in any minute, won’t they? Jonquille, you might want to just observe and let me do this fast so we get it done. Patricia doesn’t like the boys thinking she might be ill.”

“Of course, no problem. I understand completely. Mama Patricia, it was so sweet of you to allow me to learn on you. Do you know very much about natural plants? I’m so interested in them and what they can do versus modern medicines.”

Patricia turned over, presenting her back to Rubin, laying her head on her hands and looking at Jonquille when she positioned herself right where the older woman could see her. “I have an old handwritten book of plants, what they look like and what they are used for, to help when someone is sick or injured. Rubin’s mother actually made it for Mary, and Mathew kept it. She was amazing at healing. She had the gift the way Rubin does. She would have loved talking to you about plants.”

“I would love to see it, Mama Patricia. I’ve spent hours and hours in the woods sketching as many of the plants and roots as I could find that would be helpful. I added what I thought they could be used for. I’m embarrassed to have anyone look at it because I haven’t checked to see if I’m right yet. I haven’t looked them up, and who knows if there are any true experts left. I was going to experiment on myself if I couldn’t find anyone to give me answers.”

Rubin’s gaze jumped to her face. You won’t be doing that.

We can’t lose the old ways. Just because no one is actually using the plants anymore, or they are being killed environmentally, doesn’t mean they don’t work.

We can have this discussion another time.

His voice was a gentle caress that slid like velvet against the walls of her mind and sent fingers of desire creeping down her spine. She supposed he was right. She felt too exposed and vulnerable right then, with Patricia looking up at her with her piercing eyes. She reached her hand out to Jonquille unexpectedly, making her wonder if the older woman had her own psychic gift. It was entirely possible.

“I think the book will help you a great deal. Rubin and Diego bought Edward and Rory a computer and printer and copier. The Internet hardly works most of the time, but when the satellite service is working, then they have a reason to argue about who gets to use it. My point being, I can have one of them copy the book. It’s in Rubin’s mother’s handwriting. Beautifully penned and illustrated.”

I had no idea. I would have wanted a copy of that book.

I will give it to you, of course, Jonquille said hastily.

She means for you to have it. I’ll ask her if we can make two copies. I’ll see if Diego wants his own. Perhaps three while we’re at it. Thank you for even inquiring. I wouldn’t have known.

How is her back?

Very messed up. She’s lifting too much weight again. It’s an ongoing battle I have with her. I don’t know how to stop her.

“You’re going to make me cry at your wonderful generosity, Mama Patricia. No one has ever been so kind to me. Growing up the way I did, everything was about duty. I suppose you know a lot about that, don’t you? But you, at least, had the love of family to surround you and learn from.”

“I did,” Patricia said, squeezing her hand and reluctantly letting go. “Life could be hard here at times. We all had to work when it got tough, but we loved one another and that was felt. My husband was a good man. A really good man. Building this house was a big priority to him. He was so good with wood. You can see Edward takes after him.”

She rubbed her palm lovingly along the carved bed frame. It wasn’t intricate, but it was lovely. “My Matt was such a good man. He would come home at night after working all day and insist I sit and listen to the wind in the trees while he served dinner. I always made sure to have it ready or he would have insisted on cooking it. He said women aged too fast and died here. He was terrified whenever I got pregnant that I would die in childbirth.”