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  By the time he came through the clearing, Darci’s heart was racing. When she saw him, it was all she could do not to run to him and throw herself on him. He was even more beautiful in person than she remembered. She’d found out that he’d spent a lot of his life traveling, bumming around the world working on steamers and anywhere he could get a job. He hadn’t used his family’s money to travel from one mansion to one yacht to one exclusive hotel after another. Instead, he’d paid his own way and worked with the crews of ships. Darci liked that about him. She’d always wondered if he’d been so independent because of what had been done to him and his family or if it was natural to him. She was glad to know that all the things she liked about him were his own.

  “Beautiful day,” he said as he passed her on the trail.

  “Yes, isn’t it?” Darci said, her heart pounding. She wanted to jump on him and yell. Where had he gone that day he’d disappeared? What had happened to him? Neither the mirror nor the circle would tell her that.

  After his polite greeting, Adam kept walking down the trail.

  Now what do I do? Darci asked herself. It was one thing to be altruistic and noble and think that she’d let the man she loved marry someone else, but it was another thing to actually do it.

  She sat still on the cloth, her mind in turmoil. She tried to think of what to do, but she couldn’t seem to think clearly. The man she’d vowed to love forever had just walked past her. He’d not recognized her or even been interested in her as a woman.

  “Excuse me.”

  She looked up to see Adam Montgomery standing over her. “Do I know you? Are you one of my students?”

  “I’m much too old to be a student,” Darci said demurely, knowing she had always looked young for her age.

  Adam looked at the stream, then back at her. “I guess you’re meeting someone.”

  You! Darci wanted to shout, but she just smiled. “No one. It’s just me and too much food.”

  Adam looked back at the water, seeming to be at a loss for words.

  But Darci knew him. He’d always been awkward when it came to romance. After they were engaged that had changed, but before then…

  “What about you? Are you hungry?” she asked. “Or do you have an appointment you have to go to?”

  He looked down at her, seeming to be considering something very important. “Actually I did, but I think I’m going to skip it.” He looked into her eyes. “I don’t want you to think I’m being forward, but I feel as though I could stay here forever.”

  “Yes,” Darci said. “Forever.”

  Epilogue

  DEVLIN LOOKED AT DARCI’S TIME TRAVELING with disgust. “Will she be popping into all her old lives now? I rather like the time when earth had pirates.”

  “Don’t you listen? She had no other lives,” Henry said.

  “Had no other lives?” Devlin asked. “But of course she did. All these earth people had other lives. Even I had a time when I was in a body. Not like theirs, too few arms for my taste, but I did have a few lives.” He turned himself into one of his old bodies.

  “She had no other human lives,” Henry said pointedly.

  “But only…” All four of Devlin’s eyes widened.

  “Only what?” Henry asked impatiently.

  “Only angels have no past lives, and that woman can’t be an angel. She’s much too human. She has many human faults.”

  Henry sighed. “Don’t we all.”

  As Devlin looked at Henry, the outline of his body began to grow dimmer.

  “Don’t fade on me now,” Henry said. “It’s not a matter of what she is, but who she is. I thought you would have guessed that by now.”

  “Who she is?” Devlin asked meekly.

  “My goodness, but I don’t have time to educate you. We have a great deal of work to do.”

  Devlin brightened as he turned into one of his beloved pirates. “What are we going to do to her next? She knows nothing of worlds other than her own, so maybe we should send her to another planet. Or she could explore this time-travel thing more fully. Next time you could send her back in time with her power. She could—”

  “Don’t waste my time,” Henry snapped. “We’re going to do nothing to her. She’s now learned that she has a purpose in life, so we must begin to show her what that purpose is.”

  “And what is that?” Devlin asked, studying his fingernails. He was now wearing a tuxedo and looking very bored. “To open a detection agency with her little friends?”

  “No, Darci is to prepare the earth for the Second Coming.”

  At that Devlin was so shocked that he reverted to his true form: a wizened little man with three white hairs growing out of his shiny scalp. In the next second he disappeared in a puff of gray-green smoke.

  Smiling, Henry said, “Coward,” then turned back to the fog where he could see Darci. He was pleased with her, very pleased indeed.

  Also by Jude Deveraux

  The Velvet Promise

  Highland Velvet

  Velvet Song

  Velvet Angel

  Sweetbriar

  Counterfeit Lady

  Lost Lady

  River Lady

  Twin of Fire

  Twin of Ice

  The Temptress

  The Raider

  The Princess

  The Awakening

  The Maiden

  The Taming

  The Conquest

  A Knight in Shining Armor

  Wishes

  Mountain Laurel

  The Duchess

  Eternity

  Sweet Liar

  The Invitation

  Remembrance

  The Heiress

  Legend

  An Angel for Emily

  The Blessing

  High Tide

  Temptation

  The Summerhouse

  The Mulberry Tree

  Forever…

  Wild Orchids

  Forever and Always

  Holly

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  POCKET BOOKS, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

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  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2004 by Deveraux, Inc.

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  ISBN-13: 978-0-7434-9993-4

  ISBN-10: 0-7434-9993-X

  First Pocket Books paperback edition November 2004

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