Along Came A Prince (37 page)

“Because these
lifetimes together were short, you’re hesitant to repeat what you think of as a
fatal mistake. But based on these lifetimes together, and now finding each
other in this one proves you’re soulmates and always have been. You’re not so
different from other people, because everyone brings baggage from a past life
into their current one.

“The one element,
strong and enduring, you seem to be overlooking is that in each of these
previous lifetimes, there has been a forever love between you both. You have
been shown this by the Universe. In other words, your love for each other will
keep you together always. And that, Stacia,
is your gift.
”

“I’m sorry,”
Stacia said. “You’re right. Having our past lives revealed to us is a good
thing. But how do I get over my fear of marriage?”

“I mentioned
future projection a short time ago. It might help you, if you’re willing to
try.”

“I’d be willing to
try most anything if it meant Clay and I could be married, and I could get rid
of this enigma of thinking it won’t last.”

“Hypnotherapy
helps persons who want to control their weight, or stop smoking, or get rid of
some kind of fear. Your fear of marriage would fall into this last category. And
based on your experience in meditating and past life regression, you’re way
ahead of what most people need to conquer their fears. Do you want to go ahead
and try this type of therapy?” Claire asked. “Now?”

“Now would be fine.
Do you want to do this alone, or do you want Clay and Josie to stay with you?”

“I’ve kept no
secrets from either of them. I want them to stay.”

“All right, then. Let’s
get ready. The three of you can sit on the floor in a circle and hold hands. I
believe Josie and Clay will give you the positive energy and support you’ll
need to reach your goal. I’ll lead you through the hypnosis.” Claire lit a
candle and set it in the middle of their circle. “Remember, hypnosis displays
your inner reality as opposed to your outer reality when you’re not in a
hypnotic state.” She closed the window blinds, flipped on the switch that
started the sound of ocean surf rolling, and turned off the lights. “Ready. Let’s
relax. Focus on your breath. In and out. Go now to your favorite calm and peaceful
place and surround yourself with white light. Encircle everyone under this tent
of safety.”

Stacia
concentrated on the waterfall at SwissDen. The rushing waters filled her senses.
She felt encompassed by white light and knew nothing could hurt her.

“We’re going to go
deeper and deeper into your subconscious now, Stacia. Let go of the here and
now, so you can go for the heart of your truth. Your reality. Your love.

“Breathe deeply. Inhale
from the deepest part of your stomach. Exhale until your lungs are empty. Inhale
deeply again. Exhale once more. You feel as if you’re floating, and you are. Up...up...up
into the sky. You see the clouds above you. You can reach out and touch them. You
are drifting into the wispy, white smoke that you see when you’re flying in an
airplane through the clouds. You are surrounded by this blinding mist.”

Stacia was
immersed in the clouds. She could see nothing but their foggy whiteness.

“Stare into the
mist as it swirls around you. You notice the fog is spreading apart slightly. A
shape is beginning to form. Look closely. What you’re seeing is you in the
future. Tell me what you see.”

“A woman...it’s me.
My hair is short.” Stacia laughed suddenly. “And I’m fat. No, not really fat. Just
overweight because I’m holding a tiny baby. I can feel someone’s arm around my
shoulder. Now, he’s kissing me. It’s Clay. We’ve had a baby. No wait. There’s a
little girl and boy standing on each side of us. We have three children.” Suddenly
the image faded. Clay was gone, and so were her children, including the
precious new life she had given birth to. She felt stranded, lost and alone
without the warmth of her family’s love. She realized in that instant the only
thing important to her was Clay’s love and their future together, no matter how
long or how short it was.

“Stacia, I want
you to continue walking through the mist,” Claire said. “Walk slowly so you can
observe your surroundings. Focus on going farther and farther into the future. The
fog is clearing once more. You’ve entered the period where your life will end
shortly. What do you see?”

“Nothing,” Stacia
replied. “I only see the fog.”

“Keep looking. We’ll
wait for you.”

Seconds or minutes
passed, Stacia wasn’t sure which, but no images passed through her mind.

“We’re going to
come back to the present now,” she heard Claire say. “Feel yourself drift down
toward earth, lower and lower. What I want you to remember when you come back
is we, as humans, are only capable of living in the present. If we dwell on the
future, we cheat ourselves out of the experience of the joy of living and
loving someone now. We can imagine what the future holds for us, but we cannot
live it until we arrive there. So grab onto all the happiness and love for Clay
you can hold in your heart and your mind.”

I’m going to
marry Clay,
Stacia decided as she floated back to earth.

“You’re back in my
office now. Clay and Josie are holding your hands. Whenever you feel like
opening your eyes, do so.”

Stacia opened her
eyes. Why was sadness written all over Clay’s face?
What was wrong?
She
felt ecstatic with happiness in knowing Clay and she were finally free to marry.
Claire was right. She had to live in the present. The future would unfold for
her with its joys and sorrows when the time was
right.
“What’s wrong,
Clay?” she asked.

“When Claire said
to go into the period of time when your life would end shortly, I visualized
that,” Clay said.

“Do you want to
share what you saw with us?” Claire inquired.

“I was sitting on
a chair next to Stacia’s bed. She was having a hard time breathing, and I knew
she was going to die.”

Oh please don’t
let me be right about our short marriage,
she prayed to the unknown.

“I stared at her
face. She was sleeping peacefully. Her face was full of wrinkles, but all I
could see was the way she is now. I touched her hair. It was white as the snow
falling outside our window. I glanced down at my hands. They were wrinkled with
age also. I realized we both had to be at least ninety years old. My legs began
to ache and as I stretched them, excruciating pain filled my body. But the only
feeling I had was one of the exhilarating love and joy of sharing a long, happy
life with Stacia. Across the bed from me were our three adult children, all
with graying hair. Then I saw younger persons gathered there also. Some holding
babies, and I knew we had made it. Our love for each other had created more
love to carry on in our places.”

By the time Clay
finished with his vision, the three women were all crying. Stacia reached out
to him, and he took her in his arms and kissed her. “I love you, Stacia,” he
said. “No matter what we have to face, we’ll do it together. But I promise you,
we’ll have more laughter than tears.”

“I love you too,”
she said and kissed him. She turned in his arms toward Claire and Josie. “Thank
you both for everything you’ve done for us and for your part in helping us
begin our new life together.” Stacia touched her engagement ring. “Well, Clay,
the tentative stipulation on this ring has been removed. I guess it’s going to
be a permanent fixture on this finger from now on.”

“There’s something
that still bothers me,” Stacia said on the way home from Claire’s office.

“What?” Clay asked.
“You’re not changing your mind about getting married, are you?”

“No, nothing like
that,” she assured him. “It seems this is the right time for so many things, I
think it might also be the right time to do one more.”

“I like the sound
of that.”

“Focus, Clay,
focus.”

“I am
focusing...on you.”

Stacia laughed. “We’re
not talking about the same thing here. I was thinking we should read Mark’s
journal, because it might give us even more insight into our past lives as Mark
and Audra.”

“You’re right. We
were thinking about different things,” Clay said. “My idea would have brought a
lot more pleasure to both of us.” He stroked her face.

“I have to agree
with you on that.” She kissed his fingertips as they roamed by her lips.

“You know how I’ve
felt all along about reading his journal.”

“You’re making it
hard for me to concentrate on driving, or even thinking about reading
anything,” she confessed.

“That, my love, is
the point. Remember what Claire said about living in the present.” He put his
arm around her and kissed her bare shoulder peeking through her sleeveless
blouse. “Delicious,” he whispered.

“Clay, behave,”
she scolded playfully. “You’re going to make me drive right off the road, or I
won’t be able to put my brakes on, and we’ll hit a car or –”

He straightened up
and sat back in his seat. “Do you think that will ever happen, Stacia? Do you
think you’ll ever lose control enough not to put the brakes on our
love-making?” He straightened up and sat back in his seat.

She looked over at
him and grinned. “You know what they say...everything comes to he who waits.”

“...And
waits...and waits...and...” Clay laughed. “But it will be worth it, right?”

“You betcha.”
Stacia turned her head and winked at him. “However, since we’re on a California
freeway right now, let’s discuss this later when we get home,” she suggested. “Can’t
we talk about reading Mark’s journal?”

“If it’s important
to you, we’ll read it as soon as we get to your condo. But afterwards belongs
to me. Deal?”

♥♥

As soon as they
arrived home, Stacia went to her bedroom, opened her safe and took out Mark’s
journal. Then she sat next to Clay on the sofa, and he put his arm around her,
pulling her closer to him.

“I’m ready,” he
announced.

“No hesitations
and no reservations?” she asked.

He shook his head.
“None.”

She opened the
journal, and they began reading together silently.

Date: A.Y.D.

My dearest
Audra,

As you can see,
the date is missing on this entry. The month, the day, the year, no longer
matter. In fact, nothing does now that you’re
gone. Sunrise comes, then
sunset and the days blur together, and the only date I need to know is A.Y.D. –
after your death – for my happiness, of which I have none, and my sorrow are
measured by that.

I’m alone at
our cabin now. Alone and very lonely without you. The only thing I concentrate
on is when I’ll be able to join you. To hold you and our baby close to me...

“Audra
was
pregnant!” Stacia exclaimed. The memory of how Audra and her baby died entered
her mind. She started to cry. “I can’t read anymore,” she said. “Will you read
it to me?”

Clay nodded and
began to read.

“I’ll never
forget our wedding in Nevada. How can I tell you how much I wanted to marry
you? How much I loved
you?
I wanted our first wedding to be a private
affair. Just us. I knew our planned wedding would be a vast public event with
the press and our fans surrounding us. To stand in front of a
Justice-of-the-Peace and say our vows, ‘till death do us part’ meant everything
to me.

“But the words
were wrong. They should have said, till death do us part – temporarily. For I
will join you soon, and we’ll be together again. How I look forward to our
joyful reunion.”

Clay stopped
reading and turned the page. Stacia stood up and left him to get a box of
tissues. She was back almost instantly. “Will you continue, please?” she asked,
dabbing at her eyes with a tissue.

“Date: A.Y.D.

“Good morning,
my sweet Audra and hello, my precious never-born baby, 

“I know it’s
morning because the sun is in the east, and it’s only now rising. I didn’t
sleep much last night. My stomach’s filled with hunger pains, but they are
slight compared to the pain in my heart of losing you both. I brought no food
or water with me. I do not wish to eat or drink anything as I continue my wait
for you.

“My dearest,
remember the night on the banks of the Thames, and the love we felt for each
other. Hidden in a dark corner under the magic of the moon and the stars
touching the London skies, a new life joined ours from the heavens above just
like Victoria and Dean in ‘London Affair.’

“I am holding
the pink baby outfit you gave me. Sometimes I rock it in my arms, but it lacks
the fullness a soft newborn gives to it
.
It’s merely fabric shaped to
fit an infant, my child, who I never got to see and hold. And it, like me, has
no life without you and our precious baby to fill it. With life inside it, a
garment can move. With your love inside me, I can live and breathe the
sweetness of life. Without you, I am nothing.

“All
my love, Mark.”

Clay closed the
book. He set it on the coffee table in front of them. “I feel as if I’m
reliving his life. I can feel his pain, just as I did in my dream. It’s
difficult to read this.”

“But we’ve crossed
the final bridge by deciding to read it and actually doing it. Our journey has
almost ended. Do you want me to read for a while?”

“Yes,” he said
simply.

Stacia opened the
book and read aloud where Clay left off.

“My beautiful
Audra,

“It’s A.Y.D.
time yet. I long for you to come and get me. I imagine how it will feel when
our hands touch each other’s again, and your lips once more set mine on fire.

 “Today the
hunger pains have stilled inside me. I am no longer thirsty, and my headaches
have left.

“I am thinking
about how afraid you were that we were not meant to live ‘happily ever after.’ I
remember your recurring dream about when you were a nightclub singer in love
with a married prince. I remember the words to the song you sang just for me…

“One man, one
man forever,

One love locked
deep in my heart.

One dream
shared so completely

Promised that
we would never part.

“Two hearts
soaring together,

Crashed in the
dark of the day.

Now he’s lost
to the heavens,

And I’m alone,
left here to stay.

“I have had
dreams and nightmares of that lifetime since your death. I realize now we were
soulmates then. I loved you so much back in 1915. I’ve even relived my death in
that lifetime. I’m sorry I couldn’t return to the wishing well where we always
met. But I did one last time, and carried you from the path of the German
Zeppelins bombing London.

“We didn’t
marry then. Time ran out on us. In this lifetime, we married but couldn’t live
happily ever after either. Your dreams of our last lifetime filled you with
fear for this lifetime. But, don’t worry, Darling, can you imagine what fate
has in store for us in our next time together? I can, and I believe we will
marry and live a long life sharing happiness forever.

“That’s why I’m
so anxious to die. I’ll be with you in the heavens soon, and a short while
later, destiny will send us back to Earth to live again. And I promise I’ll
find you and make you happy in our next lifetime.

“Until I hold
you again, I will hold you locked in my heart. All my love, Mark.”

Stacia began to
cry again. There it was...the whole story. Added to the therapy Claire had
given her, and Clay’s vision, Mark’s journal entry was the final proof she
needed to heal herself forever of her fear of marriage. Mark promised he’d find
her this lifetime and make her happy. And Clay was doing that...making her
unbelievably happy.

Clay held her
close to him. “Don’t cry. Everything will always be happy between us. I promise
you that.” He kissed her tear-soaked face, one kiss following another. “I love
you, Stacia. If I lost you, I’d be like Mark and not want to live either.”

Stacia cried all
the harder, aware that each falling tear was washing away the last of her fears.
She knew she could marry now and live
happily ever after
. Mark had
promised her and so had Clay. “I didn’t expect Mark’s journal to be so
revealing. Now I know the song and my regression at the pub were part of still
another lifetime. How can I not believe we have past lives when two of mine were
shown to me?”

“And my dream in
the cabin,” Clay said, “where I saw the bombs falling and death all around me,
and the wishing well, had to mean I was her lover reliving that lifetime.”

“I kept on
thinking my life back then was tied somehow to
London Affair
, and it
was.” She glanced down
at the journal. “Should we keep on reading it?”

“My answer is the
same as before. It’s your journal and your decision.”

“I’d like Audra
and Mark and our past lives to rest in peace. As Claire advised, I want to live
in the present now.”

“And in this
present
lifetime, as in the last one, our marriage will take place, right?”

“Yes,” she managed
to say before his arms held her and his lips claimed hers.

Several kisses
later, he spoke again. “I’ve already asked your parents for permission to marry
you.”

“What? When?”

“The night of
Josie and Ryan’s wedding at Cape Foulweather.”

“And what did they
say?”

“Your dad shook my
hand and said, ‘Welcome to the family, Son.’ Your mom started crying and
hugging me at the same time.”

“And what would
you have done if I’d said no?” Stacia asked.

“This,” he replied
and kissed her again.

♥♥

“You know,
Stacia,” Clay said at dinner the same evening, “I’ve been thinking. Maybe
we
should elope to Nevada like Audra and Mark did.”

Stacia laughed. “I
wasn’t expecting you to say that,” she exclaimed.

“They had the
right idea, you know. A secret wedding attended only by them. If we made that
decision in our past lifetime, why can’t we do it again? It would only be
history repeating itself like we keep repeating our lifetimes.” He took her
hand and led her to the sofa. They sat down together.

“I don’t know,”
she said. “Maybe we’d be jinxing our marriage like they did theirs. If we
follow their example, how do we know ours won’t end up tragically?”

“Stacia, Stacia,”
he said putting his arm around her shoulder. “There are no guarantees for
anything in life. You have to take a risk now and then. How else can you keep
life interesting?”

“I’m getting
another of your
everything’s so easy
speeches, aren’t I? Anyway, how
could we possibly get away with it without being recognized?”

“You...the master
artist of disguises...are asking that question?”

She smiled. “Well,
I do have a blonde wig, and...” She ran her fingers over his chin. “I could
probably find you a beard.”

“That’s my girl,”
he said. “Now your imagination’s working in the right direction. You know, it’ll
take a few months to plan our formal wedding, especially with my mother’s input.
I don’t want to wait any longer. I love you too much. If I could marry you this
minute, I would.”

He kissed her, and
she felt her passion collide with his. The urgency to explore her desires at a
deeper level consumed her. Suddenly, she pulled away from him. “Can we wait?”
she asked breathlessly. “Please.”

He released her
from his arms. “I love you, Stacia,” he said. “But I know one thing, I can’t
wait
for months. Unless you give me some objection, we’re eloping to Vegas in the
morning.”

Stacia looked at
him, her emotions overflowing with love and desire for him. “How about
now
?”
she asked, knowing even morning seemed too far away.

“How long will it
take you to pack?” he asked.

♥♥

An hour later, as
night filled the California skies, Clay and Stacia sped toward Nevada in her
sports car. The wind whipping through Stacia’s hair cleared her mind and
allowed doubt to enter. “Are you sure this is what you want to do? Getting
married quickly so we can sleep together?”

“I’m not marrying
you to sleep with you,” Clay said. “I’m marrying you because I love you, and
I’m impatient for our life together to begin.”

“You mean you
don’t want to sleep with me?” she teased.

He flashed a sexy
grin at her. “What we’ll be doing after our wedding will in no way entail
sleeping.”

His remark made
her wish they were already married. “I want to honeymoon with you forever,” she
said and reached over to kiss him.

“And I promise
you, I’ll do everything in my power to make you still feel that way on our
fiftieth wedding anniversary.”

Hours later,
Stacia in her blonde wig and glasses and wearing a dress she’d chosen at
SwissDen, and Clay in a beard they’d hurriedly purchased in the hotel’s toy
store, stood in front of the Justice-of-the-Peace and their marriage ceremony
began.