Free STAIN (My Soul To Wake Book 1) by Tara Oakes

Massachusetts. It’s kind of hard not to know these things around here.”
    I laugh at his explanation. “True, true.” Another spoonful as my dessert is melting. “So do you think it was weird?”
    I see his lips purse as he swallows his yogurt. “Depends. Which psychic did you see?”
    “Mamia Magda. In the white house.”
    His eyes widen. “She’s pretty legit. Around these parts, every corner has some type of psychic. But she’s authentic. Did she scare you?”
    I roll my eyes. “A bit. But I think I scared her more.”
    Now he’s curious. I see him wanting to ask more about the reading, so I change the subject quickly. “Tell me more about the love story. Malcolm and Marcelle.”
    He’s finished with his food, so he sets his almost empty cup down beside him and leans back. “Where did I leave off?”
    “They came to America to be together.”
    He nods. “Right. Well they came to America, all right. But not exactly together. Marcelle left her mother quickly, with nothing but her slave girl Josephine. She was almost penniless. Malcolm wasn’t about to live as a pauper. So he convinced her it would be better to live apart. More of his manipulations.”
    My eyes widen. So this isn’t a love story after all.
    “He found a wealthy woman destined to be a spinster. Charmed her just as he did the Marquess de les Songe. They married and he gained all of her wealth, her dowry. Her father was wealthy, powerful in a non-magical way. But she didn’t satisfy him. I don’t think a person like that was capable of love, but what he felt for Marcelle was the closest he could come to it.”
    Okay. Back to a love story. I’m getting whiplash.
    “Marcelle didn’t have the powers her mother did, but she knew the ways. One of the things she’d mastered was something called Transposition. She could switch places with another. Not just take over another person, but actually physically switch places all together. At night, when Malcolm’s wife had fallen asleep, Marcelle would transpose with her, taking her place in Malcolm’s bed. Where the other woman was Malcolm’s wife in name, Marcelle was his wife in body.”
    I also finish my dessert and stack it into Will’s cup, lifting my knee to the bench to  allow me to face him completely. I haven’t been this intrigued in a very long time.
    He also turns, facing me as we sit cross kneed in front of each other. “Well, of course she got pregnant. Knowing that her baby would face endless persecution and ridicule as well as being shamed the bastard child of a sinner, Marcelle did the only thing she could think to do. She begged Malcolm to take the child and raise it as his own with his wife.”
    I inhale deeply and raise my hands to cover my mouth. “No!! How heartbreaking!”
    Will can see that I’m terribly shocked. His hand settles on my knee.
    “Twin girls were born, both healthy. One blonde as straw. One raven haired. Malcolm took them to his wife who had longed for a child. The dark-haired baby had a mark, a beauty mark. To the wife, this was surely a devil’s token. So she agreed to take only the blonde baby. She named her Elizabeth.”
    “The dark-haired baby was given back to Marcelle to raise. And she was right. Stigma and ridicule followed them both. But, they had a deep bond. A true unconditional love that helped the girl become pure hearted, innocent. She was as beautiful on the outside as she was on the inside.”
    I feel the tears welling. This is a tragedy. One of the saddest stories I’ve ever heard. I feel a hitch in my throat as I try to speak. “That poor mother. I-I.…”
    Will can see how visibly affected I‘ve become. “Let’s finish the story another time. It’ll give us a point to pick up tomorrow. For now, let’s walk around a bit before I bring you back to the hotel.”
     
    ~*~
     
    We stopped at an old bookstore and a candle shop while walking the dusk hued streets of Salem on our way back to the hotel. I carry the small brown