Free A Lover For Rachel by Lynn Crain Page A

think you’re meeting a lover or something.” Samantha stood in the doorway and tapped her foot impatiently. “Come on, Rach, you look beautiful. I envy your curves.”
    Rachel smiled at her in the mirror. “You’re only saying that because you love me.” She wiggled her eyebrows and the women burst into laughter.
    “No really, you are. You’ve changed so much this past year. Still, we need to leave if we’re ever going to get there and through the gates before the sun rises. Do you have the tickets?”
    They had applied to get special passes to participate with the group performing ancient celebrations at the site. The members of the large group were as close to Druids as anyone could be, considering that not much was left in the way of their history. And from everything she’d read about the ceremony, it was a very special and personal event.
    She nodded, straightened her shoulders, and brushed her hair away from her face, determined not to worry about her appearance. “I do, and I know what you’re talking about. I have changed. I just feel weird about it, that’s all. Especially when someone calls me beautiful. I’ve just never seen myself that way.”
    Samantha clutched her arm, smiling at her reflection. “Come on, how many people can say their birthday is on summer solstice? So what? You have baggage. I do too, now let’s get going before we miss the whole celebration.”
     “I know you’re right. I’m just not going to participate in the getting naked part. Okay?” She was relieved when her friend nodded her agreement. One more glance in the mirror and she pulled the steely reserve around herself that she normally used in the courtroom. Today was the day to have fun and no worries. Today was her day; she wasn’t going to let the past cloud it in any way. Smiling, she grabbed her backpack from the bed and headed for the door. “Let’s go.”
    Their drive through the English countryside was always an adventure from start to finish. First, they had to drive on the wrong side of the road. The narrow roads barely managed two compact cars, let alone anything bigger. Rachel and Samantha dodged the predawn traffic racing along the Salisbury Plains to get to their destination. Thank God, they only had a short distance to go through the darkness of the night. The only thing piercing the shadows were the stars that shone bright in the night sky.
    That was one of the amazing things about the English countryside. There were people everywhere. Very few places allowed one to be totally alone in this country. Yet, she and Sam could see the stars. Rachel glanced at the velvet sky and wondered what brought the people here to this place. How did they know this would be special in a forever kind of way? She didn’t know, but she was glad that over four thousand years ago, whoever they were decided to build the second phase of “the henge” as it was called. Not all uses were known, but experts agreed sun worship was involved.
    As they turned onto the road to Stonehenge, Rachel happily discovered they’d made it before the really big crowd. In about an hour, this place would be crawling with people. Getting up at two a.m. certainly paid off in this case, even though it was very hard for her to go to sleep the evening before. Excitement for this once-in-a-lifetime experience thrilled her to the core. Samantha parked in one of the last open places in the small paved lot. The air practically hummed with anticipation and Rachel turned to Samantha.
    “I am just so excited about this. Do you know that people have worshiped the sun here for thousands of years?” She could barely contain herself.
    Sam’s good-humored grin made her face almost glow in the predawn light. “Yeah…you made me read everything we brought home last time. I can’t believe it’s been ten years since we were here. Everything has changed so much.”
    They’d come the summer they graduated law school because they wanted one last taste of