Free Love at Second Sight by Cathy Hopkins Page A

lives, not just one. You have had many. Some lives steeped in your senses, seeking pleasure, some as a
recluse seeking answers. In your most recent past life you were a governess, here in England. But you didn’t find balance in that life either. Anandpana says that your lesson is this: if you
seek pleasure exclusively, you lose the meaning of life, but if you seek the meaning of life exclusively, you lose the pleasure. Only when pleasure and meaning are balanced, will you find true
joy.’ She looked across at me. ‘Anything else?’
    ‘A governess in my last life?’ I asked as I scribbled madly, trying to get it all down but at the same time not miss what she was saying.
    ‘Yes. That is when you were with your soulmate. With him, but not with him. You will find him again in this life. Or he will find you.’
    ‘Do you have the name of the governess?’ I asked. Maybe they teach all clairvoyants at psychic school to come out with the same story , I thought. Governess. Soulmate. Lost
love. But if she gave the name Henrietta that would be more convincing.
    ‘No name,’ said Lily. ‘I don’t always get a name.’
    And how will I know who my soulmate is?’
    Lily seemed to suddenly tire. ‘Why are you here? What do you want?’ Her grey eyes pierced into me. I found I couldn’t lie.
    ‘I . . . I’m doing research for an article about clairvoyants for a magazine–’
    Her expression turned to sadness. ‘That is not why you’re here. You are here to know the joy of love. To lose your fear. Trust in your destiny. Trust in your heart.’
    She handed me back my watch, stood up and opened the door for me to leave.
    Meeting over.
    I handed over a ten pound note then went back in to join Effy. I felt in a daze. I had a hundred questions I wanted to ask but an elderly lady was waiting to see Lily, and Effy and I were
quickly ushered out by the grumpy man.
    ‘How did it go?’ asked Effy when we got back onto the street and went through our usual ritual of checking for texts. ‘Another waste of time?’
    ‘Not sure,’ I answered as I looked on my phone but there were no messages. ‘She said that–’
    ‘Oh no !’ Effy exclaimed as she looked at her messages.
    ‘What?’
    ‘Tash. Cassie’s gone missing since this morning. She wants to know if we can go round and help look for her. I’d better let Mark know I can’t meet him.’
    ‘No way!’ Cassie is Tash’s cat, a big, dopey white creature who hardly ever moves from the sofa and certainly never leaves the house. ‘Text her back and tell her not to
worry. She’ll turn up.’
    ‘Jo! This is Cassie . You know how much Tash loves that cat. We can’t just tell her to chill.’
    ‘I can. Cassie will turn up.’
    Effy sighed with exasperation. ‘You can’t know that.’
    ‘I can. Lily just told me.’
    ‘ Lily just told you? So suddenly you believe in what clairvoyants tell you? Can you be sure it was about Cassie? What did she say exactly?’
    ‘I–’ Effy was right. I couldn’t be totally sure but Lily had been spot on about a friend’s cat going missing so maybe she was spot on about her reappearing too.
    Effy’s phone bleeped again before I got a chance to tell her what Lily had said. ‘Tash again,’ she said as she read her message then sighed with relief. ‘Phew. Drama
over. They found her in the laundry cupboard.’ She put her phone away. ‘You were right. So what exactly did Lily say?’
    ‘Just that a mate’s cat had gone missing and would show up.”
    ‘Did she say anything else?’
    I shrugged. ‘I can’t remember everything. Some of it was a bit vague like about my mum working too hard.’ I decided not to elaborate on the other stuff that Lily had said, the
things about my dad and Rex, my ring, and especially not the bit about me having been a governess and how I had to find my soulmate. Now that Cassie had gone missing then turned up, it was all
beginning to feel a bit spooky and I needed time to think. ‘But, Effy,