Welcome to Gabrielle's world!
MINDMATCH
Chapter OneMonday: Day 1
The problem with having a sixth sense is that nothing good ever comes of it. Gabrielle Rousseau knew this all too well.
Sure, she was highly perceptive. She relied on that sensitivity to provide therapy to her patients. That was all. For nineteen years of her life, she had lived that truth.
Last night was just a bad dream. She did not remotely view a man’s murder. Remote viewing was a delusion people used to make money. A scam. You should have skipped that piece of white chocolate bread pudding with bourbon sauce, she chided herself. Of course, she did not ‘see’ anything.
As she sipped her cinnamon latte, she looked around her courtyard, smiling at the sight of the morning sunlight shifting over the old bricks and her blue and white painted planters brimming with flowers. Gabrielle loved starting her day in the courtyard behind her combination home and office. It settled her for her job listening to her patients' inner turmoil.
She took a deep breath and keyed up the morning news on her laptop.
And her stomach fell to the bricks.
It was stark in black and white. “PRESTIGIOUS ATTORNEY FOUND DEAD IN FRENCH QUARTER HOTEL.”
She read the first paragraph, and a name jumped out: Ashton Bayard IV. Dear God, one of her patients. In the next breath, she realized something else – he wasn’t the man in her dream. Nothing psychic involved at all. Just a nightmare.
Sad but relieved, she read the rest of the article. Poor Ashton had been shot. The police asked for the public’s help and had no one in custody.
She reached for the trackpad to close the news site when something caught her gaze. Another man’s name. A man found in the same hotel room as Ashton.
As she read the summary of his murder, she started shaking, barely getting her cup back on the table. Stephen Arceneaux had been stabbed to death.
She wasn’t surprised. After all, she’d watched him die.
Heat shot into her veins, and her skin felt as if a thousand needles danced across her skin. She swallowed, the memory of what she’d seen bringing the burn of bile to her throat.
A stranger. Deep brown eyes staring into a mirror. The sour scent of sweat and fear.
“No,” he had cried. “That’s not—"
The flash of a blade. A howl of agony. Blood and silence.
Her vision turned hazy, and her courtyard faded as if she were drifting to someplace else. No! Not again. Stay out of my head. Her mind drew an iron curtain closed, leaving that dark place behind.
She could imagine the career, the life she’d spent years building, crumble in the wake of her ‘hallucinations.’ Her mother would tearfully assure her that she would get Gabrielle into The Sanctuary for treatment.
No.Gabrielle would die before she would ever go back. Six months in that hellhole nearly destroyed her spirit. She wasn’t a helpless twelve-year-old anymore. No matter what her family called it, The Sanctuary was a prison. Stark white walls. Functional yet sterile furniture. And everywhere, soaked deep into every stone, a suffocating feeling of sorrow and helplessness.
Shake it off, Gabrielle, she admonished herself. You do not possess any psychic abilities, let alone the bizarre idea of remote viewing. Remember what happened with Lisette? What happened to you?
Focus, Gabrielle. You are not psychic. Last night was an aberration. It won’t happen again.
It can’t.
My Previously Published Romance Books under the name Amy Tolnitch
The Lost Touch Series
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The Lost Touch Series is a collection of stand-alone books with overlapping characters. After I published A Lost Touch of Bliss, readers wanted to know supporting characters' own heroic stories. Each romance is very different, but all take place in Medieval Britain and feature ghosts, magic, or possession.
A Lost Touch of Bliss
ISBN-13-978-1932815269
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​Five years ago, Cain Veuxfort, Earl of Hawksdown, followed duty and broke Amice de Monceaux's heart. But now he needs her. Desperately. For Amice has a very special talent. She is a Spirit Goddess, able to help restless souls move on. And Cain has a very restless ghost he wishes fervently would leave his castle. Anxious to regain order in his chaotic life, Cain offers Amice the one thing he's sure she can't resist; an Italian villa on the sea in exchange for her unique services. Although Amice's wound is deep, and as fresh and painful as ever, she agrees to help her former lover. Life on the Italian coast will be the start of a new life for her. Perhaps then she will finally be able to put the past behind her as well as an importunate Highland lord who wants nothing less that her hand in marriage.
But there is more going on at Castle Falcon's Craig than a simple haunting, and more than one tragic tale of unrequited love. Yet to set things right, for both the living and the dead, Cain must find the courage to shed his mask of indifference, Amice must move beyond her pain to forgive, and long dead, star-crossed lovers must lead them all on the path to a lost touch of bliss.
A Lost Touch of Paradise
ISBN-13-978-1932815665
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​For the first time in his life, Lugh MacKeir, Laird of Tunvegan, finds himself in a battle he cannot win. His precious daughter is dying of the same illness that claimed his wife. The Isle of Parraba is a whispered legend, a place rumored to be ruled by a sorceress, an isle no one can reach. Yet, legend speaks of a powerful healer as well. Lugh MacKeir, desperate, determines to find Parraba and face its mysterious ruler. Losobal is the Lady of Parraba, mystical and magical, a woman apart from the world around her. Drawn to something familiar in Lugh's child, however, she reluctantly agrees to help her in exchange for Lugh clearing the blocked entrance to a very special cave. But the child's illness defies Losobal's skill, and Lugh's task proves more of a challenge than he anticipated. In the end, the secret to saving Lugh's daughter lies in Iosobal's ability to open her heart to a brash warrior who has invaded her tranquil sanctuary. She must find the courage to end her isolation, and the wise innocence of a child must lead them all to a lost touch of paradise.
A Lost Touch of Innocence
ISBN-13-978-1933836096
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​By touching a magic crystal, Piers Veuxfort recklessly unchained the essence of a decidedly wicked Fin Man who now resides within his body. Meanwhile, Giselle St. Germain’s life in a secluded nunnery is over and she has been thrown into the world to become Piers’ bride. Giselle quickly becomes frightened by both her betrothed’s unabashed adherence to pleasure and his increasingly unusual personality, and Piers wants nothing but to send back his bride-to-be. Eventually the pair discovers that destiny is theirs to win, but it will take all the courage that lies within their deepest hearts to seize it together.
A Lost Touch of Magic
ISBN-13-978-1934755518
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​Hidden within the stone walls of Castle MacCoinneach is the seemingly quiet realm of Paroseea, yet danger now stalks the halls of the castle, seeking vengeance and patiently awaiting the return of the fallen laird. When the ghost of Padruig MacCoinneach’s beloved sister sends him back to the highlands and a life he forswore, he promises to do anything to save his remaining sister and aid his clan. He never expected, however, that he would have to marry his ally’s daughter, Aimli, whom he deems both a reckless child and a potent temptation. Together they will have to overcome their anger and doubt to find trust, love, and ultimately safety for themselves and their clans.