“No, nothing,” Toby said, but then her head came up. “Actually, I did. I lost a key to a box. It’s still in Kingsley House, keyless, but when I saw the box, it contained—”
“Jade zodiac symbols,” Dr. Huntley said. “Captain Caleb bought them in China as a gift for the woman he loved. The key was lost at Parthenia’s wedding, and the captain always thought one of those Starbuck brats stole it.”
“How could you possibly know that?” Ken asked.
“Didn’t I tell you that my Caleb knows everything about this island?” Victoria said, her voice full of pride.
“In my dream,” Toby emphasized, “I dropped the key behind an unfinished window seat in Kingsley House.”
“Shall we go look for it?” Caleb said as though it were the most ordinary thing in the world. No one hesitated in leaving.
It took them only minutes to reach Kingsley House, but when they got there, Caleb refused to enter.
“I’ll wait out here for you,” he said as he stood on the little front porch.
“But, darling,” Victoria began, but even she could see that he wasn’t going to budge.
Jilly put her hand on Caleb’s arm, her face sympathetic. “If it’s ghosts you’re worried about, I have a bit of intuition about them. I’ll warn you if—”
“Intuition?” Caleb said. “You can see them. Poor creatures have to hide from you. Ghosts hold no fear for me. It’s just that I’ve seen enough of that house. Go and look for your key, then come back out here to me.”
Everyone, even Victoria, gave up arguing and went inside. Ken flipped the light switches on as they went to the back parlor and Toby pointed out the cushioned window seat.
“I sat here with Alisa, or Ali, as she liked to be called, and I watched her draw pictures of the windows.”
Ken pulled the cushion off and looked at the way the seat was constructed. “I know how this was done. I’d not noticed it before but it’s quite ingenious.” He looked at Toby with teasing eyes. “But then that’s rather vain of me to say considering that in another life I built it.”
Toby knew he was making fun of her, but she didn’t mind. However, part of her almost wished they would find the key.
Ken got Jared’s big toolbox out of a closet and removed the bottom panel of the seat. He stretched out on the floor to take out the inner panel. When that was done, he had to slide the upper part of his body inside the opening to search with a flashlight and a long screwdriver.
No one said a word as they listened to the scratching and saw the light move about. When Ken scooted back out, he sat up and looked at them. He took his time before he opened his hand to show a little brass key.
“That’s it!” Toby exclaimed as she took it.
It was one thing to laugh about finding a key that had been lost centuries ago but quite another to see it in real life.
Ken, Jilly, and Victoria were staring at Toby in openmouthed astonishment.
Graydon stepped forward, put his arm protectively around Toby’s shoulders, and said, “Shall we look for the box full of jade?”
Ken was the first to recover. “Uh, ah … Does anyone know where it is?”
When no one spoke, Toby said, “I saw it in the attic but I don’t remember exactly where it was. Maybe I should call Lexie and ask her.”
Victoria was recovering from shock. “I’ll find out.” She went to the front door and told Caleb that Ken had found the key.
“I thought he would,” he said. “Third row from the right, halfway down, inside the red lacquer box. When I danced with Alix I knocked the bulbs out, so take a light.”
“I assume you’re talking of the attic,” Victoria said, blinking.
“I am. When you find the box, bring it outside so I can see it.”
The five adults ran up the old stairs to the attic and the treasure hunt began. It took a while, but they found the box exactly where Caleb said it was. They’d had trouble agreeing about the meaning of “halfway down,” and the lacquer box was so old the red was almost black.
“How did Caleb know where this was?” Ken asked in awe. “It was inside another box.”
“He really does know everything about the island,” Victoria said, but this time it didn’t sound like she was bragging. She sounded as though she thought it was a bit creepy.
“Old soul; new body,” Jilly murmured, and everyone was glad to turn their thoughts to someone other than Toby. “Shall we take the box downstairs and try the key?”
They met Caleb outside, then they all walked to the back of the property to the guesthouse, where Ken and Jilly were staying, and put the old box on the kitchen countertop.
“This place has certainly changed,” Caleb said as he looked around. “Used to be where we kept the cow.”
No one asked about that comment. Under the spell of the late night, and the wine and the port they’d ingested, no one questioned his odd statement. Toby gave the key to Caleb. “I think you should be the one to do this.”
Considering that the box had been locked for over two hundred years, the key turned easily. Caleb didn’t open it but picked it up and handed it to Victoria. “The gift was meant for you.”
Victoria opened the box to reveal the jade carvings of the Chinese zodiac. Each figure was of a different color of jade: dark green, white, even lavender. Each was exquisitely and intricately carved.
“I’m a rabbit,” Victoria said as she lifted that figure. “All about family and ambition.” They all began to talk of the year they were born. Only Caleb was silent. When they looked at him in question, he said, “What was the symbol for 1776?”
There was a hesitation, then Victoria said, “Fireworks!” and they all laughed—and their laughter broke the tension. No one had said it, but the question hung over them all: Had Toby actually time traveled? Did the key prove that her dreams were real?
Victoria, Ken, and Jilly turned to look at the two young people standing there in their beautiful eighteenth-century clothes, and it was easy to imagine that they’d stepped out of the past.
Graydon was the first to break the silence. “There’s a room in that house,” he said softly, “where I felt a sense of misery, even tragedy.”
They hadn’t spoken of it, but Toby knew the room he meant. “The door is hidden behind the paneling.”
They were all looking at Caleb, waiting for his answer. No one seemed to doubt that he would know. “The birthing room?” he asked. “Back then women gave birth often and they gathered together when the time came. A lot of the houses had birthing rooms. There was indeed much sadness in there, but there was also joy. Valentina gave birth to the first Jared Montgomery Kingsley in that room. He was a big, healthy boy.” He sounded proud.
“Who grew up to marry little Ali,” Victoria said. “Toby, since the book I’m working on is from Valentina’s journal, I’ll want to talk to you about her. I didn’t realize Ali was older than Jared.”
No one noticed that Toby and Graydon were silent and slightly frowning. While the others discussed Valentina and her life, Toby turned to Graydon. “You didn’t tell me that you saw that room. I couldn’t go inside it. I also felt a deep sadness—grief—coming from it. I kept feeling that I—I mean Tabby—had died in there.”
Graydon took her hand in his and kissed the back of it. He wasn’t about to tell her that was exactly what he too had felt. “But you heard Dr. Huntley. Tabby had no children, so she probably wouldn’t have died in that particular room.”
Toby grimaced. “No, she just willed herself to leave the earth because her life was so unhappy. That poor, poor girl. When I was in my dream, if I’d known what happened to her, I would have tried to save her.”
“By doing what? Marrying her to Garrett?” He was smiling as though that was a great idea.
“Then he goes off to sea with his big brother and gets himself killed? That would leave yet another widow in that house and probably more children to take care of. And if she was Garrett’s wife, Tabby wouldn’t have had Silas
Osborne’s store to help feed and clothe them.”
“Are you saying that Tabby should have married that odious little man?” There was anger in Graydon’s voice. “He killed her by not keeping to his bargain to support them.”
“The real problem was that if Tabby couldn’t stand him, she was stupid to let him know that. Maybe if she’d been nicer to him, it wouldn’t have been so bad for her and her family.”
“That is one of the dumbest things I have ever heard! Garrett would have taken care of her both physically and financially. He was a Kingsley. He had money! None of them would have starved.”
“No, but she would have died of a broken heart!” Toby shot back at him.
“Which she did anyway!” Graydon replied in the same angry tone.
Suddenly, they became aware of the silence of the room. Toby and Graydon were leaning toward each other, nearly nose to nose, their voices loud and angry. When they saw the stares of the others, they stood upright, almost at attention.
“Tabby should have stood up to her mother,” Graydon said stiffly, his eyes on Caleb. “Am I right?”
Caleb was the only one looking amused. The others were wide-eyed at this passionate argument over something that had happened so long ago. “Yes and no,” he said. “Yes, Tabby should have told Lavinia what she could do with her ugly little storekeeper, but no, she shouldn’t have married Garrett the way he was.”
“What does that mean?” Graydon asked, and his voice was belligerent, challenging.
“My young brother—sorry, I mean Captain Caleb’s brother—was a bad sailor.”
“A what?!” Graydon said, sounding personally affronted. He took a breath, then sat down on a bar stool. “I apologize. All this seems to be getting to me more than it should. You said that all the Kingsleys went to sea.”
“They did,” Caleb said, “but that can manifest itself in many ways. What young Garrett should have done was stop trying to lord it over a few dirty sailors on a ship and stay home to run what could have been a Kingsley empire. Garrett was like you: meant to run something much larger than a single ship.”
“Like an entire country?” Jilly said.
“We do have a parliament,” Graydon said under his breath, but when he looked into Caleb’s eyes, he knew what the man meant. He liked his country, liked traveling around it, getting to know the people. He liked being able to help people on a grander scale than what would be possible aboard one ship.
Toby broke the silence. “But when I—as Tabby—asked Garrett if he would stay home and not ship out, he got angry.”
“That’s because the captain had expressed the same desire several times on the last voyage. But the boy thought he would be letting the family down if he didn’t get on a ship every few years. I think if he had married Tabby he might have used that as an excuse to never again leave the island.”
“But her mother …” Toby began.
“Was scared,” Caleb finished for her. “Lavinia was terrified out of her mind of the future. Seeing her grandchildren hungry was something she couldn’t bear—and rightfully so. If keeping them fed meant sacrificing one daughter, she’d do it. I happen to know that she offered herself to Silas Osborne first but he only wanted pretty little Tabby.”
“What happened to them after Tabby died?” Jilly asked.
“Osborne had become lazy over the years. What with his wife running everything, he had forgotten how to work. Garrett had made out a will leaving everything to Tabby and at her death it all went to her mother. Lavinia bought Osborne’s store and made her daughters-in-law help run it. She lived to be eighty-something and died a fairly wealthy, but miserable, old woman. I don’t think she ever really recovered from Tabby’s death.”
“Too bad you can’t change history,” Victoria said. “It’s not like my books when my editor makes me rewrite a chapter and I change what people said and did.”
Toby was staring at the box on the countertop and the others were looking at her. If she had truly gone back in time—which was, of course, impossible—there were possibilities. She looked at Caleb. “Tabby was caught in a compromising situation with Garrett, and her mother didn’t give her time to think but rushed her into a marriage with Osborne. If, say, I had another dream, what could I do to change the situation?”
“Complete the deed,” Caleb said. “Garrett and Tabby were caught kissing. If they were seen … well, past that, the whole island would expect them to marry each other. Besides, I think Osborne would certainly refuse to marry Tabby after something like that.”
Toby didn’t look directly at Graydon, but she did take a tiny side step toward him. For a while everyone was quiet.
“I don’t know about anyone else,” Ken said, “but it’s past my bedtime.” Since they were all in his house, he gave them a look that it was time to leave.
After goodnights, Victoria picked up the box of jade figures, and Caleb took her arm and led her to the front door. Toby and Graydon were right behind them. When they were outside, the four of them walked to the end of the lane together.
Caleb looked at the house BEYOND TIME. “That house has a strong history to it. The man who built it—” He broke off with a laugh. “I think I’ve done enough storytelling for one night. Toby, dear,” he said, his face serious, “I think perhaps you should stay out of that house. Memories remain with a person for a very long time. We may not be conscious of them, but they’re there, buried deep within our minds. It may seem sad to you that Tabby died so young, but it was a very long time ago. My suggestion to the two of you is to think about now, today, not the past.”
Graydon picked up Toby’s arm and slipped it around his. “My sentiments exactly,” he said. “That room … It still gives me chills when I think about it.” He looked at Toby. “We stay out of there? Agreed.”
“Yes,” she said. “Let your relatives take care of it.”
The four of them said goodnight and parted. When Toby and Graydon got upstairs, they stood for a moment in the sitting room, just looking at each other. Their argument about Daire had been settled, but Toby didn’t want to return to the ease that they’d shared before. She reminded herself that Graydon was going to leave; that hadn’t changed.
It might have become awkward between them if Graydon’s cell hadn’t started buzzing. He’d left it upstairs for the evening but now he picked it up.
“Rory?” she asked.
“Who else?” Graydon said, his teeth clenched. With longing in his eyes, he looked at her in her beautiful gown. “He’s left a lot of messages so I better take this.”
“Of course,” Toby said. “Goodnight.”
“Goodnight,” he answered as he pushed the button on the phone. “And may I again say that you—” He broke off. “Rory, calm down. I’m back now.” With one last look of regret at Toby, Graydon went into his bedroom and shut the door.
Inside her own bedroom, Toby leaned against the door for a moment. She didn’t want to take off the gown. She’d have to ship it back to Lanconia and would never see it again. But maybe she could wear it at Victoria’s historical-themed wedding. But no, Graydon would be gone by then and it wouldn’t be right to keep the dress when he wasn’t there.
Her attention was taken by a light shining through her window. She hadn’t thought to draw the curtains before she left so the beam was prominent. When she looked out the window she saw that it was coming from the house across the road. The forbidden house. Not only had someone left a light on inside, the front door was standing wide open. It wasn’t raining but it might, and if it did, the floor and woodwork could be ruined.
Quietly, she opened the door and stepped into the sitting room. What she should do was tell Graydon about the door. After all, the house was owned by his family, but she heard that he was still on the phone and his voice seemed rather loud and fast. No doubt Rory was falling apart again. That seemed to be an hourly occurrence with him.
Toby tiptoed down the stairs, glanced toward the closed door of the family room,
and wondered if Daire and Lorcan were home, but she didn’t look. She’d just go across the road, close the door, ignore the light inside, and return before Graydon got off the phone.
But when she got to the door, it was stuck and she couldn’t pull it shut. When she stepped inside to get a better grip, she heard voices upstairs. It looked like someone—probably kids—was in the house. She reached for her phone to call the police but she didn’t have it with her. Turning, she started to leave, but the door shut in her face.
Across the road, Graydon was pulling down the window shade as he spoke on the phone to his brother. It was early morning in Lanconia. “Rory, I’m tired. I want to go to bed. You can handle this on your own. Just have some confidence in yourself and you can—” When Graydon spat out the vilest curse known in his language, even his brother was taken aback. “Toby just went into that house and slammed the door behind her. I have to go.” As he took off running, he clicked off the phone and tossed it onto the couch.
When Graydon got to the house, the door was standing open and he couldn’t help sighing. Of course it was open, beckoning him to come in. If Toby weren’t somewhere inside he would have walked away and never looked back. He couldn’t help wondering if his aunt Cale was aware of what she’d bought. But then, she was a writer and as bad as Victoria. Aunt Cale would probably love hearing about whatever the house did to people.
When Graydon was fully inside, he stood still and waited. He knew what was coming. Only when the door closed on its own behind him did he shout Toby’s name. There was no answer, but then, he’d expected none.
Upstairs, he quickly went from room to room. Four bedrooms, three baths, and the little library. Toby was nowhere to be seen.
Again downstairs, he took his time looking through the rooms. His fear was of the birthing room, that Toby was in there. His imagination made him worry that somehow the old house had taken hold of her and—
He ran his hand over his face. No more horror movies for him!
He went through the dining room and into the front hall. As soon as he stepped into the parlor, he heard music and laughter, and saw a light under the door to the small sitting room.