“More or less,” he said.
“Is that it? I now know all your secrets?”
“I guess maybe you do,” he said, but his eyes were laughing. He hadn’t exactly told the extent of his ghostly encounters.
“And you think Mom is going to wait until you’re not around to come here to look for Aunt Addy’s journals?”
“I do,” Jared said. “And since no one knows where they are, I’m a little concerned that she could …” He’d been about to say that Victoria might take a chain saw to the old house, but he didn’t think Alix would like to hear that.
“You’re worried that she might damage your house in her quest to find the books, aren’t you?” Alix asked.
“Exactly.” Jared was relieved that she understood. “You think your dad can … you know?”
“Make her behave?” Alix asked. “No. She terrifies him. He stands up to everyone else in the world but my mother turns him into a wimp. Dad says there is no man on earth strong enough to handle her.”
“I have to agree with him on that,” Jared said. “I would never want to go head-to-head with Victoria. Ready to go?”
She nodded, he left money, they said goodbye to everyone—including Mark the owner/cook—and went out to get into Jared’s truck. They were heading out to the North Shore to look at the chapel site again. The building permit had yet to come, but it would be there soon and they wanted to be ready.
Alix was looking at the people standing outside of Downyflake, waiting for an available table. She’d been on the island long enough that she could distinguish locals from tourists—and watching them, she felt as though she were an observer at a zoo. They seemed abnormally clean and thin, as though they’d been extruded from a machine and were not quite real. Jewelry and cell phones dangled from their arms.
She was about to make a derogatory remark, when three pretty girls with long, glossy hair saw them.
“Jared! When are you going to come play with us?”
“I’m too old for you kids,” he said out the truck window.
“You didn’t say that last summer,” the prettiest one said.
“And that’s what aged me.”
The girls laughed.
“Sorry about that,” he said as he turned onto Sparks Avenue. “I know their dads.” He was looking at her intently, wondering how she’d handle the bit of flirty wordplay.
“Does that mean you think I am old enough for you?”
Jared laughed. “You are Victoria’s daughter—and you look like you’re planning something.”
“I was thinking that Mom would love to write about Valentina and Captain Caleb. Maybe I can get her so involved with those two that she won’t need to search for Aunt Addy’s journals. Besides, what could possibly be in them? In my memories of Aunt Addy, she’s hardly a wild woman, or a possible murderer.”
Jared said nothing as he looked at Alix.
“Oh, right. Captain Caleb’s ghost,” she said. “But surely my mother couldn’t think that she’d be able to write an entire novel based on a few ghostly encounters. A foggy figure standing at the top of the stairs then vanishing. That’s not much. I vaguely remember stories Aunt Addy told me about Captain Caleb, but romantic daydreams aren’t the same as the truth. I’ll tell Mom that it would be better if she tried to find out what catastrophic thing happened to Captain Caleb that made him into a ghost. Isn’t there always some romantic tragedy that results in a ghost?” Alix looked at him. “That, of course, will lead her to the story you told me about Valentina and Caleb. I know Mom hasn’t seen the papers, but has she heard the story?”
“I don’t believe she has,” he said. “If she had …” He looked at Alix.
“Mom would already be here asking to go through your attic.”
They exchanged smiles of understanding. At the hint of a romantic story, no doubt Victoria would have quickly been on the doorstep cajoling, sweet-talking, doing whatever it took. It would have been nearly impossible to resist her.
“You know,” Jared said, “I think this might actually work.”
“It probably will,” she said. “I can be a good salesman when I need to be. Too bad you and Dad didn’t tell me about all this earlier. If you two hadn’t spent your lives keeping secrets, I could have helped from the beginning.” For the rest of the drive to the North Shore, Alix quietly—but firmly—told Jared where he’d made his mistakes in handling Victoria.
He just smiled and didn’t defend himself. He knew there was a lot more to the Kingsley ghost than just a vague vision standing at the head of the stairs, and he wondered what Alix was going to say after she found out all of it. Would she be so sassy then?
When he got to his land on the North Shore, he parked and turned off the truck. “Want to see the site again? If you can stop bawling me out, that is.”
“You can’t blame me for feeling left out, can you? I missed out on an entire life.”
Leaning across the seat, he said, “From my point of view, whatever it was that made you what you are was done right.” After a quick kiss, he got out of the truck.
All Alix could do was smile.
They spent a couple of hours at the site. In the toolbox in the back of the pickup Jared had construction flags, stakes and string, and a two-hundred-foot tape. With no need for discussions, he and Alix got right to it, both wanting to see the outline of the chapel laid out on the ground.
As though they’d been working together for years—which, thanks to Ken, in a way they had—they temporarily staked and strung the foundation, then stepped back into the shade and looked at it.
“Can you envision it?” He’d pulled a couple of bottles of cold water from the cooler and handed one to her.
“I can.” Her voice changed. “I want to tell you that this is very generous of—”
“Don’t say it!” he said.
She knew he didn’t want to hear her gratitude yet again. “All right. Just so you know.” She looked around. “Did Valentina live here or in town?”
“Both. After Caleb built the new house, he gave the old one to his cousin Obed.”
“Gave it to him?”
“For one dollar. It’s still a common practice on Nantucket. Check the local newspaper, the Inky, for property transfers and you’ll see it being done nearly every day. Nantucketers often inherit their houses.” He made a scoffing noise. “Otherwise, we couldn’t afford to live on our own island.”
Alix thought of the rather ordinary twenty-million-dollar house she’d seen. What he said certainly made sense. “So Caleb went away on a ship, leaving the love of his life behind carrying their child. But she married his cousin—probably because she had to—and at first Valentina and Obed lived here in the original house.”
“That’s right,” he said. “After Caleb’s death, when his brother returned with the will, Obed and Valentina moved into the big house on Kingsley Lane.”
“With Caleb’s son, the first Jared,” Alix said. “Then Valentina disappeared and this house burned to the ground.” She thought for a moment. “Do you think there’s any connection between her disappearance and the fire?”
They were both looking at the depression in the earth that was in the center of where the chapel would be. When he didn’t answer right away, she looked at him.
“I think,” he said slowly, “that there is a strong connection between the two events.”
He was saying that he thought Valentina had died in the fire, but she didn’t want to believe something so terrible could have happened to the young woman Captain Caleb had loved so much.
They looked at each other, and understanding passed between them. There was more to this building than giving Izzy a place to get married. It had to do with Jared’s family. And righting a wrong, she thought.
“I do have a question,” she said. “Who is Parthenia and where did you hear of her?”
“What time is my flight?”
Alix groaned. “And I thought you had no more secrets.”
&
nbsp; Smiling, he lifted her off the ground and swung her around. “I wouldn’t be very interesting if I had no secrets, now, would I? Come on, let’s go into town. I have to buy ten pounds of chocolate-covered cranberries to take with me.”
“You can’t get them in New York?”
“Only if I want low quality and tasteless,” he said as they started back to the truck. “The ones I buy are made with Nantucket cranberries. Besides, they’re not for anybody in New York. Stanley got the truck I keep off-island and I’m driving to Vermont to see the lovely Sylvia. They’re for her.”
On their way back to town, he teased her about Sylvia—who turned out to be the blacksmith he’d mentioned before. She was married to a farrier and they had two little girls. Jared said that if he was going to coax Sylvia into doing the big hinges for the chapel for them right away, rather than six months from now, he needed to show up bearing gifts. They parked at the house, walked back to town, got the cranberries at Sweet Inspirations, then crossed the street to Bookworks. They bought four children’s books set on Nantucket, and the latest edge-of-your-seat nonfiction book by Nat Philbrick—who lived close by. By lunchtime all the shopping had left Alix exhilarated, but Jared was exhausted. They went to Languedoc for lunch.
After they ate, they walked back to the house and carried their purchases upstairs. On the bed was Jared’s half-packed suitcase. He had an apartment in New York so he didn’t take much, but he needed to pack the gifts.
“Is that all of it?” Alix asked as she closed the case.
“No, one thing is missing,” Jared said as he took her in his arms and kissed her.
She clung to him.
“Think you’ll miss me?” he asked, his face buried in her hair.
“Stop it or you’ll make me cry.”
He moved back to look at her face. “I could stand your tears if I knew they were for me.”
She put her head back down on his chest and the tears began to come. “You’ll go back to being the Great Jared Montgomery and forget all about me.”
He kissed the top of her head. “Haven’t you yet realized that there is no Jared Montgomery? He’s not real. The real me is here in this house, on this island.” He started to say, With you. But it was too soon for that.
Alix put her arms around his neck and kissed his mouth. “Your beautiful lower lip,” she whispered.
“Is that the only part of my body you like?” He was kissing her cheeks, her temples. Soft, sweet kisses.
“I like your mind. You’re fairly intelligent. For a man, that is.”
Jared laughed. “I’ll show you how smart I am!” He swept the suitcase onto the floor.
“Please do,” she said. “I like anything you can show me or tell me or ask—” She broke off because he kissed her into silence.
Chapter Nineteen
The day Jared left, they drove to the airport in silence. Alix seemed to be full of thoughts and worries—and maybe even a dread of the future. No matter what Jared said about this separation not changing anything between them, she was still concerned.
“Will you put on a suit?” she asked as he stopped at the token machine at the airport parking lot.
“Yes. I don’t want to but it’s New York.”
“Will you shave and get your hair cut?”
“No,” he said, smiling. “Unless you want me to, that is.”
“No, I don’t. Will Tim yell at you for being away so long?”
“All he cares about is that the California house plans are finished.” Jared pulled into a parking place, turned off the engine, and looked at her. “What’s really bothering you?”
“Nothing,” she said. “It’s just that we’ve known each other such a short time and you’re—” His look made her say what she didn’t want to. “You’ll be him again.”
“And ‘he’ is a bad guy? An exploiter of women? Love ’em and leave ’em?”
“I didn’t mean that,” she said, then grimaced. “Maybe I did.”
“If I did that to you, your parents would kill me.”
“Great,” she said. “Glad to hear that it’s fear that keeps you with me.”
Jared just shook his head. “Words aren’t going to prove anything. Call me, I’ll call you. Text, email. All of it. I’ll let you know where I am at all times. Will that make you feel better?”
“Only when you return will I be sure. Return to me, not just to your old house and your beloved island.”
Jared laughed. “I think you know me too well. Come on, let’s go.”
In the airport he was about to go out the door to the small jet, but he turned back, took Alix in his arms, and kissed her yet again. He put his lips near her ear and whispered, “Within four hours everyone on this island will have heard that we’re a couple.”
There was another kiss goodbye, then Alix watched him walk across the tarmac and go up the ramp to the plane. His seat was by a window on her side and he waved to her as they took off.
When he was gone, Alix turned to leave the airport and saw that a number of people were smiling at her. Not the tourists who traveled in packs and had a frantic look in their eyes, not the summer people in their linen and bracelets. These were the Nantucketers, the men and women who lived and worked there. The real people. The people who mattered. The women smiled and the men nodded to her—just as she’d seen them do to Jared. It was almost as though his public kiss had been an announcement that Alix was now … What? she wondered. Somehow related to the people who’d settled the island? That she belonged?
Alix couldn’t help returning the smiles. As she walked outside toward the truck, a man loading luggage nodded at her. Word was spreading outward.
The next morning Toby showed up asking Alix if she’d like to see some of Nantucket, and she readily agreed.
Toby drove around the island, to beaches and moors, altar rock, and the oldest house with its beautiful herb garden. They walked behind the lovely old house to Something Natural to have lunch.
They drove back to Kingsley Lane, parked, and walked into town. Since Toby hadn’t been born on the island, she had a clearer idea of what was unusual about it. “Everything is named Nantucket—the town, the island, the county.” She went on to say that Nantucket had recently been given the dubious honor of being declared the richest county in the U.S. “Although a lot of us are struggling to put food on the table,” she added.
Alix couldn’t believe such a predicament was true of Toby. She had an air about her that could only be described as elegant. Her clothes were the best quality, but understated. She didn’t wear a dozen bracelets or a gold necklace as big as a horse collar, like the off-islanders did. And no cute little hat with an upturned brim that you knew cost a normal person’s monthly salary. With Toby, everything was simple and refined. By the end of the day, Alix found herself standing straighter and vowing to toss out her oldest pair of sweatpants.
Later, Lexie showed up at Kingsley House with a bag full of fresh vegetables for dinner, just harvested from her boss’s garden. “Heaven knows he never picks any of them. He just likes to watch the girls bending over and weeding.”
Toby and Alix looked at each other with raised eyebrows.
“What does Roger wear while he’s watching the girls?” Alix asked.
“As little as he can lawfully get away with,” Lexie answered.
Toby and Alix smiled at each other. It was a nice image.
After dinner the three women sat in the living room and finished off a bottle of wine. As usual with Lexie, she got right to the point. “So how are you and Jared getting along?”
Alix was very aware that Lexie was Jared’s cousin, so how could she tell of her worries about his departure? “Great. Fine,” she said.
“Anything we can help with?” Toby asked. Obviously she wasn’t fooled by Alix’s bravado.
“It’s just a matter of time,” Alix said, then took a breath. She did have worries and her best friend wasn’t here to talk to, so cousin or not, she needed to get h
er thoughts out into the open. “I know Jared likes my designs and my work ethic, and the sex is truly great, but I think he’s happy the way he is. And …” She took a breath. “He has a life in New York as well as here, so maybe I won’t fit into his world there.” She looked at Lexie. “Why are you smiling?”
“Because Jared isn’t like you think he is. He isn’t the famous public guy that people see. Here on Nantucket is the real him.”
“I guess we’ll see, won’t we?” Alix said. “Okay, that’s more than enough soul searching from me. I want to know about you two. What are you looking for in life?”
Lexie grimaced. “My problem is that I know my future and what my life will be like. I’m sure I’ll marry Nelson within the next couple of years. I know where we’ll live, even the house we’ll live in. All of it. Everything.”
“Who is Nelson?” Alix asked. She’d seen no man near Lexie except her boss, and it was clear that she wanted nothing to do with him.
“He’s my Eric.”
“But I was dumped by him,” Alix said.
Toby nodded. “If Lexie doesn’t marry him soon he’s going to drop her.”
Lexie took a drink of her wine. “I just want a life where I can’t see straight down the road. I want some hills, mountains even. I want an adventure. Actually, I’d settle for something that’s merely out of the ordinary.”
Alix turned to Toby. “What about you?”
Lexie spoke first. “Toby has more than boyfriend problems. She has a mother.”
Alix looked at Toby in question.
“My mother,” Toby said, “was—is, I guess—obsessed with being … I don’t know how to explain it, but the most accurate thing to say is that she wants to be considered upper class. You see, my dad is …”
“Blueblood,” Lexie said. “Or as close as America can get. Golf clubs, private schools, a family tree back to … What is it?”
“It doesn’t matter.” Toby looked away, embarrassed.
“What’s your mother’s side of the family like?” Alix asked.
“I don’t know. I’ve never met any of her relatives or anyone who knew her before she married my dad. It’s like she was born on the day she got married.” Toby looked at them. “However …”