Jared didn’t know whether to be impressed or disgusted. He was leaning toward the latter.
He tried to fortify his courage as he started down the hall toward the front parlor. He and Aunt Addy used to laugh about people who marveled that Jared was never intimidated by anyone in the business world. Even when he was a young architect just starting out, he’d never been nervous when going into a meeting.
“That’s because you’ve spent so much time around Victoria,” Aunt Addy said. “She has a way of making most people do what she wants. If you can handle Victoria, you can handle the world.”
When Jared got to the doorway, he halted and looked at the scene. Sitting in the center of the couch was the beautiful Victoria. As always, she was perfect. Her glorious red hair was artfully messy, arranged to look as though she’d just stepped out of a breeze. Her green eyes, with their thick black lashes, managed to look at once seductive and innocent. And her body … He knew from having spent a lot of his life near her that to keep the shape she’d been born with she worked out as hard as a professional bodybuilder. But she managed to look as though she was unaware of her extraordinary figure.
Four men surrounded her, all of them leaning forward as Victoria lounged back on the cushions. Aunt Addy’s good tea set was on the table, the cups filled, and there were pretty plates full of tiny sandwiches, cakes, cookies, pastries. Jared would have bet his next year’s salary that Victoria hadn’t done anything to prepare the tea.
He was about to step forward when, turning, he saw his grandfather standing to the side. To Jared the man was as clear as sunlight, but no one else seemed able to see him. When Caleb looked up, what Jared saw made him draw in his breath.
On his face was an expression of absolute love. Melting, soul-touching, raw, unbridled love, the kind a person dies for, sacrifices and suffers for. It was the kind of love that a person would wait two hundred years to see fulfilled. It was True Love in its purest form.
Jared’s face must have registered what he’d seen, because in an instant, Caleb removed that love-struck look from his face. He showed his grandson his devil-may-care half smile, then was gone in a flash.
“My darling Jared,” came Victoria’s voice. “You’re here at last.”
Jared cursed his luck and his life, and gave a prayer for help, all at the same time. When he turned to face her, he was smiling.
When Victoria engulfed him in her arms, he couldn’t help feeling glad to see her. She was kissing his whisker-stubbled cheeks and running her pretty hands over his long hair.
“Is all this for my Alix?” Victoria asked. “She has always liked the motorcycle-gang look. Or is it Nantucket fisherman that she’s grown to like?”
“I think it’s dirty architect,” he said as she slid her arm through his and he let her lead him toward the couch. Reluctantly, the other men made way.
“Yes, my Alix would love that. You know everyone, don’t you?”
Jared looked from one man to another. Yes, he knew them all. He gave looks to the three married ones to let them know they should leave—which they did, leaving only Dr. Huntley, who looked as though he’d taken root.
“What a bad boy you are,” Victoria said to Jared after she’d said goodbye to the other men, her eyes laughing. “Freddy was just telling me how he and Alix had such a lovely time together. I had no idea you and she were looking into the family history.”
Jared swallowed. He was going to tell Victoria as little as possible.
Freddy—a.k.a. Dr. Frederick C. Huntley—sipped his tea. “Young Alix was looking for Valentina.”
“Oh, yes,” Victoria said. “The elusive Valentina. Did she make any progress?”
“None at all,” Jared said, putting a large cream tart in his mouth.
Victoria smiled at him in a way that said she would eventually get everything out of him. She made Jared want to run upstairs and hide. Or maybe to grab Alix and fly back to New York.
She turned to Dr. Huntley. “Freddy, you’ll have to tell me everything on your next visit.”
“Oh,” Dr. Huntley said and it took him a moment to realize he was being dismissed. Quickly, he put his cup down, took one more sandwich, and stood up to say goodbye.
As soon as they were alone, Jared gave a yawn. “I’ve been up for hours, I think I’ll—”
“Jared, darling,” Victoria said, “we need to talk.”
He stood up. “Sure, it’s just that your visit was unexpected and I have a lot of things I need to get done. If you’d told me you were coming—as you seem to have told the entire island—I could have blocked out some time. As it is …” He couldn’t think how to lengthen the lie. He took a step toward the doorway.
“I want to know what your intentions are toward my daughter.”
Jared looked back, his face showing surprise. “You want to know about Alix? And me?”
“Yes, of course. That’s why I came. I know you warned me not to and I plan to be a quiet little mouse while I’m here, but I absolutely must know about my dear daughter.”
Jared gave a pointed look at what had to be half a dozen flower displays about the room. This was being “a quiet little mouse.”
“Oh, well,” she said with a wave of her hand. “I didn’t arrive on a yacht.”
“Not this time.”
Victoria smiled sweetly and patted the seat beside her. “Please sit down, Jared darling, I haven’t seen you in months and Kenneth has been his usual beastly self and won’t tell me anything about my own daughter. And look at this.” She reached under the couch and pulled out a white box that he recognized. “I saved these just for us, and …” She removed a bottle of twenty-five-year-old rum from behind a cushion. “This is to spice up Addy’s blasted tea. What do you say? Downyflake doughnuts and rum?”
Jared shook his head. “Victoria, I swear you could charm the devil.” He sat back down on the couch beside her.
“From what I’ve been hearing about you with my daughter, that’s just what you are. You aren’t planning to run back to New York and leave her behind, are you? Alix isn’t like me. She’s as serious as her father.”
“No,” Jared said as he took the cup of tea she offered. It was half rum. “I’m not planning to leave Alix.”
Victoria smiled. “Does she know that?”
“I’ve dropped enough hints, so she should.”
“Hmmm,” Victoria said as she broke off a tiny piece of doughnut and delicately nibbled at it. “We women aren’t good at hints. We like solid declarations of love and forever.”
Jared put his cup to his mouth.
“And we like rings,” Victoria said. “Anything but an emerald, and size five.”
“Victoria,” Jared said, “I think I’m old enough to make decisions about certain aspects of my own life.”
“Of course you are, darling, it’s just that I love you and Alix so much. You know that, don’t you?”
“Yes, I do,” Jared said. “I’ll take care of Alix, I promise.”
“Isn’t she wonderful?” Victoria said. “I don’t know how Ken and I were able to produce a child who is the best of both of us. Are you impressed with her talent as an architect?”
“Very much so.”
“Ken said he’s building a chapel that Alix designed. Here, let me fill your cup, and have another doughnut. You do look tired and now that I’m here I’m going to help you with whatever you need.”
Between the rum and the sugar Jared was beginning to relax. “Victoria, I don’t know where Aunt Addy’s journals are.”
Victoria took in a breath, her hand to her remarkable bosom with its six inches of cleavage showing. “Is that why you think I came here? Jared, my dearest boy, I thought you knew me better than that. You’re looking at me as though you’re afraid that I might … Well, that I might tear apart the house searching for them. Pry up the floorboards or something dreadful like that.” There were tears gathering in her eyes, which made the emerald green of them shine even brighter. “Did you thin
k I could spend years in this beautiful old house and not love it nearly as much as you do?”
“Well, I did think—” He broke off because Victoria was looking hurt. “I knew that you’d want to see them.”
“And of course I do,” she said, blinking away the tears. “I’m sure they’ll turn up. Kenneth said he’d met some little …” She waved her hand. “A researcher or some such, and he’s going to hire her to go through the attic. I just hope he can afford it. Of course Kenneth never was any good when it came to money, but who am I to complain? Are you really allowing this strange woman to stay here in your house?”
Jared picked up his fourth doughnut and filled his mouth. He was not going to give Victoria any information about Jilly. “So did you come over on the fast ferry?” he asked, his mouth full.
She smiled sweetly. “No, this time I brought a car. I thought Alix might need it. She can’t very well drive that awful old truck of yours, now can she? And by the way, where is she?”
“At Dilys’s house. I gave her some plans to work on.”
“How odd that you’d go out there to work when your office is right here. I wonder what made you do that?” She waited for Jared to reply but he didn’t. “Are the plans for anyone I know?”
Jared had an idea that Victoria knew of Jilly’s connection to the Taggerts and the Montgomerys, probably knew the net worth of each of them, but right now he didn’t want to get into that. Telling her of looking for Parthenia would lead to Caleb. “I doubt it. Look,” he said as he stood up. “I need to take Alix some paper so I better go. I’m sure you have invitations for dinner.”
“Several of them.” She walked to the other side of the coffee table and put her arms out to him.
He couldn’t help hugging her.
“Jared, my dearest, dearest boy,” she said softly, “you can’t imagine how pleased I am about you and Alix. I’ve always thought you two were meant for each other. Kenneth fought me on it, but I persevered. Both of you are truly fine people and I love you both very much.” She pulled away, her hands on his arms. “I couldn’t have created a better man for my daughter than you are. Do you know how much I admire you?”
Jared softened at her words. “And I owe you so much. I wouldn’t be where I am today if it hadn’t been for your help.”
“I just supplied financial aid and encouragement now and then. Not so much.”
“It was everything to me,” Jared said.
“And now I’m giving you my most precious possession, my beautiful, brilliant daughter.”
“She’s both of those things,” Jared said, smiling warmly at the memory of Alix. They’d been apart only hours but he was missing her.
“I’m glad you think so,” Victoria said as she leaned forward and put her warm, soft cheek next to his. “So now you can give me Valentina’s journal,” she whispered.
It took Jared a moment to react and he stepped away from her, his eyes wide. “We just found it yesterday! Who told you about it?”
“Twig’s wife, Jude, sent me an email. We’ve been such good friends for years. I adore her chickens and—”
“Victoria!” He’d been planning to give her the journal but it went against his grain that she had already slick-talked her way to it.
“Yes, dear?”
He turned away. “I’m going home to Alix.” All he could think about was seeing her. He wanted her sanity, her calmness, the way she didn’t try to manipulate everyone she met. He just wanted to be with her.
Chapter Twenty-seven
Alix leaned away from the computer, put her arms behind her back, and stretched. It was getting late and Jared hadn’t returned. But then it was as though a little electrical current went through her and she looked toward the door. She wasn’t surprised when Jared threw it open.
What was surprising was the look on his face: raging, hot desire.
He had a bag in his hand that he dropped on the kitchen counter, then, without a word, he opened his arms to her.
Alix didn’t hesitate as she ran to him. He bent a bit as he caught her, his hands going under her seat to pull her up. Her legs went around his waist as he opened his mouth over hers, tongues touching, arms, legs, bodies intertwining.
She pulled away a moment. Over the pounding of her heart, she said, “Mom wants us to meet her for lunch tomorrow.”
Jared gave a brief nod and put his mouth over hers as he started for the bedroom. When a chair got in his way, he threw it to one side.
“Oh, my,” Alix said, but then Jared began kissing her neck and she forgot about words.
He tossed her onto the bed so the covers and pillows went flying upward.
Wide-eyed, she began unbuttoning her blouse, but Jared tore it apart, his lips following his hands. The rest of her clothes came off in an instant and for just a moment he paused long enough to look at her. “You are so beautiful,” he whispered.
Alix pulled him down to her, smiled at the weight of him on top of her, loved the way his clothes felt against her bare skin. His hands ran down her body, came up the inside of her legs, his fingers entering her. She gasped, her head back, eyes closed, as his lips touched her breasts.
He brought her to a crescendo of desire, kissing her, his hands and lips working together. Just when she thought she could bear no more, he rolled off her and in an instant was nude.
It was Alix’s turn, as her hands and lips wandered over his body, settling at last at his core. Jared leaned his head back as she moved downward. Minutes later, when he could stand no more, he pushed her onto her back and entered her with all the force of his desire. Alix put her hands up to brace herself against the headboard and gasped at each of his vigorous thrusts.
When they reached the peak, she clasped her legs about his waist, her arms around his neck, and let him lift her high. She couldn’t help the scream she gave.
He collapsed on her but didn’t move away, just held her so tightly she could hardly breathe. But who needed air with a sweaty, heavy man on top of you?
“You okay?” he whispered in her ear, his voice soft and concerned.
“More than all right.”
He rolled off her, but held her close, moving her leg so it was between his.
It took her a while to recover from what they’d just done. There had been an urgency to his lovemaking, a need that had never been there before. She wanted to ask him questions but she didn’t. Instead, she waited for him to speak.
“I didn’t hurt you?”
“Far from it,” Alix said.
“I missed you a lot today.”
She didn’t want to point out the obvious, that he’d only been away a few hours, but then she’d missed him too. Working on plans without him wasn’t nearly as much fun as with him. “What did you do?”
He hesitated. “I had a fight with my grandfather.”
“Oh,” Alix said, trying to be calm even though she knew that his grandfather was a ghost. She swallowed. “What about?”
Jared couldn’t tell her about his fears for Victoria. “I didn’t like that he showed himself to you that way.”
“He wanted to tell me about Valentina,” Alix said, then gave a little laugh. She was defending a ghost.
Jared kissed her forehead. “He could have told me what he had to say.”
“I guess so,” Alix said. “But, actually, that day was very nice. It was only later that I was upset. Did I tell you about the dress I was wearing?”
“He had you put on some historic monstrosity?” Jared sounded like he was about to get angry again.
“No,” she said. “It was a beautiful white cotton wedding dress.”
He calmed down. “The skirt’s kind of folded?” He made a motion with his hand. “And it’s packed away in a green box?”
She drew back to look at him. “That’s the one. Who wore it?”
“No one. It was Aunt Addy’s wedding dress. She showed it to my mother one day when I was there. They were trying to get some cousin to wear it at her wedding,
but she wanted something with big sleeves and shiny.”
“Well, I would wear—” Alix began, but stopped herself. It wasn’t good to talk of your bridal gown with a man you weren’t engaged to, who you hadn’t even exchanged “I love you” with.
“Would you mind telling me exactly what happened on Sunday?” he asked. “I want to hear every detail.”
Alix started at the beginning, from the rainy morning when she woke up with an overwhelming urge to go to the attic, to when the vision of the wedding disappeared.
Through it all, Jared listened intently, nodding as she told of the people she’d seen at the wedding.
“I felt like I actually saw them, but now I’m not sure I really did.”
“Who else was there? Where was Valentina?” Jared asked.
When Alix told him the story of how Captain Caleb and Valentina met, she couldn’t help laughing. “It all sounded so much like something my mother would do. Caleb told me about that meeting. He didn’t show it to me.”
“Granddad would have been too embarrassed to let someone see him being bested by a girl,” Jared said. “And he’s never told anyone that story before. That certainly would have been passed down.”
“He said I was the first one he’d told.” She snuggled her head on his shoulder. “Did you see Mom?”
“Oh, yeah,” he said, and told her of the trucks and bikes and men who’d shown up. “Even Roger Plymouth sent flowers.”
“Oooooooh,” Alix said.
“I need to meet this guy,” Jared said.
“Can I go with you?”
With a groan, he rolled over on top of her. “You deserve punishment for that remark.”
“I agree completely,” she said as she opened her mouth under his.