Ever After

  Their mother died when the girls were quite young. Their father—who had a store that sold tea and coffee—dedicated his life to providing for them and protecting them.

  Caleb was a good storyteller and he had them laughing as he described what the men of Nantucket did to try to court the gorgeous young women, from gifts to secret visits. “See this high wall? Old man Bell put it up to try to keep the men out. But it didn’t even slow us—them—down. Night and day, men and boys vaulted over the wall and fell to the ground. Doc Watson said his practice was based solely on what he called the Bell Fools. Broken ankles, arms, collarbones, twisted necks. Half the males on the island were on crutches.”

  Jamie and Hallie were laughing.

  “What we all loved about them”—Caleb again caught himself—“I mean they loved is that the girls never let the attention or their own beauty go to their heads. They were kindness personified. They…” He had to pause to get control of himself. Hallie was right: This story did not have a happy ending.

  He looked back at the eager young faces waiting to hear more. “They were the town’s matchmakers.”

  “As in putting couples together?” Hallie asked.

  “Yes, and they were quite brilliant at it. They were the ones who got Captain Caleb Kingsley and the lovely Valentina Montgomery to stop arguing and admit they were mad about each other.” He looked at Jamie. “If they hadn’t done that, your Kingsley ancestor wouldn’t have been born and you wouldn’t now be sitting here with this lovely young lady.”

  “I love them very much,” Jamie said with such seriousness that he made Caleb laugh and Hallie’s face turn red.

  Caleb continued. “The girls invited people, young and old, to tea nearly every afternoon, and what they served was beyond delicious. It was said that they could take barnacles and bilge water and bake them into ambrosia. Between the beauty, the food, and the matchmaking, you can see why all the sailors brought back gifts for the girls.” He told of their father’s taboo on keeping expensive personal items, so the sailors offered gifts for the tea parties. “The girls especially liked recipes that came from all over the globe.”

  “That’s like our teas!” Hallie said. “The B&B seems to be carrying on the tradition because Edith brings us food from everywhere.”

  “Does she?” Caleb said, smiling, then continued. “Over the years, the Bell sisters got to know their guests and saw who interacted well. Then they contrived ways to get prospective couples together at church, at socials, wherever they could. And they had a knack for breaking up unsuitable engagements and putting people together who actually liked each other.” Caleb chuckled. “Sometimes they met with resistance, like the time they put the daughter of a tavern owner with one of the rich Coffin boys. It took a while, but his family grew to love her.”

  “Weren’t they too young to do something like that?” Hallie asked.

  “Old souls,” Caleb said softly. “Sometimes when people intuitively know that they aren’t to be on the earth long, they seem older than their ages. I think in this case those beautiful young ladies wanted to leave behind what they instinctively knew they were never going to have for themselves. They gave people love and families.”

  “I don’t think I want to hear the end of this story,” Hallie said.

  Reaching across the little table, Jamie put his hand over hers and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “Didn’t Hallie’s ancestor change everything?”

  “Yes, he did,” Caleb said and began to describe the instant love between Juliana and Leland. “Once those two saw each other, everyone else ceased to exist.”

  Caleb saw the quick glance that Hallie and Jamie exchanged, as though they knew the feeling. It wasn’t easy for him to suppress his smile. In his long lifetime he’d seen many people fall in love the moment they saw each other.

  “Juliana and Leland got married, didn’t they?” Hallie asked.

  “Yes. Just six months after they met, they married.”

  “Was it a nice wedding?” Hallie didn’t want to sound too girly around the men.

  “By all accounts, it was glorious. I heard that Juliana wore a dress the color of the sky just before a storm, and her sister wore one like early dawn at sea.”

  “Oh,” Hallie said, letting out her breath. “I’m not sure what those colors are, but I like the sound of them. Were there lots of flowers?”

  “The islanders denuded half of the gardens on Nantucket. But then there were few families who didn’t owe the girls something, including children who wouldn’t have existed except for them. Someone called them the Princesses of Blissful Tomorrows.”

  “That’s lovely,” Hallie said. “I’ve always dreamed of—” She stopped herself. “Anyway, did the newlyweds have time for a happy life before…you know?”

  “No,” Caleb said flatly. “At the party after the wedding, the sisters’ father collapsed. Everyone had been so preoccupied that no one had noticed he was ill.” Caleb took a breath. “He had a fever that he probably caught from one of the ships that had recently returned with a cargo of tea. His daughters insisted on taking care of him, so Juliana postponed her wedding trip—and her wedding night.”

  When Caleb looked at the young couple, his eyes were bleak. “The girls caught the fever. Their father recovered, but they did not.”

  He took a moment to calm himself. “The whole island grieved. In less than a week they went from joyous celebration to deep mourning.”

  “And what about Leland, the bridegroom?” Hallie asked.

  “He was inconsolable. His relatives came from Boston to get him and took him home. He never returned to the island. Many years later he married again and had a son, your ancestor.”

  The three of them sat in silence for a while, listening to the birds and the wind, the tragic story hanging over them.

  Jamie broke the sadness. “You know, if I’m going to be in a haunted house, I’m glad the ghosts are two hot babes.”

  Hallie and Caleb couldn’t help laughing.

  Caleb reached into his pocket, withdrew an old key, and put it on the table. “That should open the side door.”

  Jamie picked up the key. “And we’ll see them inside?”

  “Only if you’ve not yet met your True Love.”

  “What?” Hallie asked.

  “Jared didn’t tell you that part?” Caleb had to feign innocence, as he well knew that Jared wouldn’t have told them the old story.

  “No, he didn’t,” Hallie and Jamie said together.

  “The legend is that the Bell girls still like to match people and the only ones who can see them are ones who need their help. If the door opens, they’re allowed to go into a beautiful room, and the dear young ladies will be there waiting for them.”

  “And if they aren’t needed?”

  Caleb shrugged. “Then they’ll see a room that has been closed up for a very long time. Henry kept all the doors locked after he bought the house. I’m not sure he ever went in there after the first time. By now, it must be a very dusty room.” There was a lot more to that story, but Caleb wasn’t going to tell it, at least not now.

  Jamie gave a little snort. “Wait a minute! If Edith can see them, does that mean she’s looking for her True Love? Isn’t she a little, you know, past that?”

  Caleb didn’t smile. “Are you asking if she’s too old to find love?” His voice was louder and deeper.

  “I’m just trying to put some reality into this fairy tale, that’s all.” Jamie’s voice was also rising.

  Hallie glared at him. “If you get into a fight and hurt your knee, I swear I will cut your clothes off before I call an ambulance.” She turned back to Dr. Huntley. “So why wouldn’t the door open for me? I know Jamie has someone, but I don’t.”

  “Who do I have?” Jamie asked quickly, but when Hallie gave him a look, he said, “Oh, yeah.”

  “You’ll have to figure that out on your own.” Caleb looked at his watch. “I’m afraid I have to go. My lovely wife is waiting for me.” He s
tood up. “Perhaps you two could come to dinner some night.” A look at Jamie’s frown stopped him. “But with the coming commotion of the wedding, it might be too much.”

  Jamie and Hallie walked with Dr. Huntley to the front gate and watched him go to the end of the lane. When he was out of sight, they looked at each other.

  Hallie had the key in her hand. “So now what do we do?”

  “We go see a dirty old room that has been locked up for who knows how long?” Jamie said.

  “If we see it as dusty, that means you and I have already met our True Loves.”

  “No,” he said. “It means that the place hasn’t been cleaned.”

  “But Edith—”

  “Obviously has a key,” he said. “The next time I see her I’m going to put her in a stranglehold and make her talk.”

  “You do that and she might stop stealing Betty’s food and delivering it to us,” Hallie said.

  “Good point. So? You ready to open the door?”

  “Maybe we should wait until the morning when the light is better and we can—” She broke off when Jamie started toward the side of the house. He was getting quite fast on his crutches! By the time she got there, he was standing in front of the double doors.

  “You want to open it or do you want me to do it?” he asked.

  Hallie held the key on her outstretched palm. “What happens if we open the door and two beautiful ghosts are standing there?”

  “We’ll say hello.” Jamie took the key and put it in the lock. It turned easily. “Ready?” When she nodded, he turned the knob.

  Inside was a room covered in dust and cobwebs, with dried leaves on the dirty floor. But no ghosts.

  “See?” Jamie said and she knew he was laughing at her.

  “I guess this means I’ve met the love of my life.” She began to walk around. It was a large room and although everything was thickly coated in gray, she could see that under it was beauty. In a corner was a seating area with a little couch and some chairs. Two tables were by the dirty windows. Against one wall was a huge old-fashioned Welsh dresser heavily laden with china. She picked up a plate and wiped her hand through the dirt. “Look. This is the pattern of the dishes we’ve been eating off of.”

  “If Edith has a key, based on her actions at the B&B, she probably ‘borrowed’ some.” He was at a door in the corner. “Wonder where this leads?”

  Hallie went to him as he opened it. Inside was a big pantry, with floor-to-ceiling shelves—and they were packed with objects. There was a window, but little light could get through the dirt.

  “What is all this stuff?” Hallie asked.

  Jamie swung past her to a door at the far end and opened it to see into the kitchen. “Now, that’s weird. This door has a lock on this side but not on that one.”

  “You don’t think ghosts are strange, but a door that locks on only one side is?”

  “So far I haven’t seen any proof of ghosts.” In the kitchen, he got a flashlight out of a drawer, then returned to shine it on the shelves in the pantry. Before them was cooking paraphernalia that seemed to cover the centuries. A rusty cast-iron waffle grill was next to a hand eggbeater from the 1950s. There was a pile of blackened copper molds connected by thick cobwebs. Boxes of products, ranging from elixirs to Swans Down Cake Flour, filled two shelves. Bottles, vials, containers made of marble, pewter, glass, and unidentifiable substances were fit into every space.

  “I feel like I’m looking at a sunken ship.” She tried to take a breath but they’d stirred up enough dust that she started coughing.

  “Come on, let’s get out of here.” They went into the kitchen and closed the door behind them. “Are you all right?” he asked.

  “Sure, but it is a bit depressing, isn’t it? Whether there are ghosts or not, Henry Bell closed off part of his house and didn’t go in it. And all those things in there! Do you think they were given to those poor women who died so long ago? By people who saw the room as clean?” Her head came up. “Did the Tea Ladies put them away? In hope for a future they were never going to have?”

  “Let’s go outside and I’ll tell you what Dr. Huntley told me about the garden.”

  She knew he was trying to take her mind off the tragic story and she was glad of it. The truth was that she’d been surrounded by so much death in her life that the merest mention of it took her back there. When her father and Ruby died in a car crash, Shelly had fallen apart. She was just a teenager then, so most of the responsibilities had landed on Hallie’s shoulders. Choosing burial clothes and caskets—all of it had been left to Hallie.

  Once they were outside, Jamie stopped and looked at her. He didn’t have to be told what was in her mind. He let his crutches fall to the ground, then pulled her into his arms. “It’s okay to grieve,” he said softly. “They all deserve it, but don’t get it mixed up with here and now.”

  Hallie held on to him, her cheek against his heart. It was good to feel the comfort. She would have stayed that way if he hadn’t broken them apart.

  “Come on,” he said, “let’s go to the gym and work up a sweat. It’ll make you feel better.”

  Hallie groaned. “Why did I get stuck with a jock? I’m more of a reader. Why don’t we check the Internet to find out about the Tea Ladies? We could—”

  “I’ll fix that,” he said as he picked up his crutches, leaned on them, and began to tap his phone. He was fast and he showed Hallie the message he was sending to his mother: THIS HOUSE IS BELIEVED TO BE HAUNTED BY TWO BEAUTIFUL YOUNG WOMEN. THEY FIND PEOPLE’S TRUE LOVES. CAN YOU TELL US ANYTHING ABOUT THEM? YOUR LOVING SON, JAMES.

  “That should do it,” Jamie said. “Mom will call some of her friends and the lot of them will be up all night searching. The minute she has anything, she’ll send us everything there is to know about your ghosts.”

  Hallie smiled. “Curious, is she?”

  “Insatiable. Now can we work out? My knee is aching.”

  A look of alarm ran across Hallie’s face but then stopped. “If I worked on your whole body, you’d be more balanced. You certainly wouldn’t be slumping to one side and causing yourself pain, as you are now.”

  “I do not slump!”

  “Yes, you do. You move like this.” She did an exaggerated walk with the left side of her six inches lower than the right. “If you’d let me, I could straighten that out.”

  Jamie was frowning. “Do it again. I like the view from the back.”

  “You!” Hallie said but then laughed. “Come on and I’ll work on your leg.”

  Grinning, he followed her to the gym.

  Chapter Seven

  “Are you going to take the case?” Mrs. Westbrook asked her son, Braden. Her tone was impatient, annoyed even. But then her ambitious, hardworking son looked like he was auditioning for the role of a hobo in a 1930s movie. He was stretched out on the couch, eating potato chips and watching endless reruns of Charmed. He hadn’t shaved in days. Actually, he hadn’t even taken a shower in the week he’d been home.

  “I don’t know,” he mumbled. “I hate family law. All those tears and hurt feelings.”

  She made herself count to ten. “It’s for Hallie. She needs help. Her stepsister did yet another lowdown rotten thing to her, but this time she doesn’t just need a shoulder to cry on. She needs legal help.”

  “Hallie would never go to court, so some first-year student can draw up the papers. She doesn’t need someone who’s almost a partner to do it.” He gave a little snort. “Or Hallie could grow a pair and tell Shelly to get out.”

  Mrs. Westbrook didn’t know when in her entire life such anger had run through her. She went to stand before him, looking down as she snatched the bag of chips out of his hands. “You may talk like that in the big city but not here and not to me. Do I make myself clear?”

  Braden sat up straight on the couch and turned off the TV. “Sorry, Mom. Really, I am. I know I’ve been a burden to you this last week, but—”

  She held up her hand to stop him. “I under
stand why you’re wallowing in self-pity. Your girlfriend dumped you.”

  “Zara was more than a girlfriend. She was—”

  “The girl who wouldn’t commit to you.” Mrs. Westbrook threw up her hands. “Braden, you are the smartest person I’ve ever met, but sometimes I wonder if you have any sense at all.”

  “Mom!” he said, sounding hurt.

  She sat down on the edge of the sofa. “My dear son, Zara is a two-faced lying snake. The one and only time you ever brought her home I saw her flirting with the Wilsons’ oldest boy.”

  “Tommy? I hardly think Zara would go for someone like him.”

  “If you ever bothered to look past her shapeless, skinny body, you’d have seen that young Tommy has grown into a real stud.”

  “Mom!” He was genuinely shocked.

  She lowered her voice. “Braden, my dear child, if you want actual love, why don’t you look around you? Maybe somewhere closer to home?”

  He let his head fall back against the couch cushion. “Not Hallie. Please tell me you aren’t going to start that again! Hallie is a nice girl. A hard worker. She has a high pain tolerance to stand that family of hers. I’m sure she’s going to make some man a wonderful wife and produce a bunch of kids who will walk all over her.”

  “Better that than a wife who will walk all over you!” his mother said and started to get up, but he caught her arm.

  “Mom, I’m sorry. I apologize for this.” He motioned to the mess of empty bags around him. But he also meant his inability to make himself return to the office where he’d have to see the woman he loved with one of the partners. He’d heard that she was now wearing a five-carat engagement ring.

  “I know you love Hallie,” he said. “She’s been the daughter you never had, and maybe that’s the problem. She’s like a sister to me.”

  His mother narrowed her eyes at him. “Is that so? Yesterday when Shelly was outside wearing less fabric than it takes to make a handkerchief, that was the only time you got off the couch in a week. Is she also your sister?”