“Yesterday, on Sunday. He and I …” Alix wasn’t sure how to tell about what she and Caleb had done.
“What did you do?”
“I’m sorry, but we danced together. You won’t be angry, will you? It really meant nothing.”
Jared worked to calm himself. “It’s all right. I know that Caleb can be supernaturally charming.”
Alix sighed in relief. “And he’s an excellent historian. His storytelling was so overwhelming that it was almost as though I saw the inside of this house on the night John Kendricks and Parthenia Taggert got married. I saw beeswax candles and smelled delicious food. I heard music too, but then I was playing a CD on my laptop, and—Why are you looking at me like that?”
“I want us to leave this house. Now.”
“I can’t.” She stepped away from him. “Caleb told me about how the Captain and Valentina met. It was really rather funny, but what happened later was so tragic. I must find out the truth of what happened to her.” Alix motioned to the boxes and papers surrounding them. “I need to go through everything and find out— Hey! What are you doing?”
Jared had bent, lifted Alix, and put her over his shoulder. He turned toward the door. His grandfather was there and wearing an apologetic look for taking things so far with Alix.
With a glare that ignored the man, Jared walked through Caleb and headed toward the back door.
Alix, with her head down and fanny up, said, “I don’t mean to interrupt your Shrek moment here, but the bedroom is upstairs.”
“We’re not going to bed. At least not now. We’re going to stay at Dilys’s house for a few days.”
“Then I need to pack some clothes.”
“You won’t need any,” he said as he carried her out of the house.
“Oooooooh,” she said. “I wa
s looking forward to your coming home but this gets better by the second.”
After Jared left Ken and Jilly together, she was the one who spoke first. “So you’re the man who fathered the most beautiful, intelligent, talented young woman on earth.”
“I did,” Ken said, pleased by her words—and her voice. He didn’t think he’d ever seen a more beautiful woman. She was quite slim, with an oval face, and she was wearing a pink and white dress that looked so fragile it could have been made of rose petals. A big sun hat was in her hand. “Is it Jared who agrees with me?”
“He does. He told my entire family about Alix, even showed us designs she’d drawn.”
For a moment Ken just stood there smiling, but then he seemed to come to his senses. “Where are my manners? Would you like to come inside and I’ll make us some tea? I have some doughnuts.”
“From Downyflake?”
Ken laughed. “Did Jared tell you everything about Nantucket?”
“He said nothing but good things. In fact, he wants our family to buy a house here. The one on the end.”
“BEYOND TIME?” Ken asked.
“Yes, that’s the one.”
“Then we must discuss it.” Stepping back, he opened the front door to the guesthouse.
A few minutes later, Ken and Jilly were sitting outside at the beautifully aged cedar table, munching on doughnuts and waiting for the tea to steep. Their heads were bent toward each other so closely that they were almost touching.
It was Ken who first saw Jared walking toward them with Alix tossed across his shoulder.
Jared stopped by the table, with an expression on his face that implied that nothing was out of the ordinary. “We’re going to Dilys’s for a few days,” he said. “She’s off-island so we’ll have the place to ourselves.” He looked from one to the other. “You two don’t look like you’ll miss us.”
“No, I don’t think we will,” Ken said, standing up. Jared’s suitcase was on the ground and Ken picked it up. He walked over to put it in the back of the pickup.
Jilly followed them. “I feel that I should ask: Alix, are you all right? And by the way, I’m Jilly Leighton, a Taggert before I married.”