Caleb tried to calm himself. “I told you that it’s not up to me. All I know for sure is that the same people who were involved when I was last on this earth are assembling again. And I know that on the twenty-third of June I will depart this place. Where I go I don’t know.” Caleb’s body seemed to be fading. “I must leave you now. I am tired.”
“Since when do you get tired?” Jared shot at him.
“The closer I get to the time, the stronger and the weaker I get.”
“That makes no sense.”
“None of this half life of mine makes sense.” He looked at his grandson with eyes that showed his misery. “Please believe me when I tell you that I don’t know what is going to happen. If it is at all possible, I will leave alone and I will not take Valentina with me.”
“She is Victoria, she lives in this century, and she has people here—on earth—who love her very much.” Jared was too upset to think clearly and his grandfather was fading quickly. “Can Victoria see you?”
For a moment he was brighter, less transparent. “If I allowed it, she could. But I’ve never wanted her to love half a man.” He began to grow dimmer. “Don’t let Alix get away. Don’t be the fool that I was. If I’d stayed with Valentina none of this would have happened, but I wanted one more voyage. I thought I needed to be richer than I already was.” There were tears in his voice and his eyes. “Learn from me. And talk to Parthenia. Her spirit has always been able to see inside you.”
He was gone.
Jared flopped down on the couch, feeling like he was single-handedly trying to stop a freight train.
It was only minutes later that he knew he had to get out of the house. As he needed to breathe, he had to leave. The thoughts were so strong that he was sure his grandfather was controlling them. “Stop it!” he growled, and immediately the overwhelming feelings stopped.
He stood up, calming himself, and more fully comprehending what Alix had been through. With these new powers his grandfather had, it was believable that he could show Alix visions of the past.
Jared looked around the attic, at the familiar sight of too much left over by his family, then went down the stairs and out the back door. He thought of returning to Alix, but he had an idea that she was happily buried in the plans for the Montgomery house. How he wished he could join her! But the thought that Victoria might die soon was too strongly in his mind for him to relax, and he didn’t want Alix to pick up on his fear.
He walked down the lane toward Main Street. Maybe Lexie or Toby was home. Alix’s questions had made him wonder who else in his family could see Caleb. Jared had grown up being told all the rules about his grandfather, but this morning he was questioning them. Maybe if the women had told the men and vice versa, they could have done something long ago. An exorcism?
While Jared couldn’t imagine having grown up without his grandfather—especially after his father died and before Ken arrived—at the moment he wished someone had long ago sent the man away.
Jared went to Lexie’s house, opened the back door, and called out, but no one answered. They were at work. He turned to leave, but then heard a noise in the back. Maybe one of them was in the greenhouse.
It was Jilly. She’d just dropped a huge flowerpot, it had smashed, and she was trying to pick up the pieces.
“Let me do that,” Jared said as he bent and began gathering the pot shards.
Jilly stood up. “I was trying to help but I did this. I should probably quit, but the girls are so busy and I needed something to do.”
Jared looked about the greenhouse. He wasn’t a gardener but even he could see that the place needed a good cleaning. “How about if I do the heavy lifting and we work together?”
“You must have other things to do,” she said. “I’m sure Alix needs you.”
“She’s working on a remodel plan for that big old house in Warbrooke, and besides, she’s glad to be rid of me.”
Jilly looked hard at him for a moment and deep into his eyes. Something was bothering him. “How about if we start at this end?”
; “Perfect,” he answered.
Cleaning the big greenhouse was hard, physical labor. Everything had to be moved, weeds pulled from under the benches, gravel raked. Two of the tables needed repair since they were always wet. Plants needed repotting, which meant dealing with big bags of compost, peat moss, and vermiculite.
Jared needed the labor, so he carried fifty-pound bags, sawed new cedar boards, and hammered them into place. He picked up heavy pots of shrubs and took them outside so Jilly could prune them, then carried them back inside. When the back of his hand was torn by rose thorns, he didn’t seem to notice.
It was late afternoon before Jilly could persuade him to stop work and eat something. Besides, there wasn’t anything left to do. She suggested they walk back to Kingsley House but Jared said no. The truth was that he didn’t even want to go to the guesthouse, so they went inside Lexie’s. Jilly looked at him, dirty, sweaty, and with eyes that seemed to be haunted, and said, “Why don’t you take a shower while I make us some sandwiches?”
“That sounds good,” he said. “Lexie stole a pair of my sweatpants and she has a dozen of my T-shirts.”
“I’ll find them,” Jilly said. “You go get clean.”
By the time she had sandwiches made and the clothes he’d tossed out the bathroom door in the washer, Jared appeared at the table. He looked a bit less worried than when she first saw him, but whatever was upsetting him was still there.