Ever After (Nantucket Brides 3)

“I don’t understand something,” he said as he raised his mask. “If your dad was gone most of the time and you just said that a lot of his work was in Florida, when your grandparents left, why didn’t you go with them? Why did you stay with your stepmother, who you hardly even knew?”

“I wanted to go with them and my grandparents begged Dad to let me go, but Ruby said Shelly needed her big sister. Dad was still crazy about Ruby then, so he agreed and said I couldn’t leave.” She gave a little laugh. “Sometimes I felt like I was being used for body parts. My function in life became to ‘help Shelly.’ Helping my stepsister took precedence over school-work, my social life, et cetera.” When she looked at him, she saw the concern on his face. “Feel sorry for me now?”

“I don’t believe in pity,” he said. “I don’t take it and I don’t give it out.”

“Good philosophy,” she said. “Sometimes you just have to accept what is and live with it.”

“I agree completely,” he said and they smiled at each other.

Chapter Eight

At six o’clock Hallie had an unpleasant run-in with one of the many spiders in the room and Jamie gallantly saved her life—or at least that’s the way he described it. When he said he had earned a hero cape, she laughed.

They were both dirty and tired, but a half day’s work had made a big dent in cleaning the place. When they went through the pantry to the sparkling clean, well-lit kitchen and looked at the dirt on each other, they laughed.

“We should go upstairs, take showers, put on clean clothes, then come back down here and have a civilized dinner,” Hallie said.

“What are you? A Montgomery?” Jamie said as he went to the kitchen sink, pushed up his sleeves, and began to lather his hands and face.

“You’re going to have to explain to me about your relatives so I can understand these comments.” Hallie went to the other side of the big sink and took the soap from him. For all that she wanted some part of her to be clean, her job was always in her mind. She hadn’t seen his bare forearms before and she couldn’t help sneaking glances at them. There was a long scar running up his left arm and three small ones crossing his right wrist.

When he saw her looking, he turned away and grabbed a towel.

“Montgomerys,” he said, as though the little incident hadn’t happened, “were born with a salad fork in their hands.” He pulled a container of chicken out of the fridge. “At home they use real napkins that somebody has washed and even ironed.”

“They sound like monsters,” Hallie said without a smile.

“They’re too delicate for that. Mom said the two families are Beauty and the Beast. Guess who is who?”

Jamie’s hands and face were clean, but his hair and neck were coated with sweat-drenched dirt, and his heavy clothing was filthy.

“I don’t know,” she said as she frowned in decision, “you’re kind of pretty.”

Laughing, Jamie bent over and kissed her neck. “You’re—” He stopped because he was sputtering. “I think I got a mouthful of cobwebs.”

“That’ll teach you,” she said as she ran a towel over her neck. “Are you going to share some of that chicken?”

After they ate, Todd called and as always, Jamie sought privacy to talk to him. But as he walked away, Hallie heard him say that he’d driven a car. “Yeah, Hallie did it,” Jamie added.

Smiling and feeling like all her late nights of studying were paying off, she cleaned up the kitchen.

Later, after a long, hot shower, Hallie turned in early and, as was becoming her habit, she awoke at two A.M. For a moment she thought Jamie was going to forgo his nightly terrors, but at the first groan, she was by his side. She was beginning to develop a routine for calming him. Telling him he was safe and saying her name and Todd’s helped. But most of all, sleeping kisses settled him.

Within minutes he’d calmed down, turned on his side, and began to sleep peacefully.

She started back to her own room, but instead she paused to stroke his clean hair. “Tell me what happened to you,” she said softly. “Tell me what you went through that did this to you.” But there was only silence from him, and she went back to bed.

When she awoke the next morning Jamie was already at work. She dressed and went to the kitchen, where a beautiful breakfast of cheese, pastries, and hard-boiled eggs was on the table. It looked like Edith had been there early.

She opened the door into the pantry, but that was a mistake. Dust filled the air. Coughing, she waved her hand about. “How long have you been at this?” she asked Jamie, who had his arms full of animal-shaped pewter molds.

“I started before daylight,” he said. “About four, I guess.”

She was about to express astonishment but saw the twinkle in his eyes. “Got here ten minutes ago, did you?” she said, laughing.

“More like eight. Did you eat?”

“Just starting. Come on, the tea is hot.”