Since Toby didn’t know the man at all, she couldn’t imagine anything about him. As for Jilly, she was in the early stages of being in love and all she seemed able to see was Ken. And besides, Ken’s teaching job was off-island, so they’d be there a lot of the time. Toby didn’t think Jilly would be much help at all.
But she knew her friend needed this time away. Toby took a deep breath. “Of course you should go. You can’t miss an opportunity like this. Maybe things will happen that will help you decide—”
“Thank you!” Lexie said as she set her plate on the ground and hugged Toby hard. “I need to go pack. Can you handle things here?” She nodded toward the tent and the wedding.
“Sure,” Toby said as she picked up the plate and watched Lexie disappear into the darkness.
For a moment Toby stood outside the tent, holding the empty utensils and letting the warm air soak into her. This had to be the most unusual day of her life. It was as though from the moment she and her friends had walked into a bar and seen that man sitting in the back, surrounded by women, everything had started changing.
She looked inside the tent. They were dancing, eating cake, drinking, and laughing. It looked perfectly safe to return.
Rory had changed his clothes and was now wearing a tuxedo identical to the one his brother had on. After Gray went back to his little blonde, it hadn’t taken Rory long to find Roger Plymouth. He was in a corner of the big tent chatting with three pretty girls. Rory motioned for him to come outside.
When they were alone, Roger spoke first. “I thought I saw you in the back hiding behind those people. So you and your brother both are here? What’s the occasion? Some royal shindig coming up?”
“We’re related to the Kingsleys,” Rory said quickly. He didn’t have time to make small talk. “Is it true that that bridesmaid Lexie works for you?”
“Yeah,” Roger said, and shook his head. “She’s a handful. Right now she can’t stand me, but I’m working on her. Give me another couple of months and I’ll soften her up.” He gave a humorless laugh. “But I said that a year ago and I haven’t made any progress. A man can dream, can’t he?” He narrowed his eyes. “You aren’t thinking of going after her, are you?”
Rory knew he’d never get used to the American way of telling everyone everything. “No, not at all.”
“I get it,” Roger said. “You’re asking me about Lex because your brother is interested in her roommate. I saw the way he was staring at her all through the wedding. At first I thought he was you, but I know you’re not going to hang it all out for everybody to see. Your brother stared at her like he was the snake at the end of a flute.”
“I think that’s a little strong,” Rory said stiffly, wanting to protect his brother.
“Yeah, right,” Roger said. “I know he’s the one who’ll be king. I like that country of yours. Best skiing in the world and the food’s not bad either. But I think I better warn you that, from what I’ve heard, he’ll have an easier time being king than he will conquering pretty little Toby.”
“What does that mean?”
“That half the male population of this island has tried with her. The scuttlebutt is that she’s ‘saving herself for marriage.’ ”
“You’re saying that she’s …?”
“A virgin is what everybody says,” Roger said. “Whatever is true, I can tell you that a lot of people like that girl. If your brother decides to go after her just so he can put another notch on his bedpost, many people are going to be angry at him, including Jared Kingsley.”
Yesterday Rory would have said that his brother wasn’t like that, but today everything seemed to have turned upside down. “My brother wants to stay here on Nantucket for a week and he would like the young lady to spend some time with him, but I fear that her roommate will interfere. She—”
“You don’t have to tell me!” Roger said. “You wouldn’t believe the things I have to do to make Lexie stay with me. I have to hide things then pretend I’ve lost them.” He grimaced. “She thinks I’m a moron, but if I don’t do that, she says ‘Toby needs me’ and runs off.”
“So there’s no chance that you could occupy the roommate for just a week? A trip somewhere, maybe?”
“I know she wants to travel and I’ve asked her to go with me, but she just laughs. Hey! Maybe I can get my little sister to help. They like each other. When do you need this?”
“Now. Immediately,” Rory said.
“I’ll try to do it,” Roger said, then looked at Rory. “Maybe next time I visit your country I can stay in your house.”
A business deal, Rory thought. “We’ll put you up in the oldest part of the palace. It’s haunted and girls squeal when you take them there.”
Roger grimaced. “I wish that would work with Lexie but she’d probably make friends with a ghost. You should hear the Kingsley stories that float around this island!”
Rory had no idea what that meant, but he didn’t have time to find out. He had other things to do. He said thanks, they exchanged goodbyes, and they parted.
When Rory went back toward the small tent, he saw that his brother and the young woman were still in there together. The candles inside the tent and the darkness outside made a sort of movie screen in shadow and he could see them clearly. They were leaning toward each other, heads close together, and Graydon was talking with more animation than Rory had ever before seen him use around an outsider. There were very few people Gray relaxed around—and they were all blood relatives. But there he was with the girl he’d just met and moving his hands about as they talked.
But no matter how much his brother liked this girl, there was one thing that Rory knew he absolutely had to do. He must see if she actually could tell the brothers apart. Forget the family legend about people who could tell the Montgomery-Taggert twins one from the other. Rory needed to know the truth.
He’d called his assistant and minutes later he was dressed just like his brother. Quietly, he stood on the sidelines of the party, sipping champagne, while he waited for Graydon’s dinner to end—which is where Roger Plymouth found him. With a grin of triumph, Roger said his sister had come up with a way to get Lexie off the island for most of the summer, and as far as he could tell, Lex was going to agree to it. “I had to promise that I wouldn’t be there, but I predict that I might break a bone or two and have to recover around them,” Roger said, laughing. “This is my chance with Lexie, and I plan to make the most of it. Let’s hope that when I stay at your place, she’ll be with me.”