The House on Blackberry Hill (Jewell Cove 1)

Marriage. Love. Children. It seemed so incredibly impossible but incredibly right. She laughed a little, even as tears gathered in her eyes and she waggled her fingers at him. “Yes. Yes, I’ll marry you.”

He let out such a huge breath that she suddenly realized how nervous he’d been. As he slipped the ring over her knuckle, she said, “Did you really think I’d say no?”

“I hoped you wouldn’t,” he admitted. “But I was scared to death you might.”

She stood on tiptoe and wrapped her arms around him. “I love you. And together we’re going to bring happiness back to this house.”

She wiggled her finger, admiring the diamond setting. “Where did you ever get this? It’s really beautiful. It must be a hundred years old!”

“Closer to a hundred and fifty,” he said. “Remember the story about the pirate in our family?”

She nodded.

“The story goes that this ring was part of his treasure during the Civil War, and that he gave it to an abolitionist woman he fell in love with on his travels.” He grinned. “Apparently she reformed him from his wicked ways and he gave up privateering to become part of the Underground Railroad. All I absolutely know is that my great-grandfather gave it to my grandfather, who gave it to me. And now I’m giving it to you. Maybe I’m no pirate, but I feel like you saved me anyway.”

She looked up at him, wondering how on earth she ever got so lucky as to have him put his foot through her veranda.

EPILOGUE

Abby reluctantly gave one last turn in front of the mirror, admiring the ivory silk of the dress. It was time to take it off. The waist and bust needed alterations to fit properly but she was in no doubt. This dress, the one she’d first found in the trunk in the attic, was her wedding dress. And in three short months she’d walk down the aisle of the church and say I do to Tom. It seemed like an eternity away—and yet too short a time to plan everything that needed to be done.

After the wedding they would start their life together here and begin filling the house with the love and laughter it finally deserved. It was time to break the pattern of sadness and tragedy and make the lofty house on Blackberry Hill into a home.

She was admiring the dress spread over her duvet while buttoning up her jeans when she heard a car coming up the drive. A quick check at the window told her it was Ian Martin, her lawyer. She frowned. All the business with the house was supposed to be over and done with. She hoped there wasn’t any further problem.

Ian tapped the new brass knocker on the door as she was going down the stairs. She opened the door with a polite smile. “Ian. Did we have an appointment I forgot?”

He smiled. “Not at all. Just one last piece of business from your aunt’s estate.”

Curiosity mixed with anxiety. She stood back and opened the door all the way. “Come in. Coffee?”

He bent and picked up a banker’s box from the spot by his feet. “I can’t stay. I have an appointment in an hour. But thanks.”

She led the way to the kitchen where they’d have the biggest workspace. “What’s in the box?”

“Something your aunt gave me for safekeeping, with firm instructions as to when to give it to you.”

“How long have you had … whatever is in that box?”

“About eight years.”

Ian Martin was barely forty. He would have been a young lawyer in a new town when Marian hired him to look after her will and estate.

He took out a thick envelope first. “This is a letter from Marian. She asked me to deliver it to you, along with this box, once you had decided to stay permanently in Jewell Cove.”

“But how could she have known…”

“She didn’t. If you sold and left town, I was to burn it in the town incinerator and all her secrets with it.”

Abby sat down heavily and took the envelope from his hands. Just when she thought she had all the answers … Aunt Marian found a way to surprise her again.

The front door slammed again. “Abs? Honey, you in here?”

“In the kitchen,” she called out. She was still getting used to the easy, affectionate way they moved within each other’s lives. And wondered if the tingly, fluttery feeling would ever go away years from now when he was nearby or said her name. She hoped not.

Tom came through, looking delicious as always, this time wearing cargo shorts and a pair of flip-flops. “Hey, Ian,” he greeted, but went right to Abby and dropped a warm kiss on her lips. “What’s going on?” he asked.

“Just when we thought we had all the answers,” she replied. “Marian is full of surprises.”