When he got to his land on the North Shore, he parked and turned off the truck. “Want to see the site again? If you can stop bawling me out, that is.”
“You can’t blame me for feeling left out, can you? I missed out on an entire life.”
Leaning across the seat, he said, “From my point of view, whatever it was that made you what you are was done right.” After a quick kiss, he got out of the truck.
All Alix could do was smile.
They spent a couple of hours at the site. In the toolbox in the back of the pickup Jared had construction flags, stakes and string, and a two-hundred-foot tape. With no need for discussions, he and Alix got right to it, both wanting to see the outline of the chapel laid out on the ground.
As though they’d been working together for years—which, thanks to Ken, in a way they had—they temporarily staked and strung the foundation, then stepped back into the shade and looked at it.
“Can you envision it?” He’d pulled a couple of bottles of cold water from the cooler and handed one to her.
“I can.” Her voice changed. “I want to tell you that this is very generous of—”
“Don’t say it!” he said.
She knew he didn’t want to hear her gratitude yet again. “All right. Just so you know.” She looked around. “Did Valentina live here or in town?”
“Both. After Caleb built the new house, he gave the old one to his cousin Obed.”
“Gave it to him?”
“For one dollar. It’s still a common practice on Nantucket. Check the local newspaper, the Inky, for property transfers and you’ll see it being done nearly every day. Nantucketers often inherit their houses.” He made a scoffing noise. “Otherwise, we couldn’t afford to live on our own island.”
Alix thought of the rather ordinary twenty-million-dollar house she’d seen. What he said certainly made sense. “So Caleb went away on a ship, leaving the love of his life behind carrying their child. But she married his cousin—probably because she had to—and at first Valentina and Obed lived here in the original house.”
“That’s right,” he said. “After Caleb’s death, when his brother returned with the will, Obed and Valentina moved into the big house on Kingsley Lane.”
“With Caleb’s son, the first Jared,” Alix said. “Then Valentina disappeared and this house burned to the ground.” She thought for a moment. “Do you think there’s any connection between her disappearance and the fire?”
They were both looking at the depression in the earth that was in the center of where the chapel would be. When he didn’t answer right away, she looked at him.
“I think,” he said slowly, “that there is a strong connection between the two events.”
He was saying that he thought Valentina had died in the fire, but she didn’t want to believe something so terrible could have happened to the young woman Captain Caleb had loved so much.
They looked at each other, and understanding passed between them. There was more to this building than giving Izzy a place to get married. It had to do with Jared’s family. And righting a wrong, she thought.
“I do have a question,” she said. “Who is Parthenia and where did you hear of her?”
“What time is my flight?”
Alix groaned. “And I thought you had no more secrets.”
&
nbsp; Smiling, he lifted her off the ground and swung her around. “I wouldn’t be very interesting if I had no secrets, now, would I? Come on, let’s go into town. I have to buy ten pounds of chocolate-covered cranberries to take with me.”
“You can’t get them in New York?”
“Only if I want low quality and tasteless,” he said as they started back to the truck. “The ones I buy are made with Nantucket cranberries. Besides, they’re not for anybody in New York. Stanley got the truck I keep off-island and I’m driving to Vermont to see the lovely Sylvia. They’re for her.”
On their way back to town, he teased her about Sylvia—who turned out to be the blacksmith he’d mentioned before. She was married to a farrier and they had two little girls. Jared said that if he was going to coax Sylvia into doing the big hinges for the chapel for them right away, rather than six months from now, he needed to show up bearing gifts. They parked at the house, walked back to town, got the cranberries at Sweet Inspirations, then crossed the street to Bookworks. They bought four children’s books set on Nantucket, and the latest edge-of-your-seat nonfiction book by Nat Philbrick—who lived close by. By lunchtime all the shopping had left Alix exhilarated, but Jared was exhausted. They went to Languedoc for lunch.
After they ate, they walked back to the house and carried their purchases upstairs. On the bed was Jared’s half-packed suitcase. He had an apartment in New York so he didn’t take much, but he needed to pack the gifts.
“Is that all of it?” Alix asked as she closed the case.