“You’ll fit right in with them since you talk about Captain Caleb as though you saw him yesterday.”
Jared was a bit taken aback by that, but he smiled. “I miss you,” he said. “Are you getting along all right?”
“Well enough.” She was pleased with the sweet tone in his voice. “Dad doesn’t want me to see the progress on the chapel, Izzy can’t seem to stay awake long enough to make a decision, and this house is big and empty with only the Captain and me here. Other than that, I’m great.”
Jared drew in his breath. “Have you been talking to him?”
“Yes. Lots, but, alas, he never answers back.”
“Not even any cheek kisses?”
“None,” Alix said. “So what do I do to get the legendary Kingsley ghost to talk to me?”
“Now that I think about it, it might be good for you to move in with Toby and Lex until I get back.”
“Is that jealousy I hear?”
“You’re wanting to talk to a ghost and I’m jealous?”
“Yet another question evaded.”
Jared laughed. “Yeah, okay, so I’m more than a little envious that he’s with you and I’m not. What are you wearing?”
With a look at her sweatpants and old T-shirt, Alix lied completely. It was a few days later that Jared called and talked to her about Jilly Taggert. She was the family historian who’d flown to Maine especially to see Jared. “Is it all right if she returns home with me?”
Alix replied instantly. “How old is she and what does she look like?”
“She’s pretty in a quiet, Sunday-picnic way, intelligent, and she’s in her forties, I guess. She said she’s always wanted to see Nantucket, so I thought …”
“That the island is so beautiful that she needs to see it,” she finished for him.
“Exactly!” He paused for a moment. “Alix, would you think I’m crazy if I told you that something about her reminds me of your father?”
Was Jared matchmaking? she wondered. If he was, then Alix was pleased. Her father deserved to find someone. “I take it Jilly isn’t like my mom?”
Jared gave a guffaw of laughter. “Jilly is the complete opposite of your mother. She never demands attention and she’s very thoughtful of others.”
“It does sound like my dad will like her, so yes! Bring her back with you. Are you going to drive or fly back?”
“Drive.” He gave her the date of his reservations on the slow boat. “I should see you in the early afternoon,” he said and his voice lowered. “So have you written any more poems?”
“No, but I’ve a good idea for one.”
“Tell me,” he said softly.
Chapter Twenty
It was early Sunday morning and Alix was in bed listening to the rain. It seemed that today everyone she knew on the island was away or busy. Toby was doing the flowers for an afternoon wedding, and Dilys and Lexie were off-island shopping. Her dad was at the job site at six A.M., seven days a week, and Alix knew he didn’t want her hanging around there.
Alix had work to do on the sketches for the guesthouse for the man from the Daffodil Festival, but she didn’t want to do that. At long last, this morning she awoke with an overwhelming, impossible-to-deny urge to go to the attic and see what she could find. In spite of Jared’s offer of help, Alix knew that the time had arrived to begin searching through the papers about Valentina.
Getting up, she opened the bedroom curtain and saw the rain coming down in a steady stream. It was dull outside, colored by a mix of rain and fog. “The Gray Lady” was a nickname for the island and she saw why.
Alix dressed quickly—no need for careful attention to her hair and face if Jared wasn’t there. She hurriedly ate a bowl of cereal, then started up the stairs to the attic. A couple of days ago she’d asked Lexie what she knew about the attic and its contents.
“That pl
ace is a mess,” Lexie said. “Although Jared likes it. He goes up there and hangs out for hours.”