Jared turned around so Alix could get an upside-down view of her. “It’s nice to meet you, and I’m fine. Jared is just jealous because I spent yesterday morning dancing with one of his relatives.”
Ken smiled. “And which relative was that? Wes?”
“Caleb,” Alix and Jared said in unison.
“Oh” was all Ken could reply, then he lowered his voice and looked at Jared. “Please, take my daughter away, and keep her away for as long as you want. As long as you can.”
“Betrayed!” Alix said. “I am betrayed by my own blood.” Her tone said that she was quite pleased by it all.
Jared set Alix in the truck, shut the door, then got in the driver’s seat.
“Call me,” Ken said through the window.
“You can be sure that I will,” Jared said, his eyes betraying his anger at his grandfather. He backed onto the lane.
When Ken and Jilly were alone again, she said, “Jared told me about a lot of people, but I don’t believe he ever mentioned a Caleb. Is there a problem with this man?”
Ken ushered her back to the table. When they were seated, he said, “I guess that all depends on how you look at it. You see …” He looked at her. He’d met her less than an hour ago but he liked her. The look of her, the way she moved, the sound of her voice appealed to him. But he feared that if he told her the truth, it was quite possible that she’d run away. But sometimes, he thought, you needed to risk something to gain everything. “Caleb …” he said slowly.
“Yes?”
“Caleb died about two hundred years ago.”
“Oh, my,” Jilly said as she picked up a chocolate-covered doughnut. “Now you must tell me all of it. From the beginning.”
Ken couldn’t help smiling at her. A woman who didn’t freak at the mere mention of a ghost! Where had she been all his life? “More tea?” he asked, smiling even broader.
“Yes, please, but I think we’re going to need a second pot because I want to hear every detail.”
“I think you’re right. You see, it all started when I found my wife, Alix’s mother, in bed with my business partner.”
“How awful for you.”
“Worse than I can describe.”
“I imagine that it was,” Jilly said, thinking of her own unfortunate marital experience, but she didn’t mention that. This was Ken’s time for telling.
He looked into her eyes. There had been other women in the many years since Victoria, and twice he’d been close to marriage. But at the last moment he’d chickened out. Never, not with anyone, had he come close to telling the truth about Victoria, or even about his time on Nantucket. And he’d never told of his connection to the famous architect Jared Montgomery. Most of all, he’d never told about a ghost who haunted the old Kingsley House, a ghost his daughter had seen clearly when she was a child—and seemed to have danced with on a rainy day.
Pretty Jilly was looking at him patiently. It was as though she had all the time in the world and the only thing she wanted to do was hear his story.
And Ken realized that all he wanted to do was tell her.
In the upstairs window, Caleb smiled down at them. “Welcome home, Parthenia,” he whispered.
Chapter Twenty-two
Jared was doing his best to remain calm—and to protect Alix. He could see that she had no idea that she’d been dancing with a ghost, and he didn’t want her to ever know. If she did find out, he didn’t think she would go into hysterics, but who could be sure? He just had to make it until Izzy’s wedding, then Caleb would leave and … He didn’t want to think about that.
What was really bothering Jared was that his grandfather seemed to have so much more power than he used to have. Rules and facts about Caleb had been passed down through the Jareds for centuries. “Don’t tell the women you can see him.” “Don’t mention him to outsiders.” “He can’t leave the house.” “He can stand in front of people but they can’t see him.” On and on, never ending.
But never, ever had anyone hinted that Caleb could dance with someone. Touch them. An odd hand on a shoulder, a cheek kiss, yes, but not actual full-body contact.
And what about his apparent ability to provide Alix with glimpses of the past? He’d never experienced anything of the sort with his grandfather, nor had his father told him of such a thing.
Beside him, Alix was talking about what she’d seen. “Of course it was all my imagination. Probably from having seen too many movies, but I completely envisioned what he was telling me about. Such an amazing storyteller! It was as though I could see and hear it all. Like I was there. Or hovering over it and looking down at it, anyway. And the people he spoke of I imagined looking like people I know. My dad was there and—”
“Is everything in place for Izzy’s wedding?” Jared asked. “How’s she doing? Is she feeling better?”