/> “Absolutely not!” Jared said. “You know what she’s like. She’ll want to take over everything.” He looked sharply at his grandfather. “Have you had a hand in this? Did you persuade Izzy to step out of her own wedding?”
“How could I have done that when I’m not allowed to leave this house?”
“What you can do is answer questions directly.”
“Can I?” Caleb asked. “I hear someone. I think your Alix is coming up the stairs.”
Jared watched, fascinated, as Caleb got out of the chair and walked across the room. When he reached the wall, he kept walking.
As his grandfather vanished, Alix appeared at the doorway. Jared opened his arms to her and she snuggled beside him on the couch.
“Is this your hiding place?” She didn’t want to tell him that Lexie had ratted on him.
“Since I was a kid.”
“Did you sleep well?” she asked.
“Not much,” he answered. “Too much on my mind. Did you get an email from Toby?”
“I looked at my phone and I had five of them, so I turned it off. I’ll read them later. You look like something’s bothering you. You still have time to change your mind.”
He kissed the top of her head. “My only worry is that you’ll wise up and run away. You sure you want to take on all the Kingsleys?”
“I guess you mean Captain Caleb.” When Jared didn’t say anything, she turned to look at him. “Has he been here?”
Jared could hear the apprehension in her voice, but he wasn’t going to lie. “Yes, he was here. I came up to talk to him. He’s going to leave the earth very soon.”
Alix didn’t know what to reply to that. She’d never heard of anyone saddened because a ghost was leaving. Weren’t people always trying to get rid of them? “Why is he going?” she asked.
“I don’t understand it. People reincarnated from the past have gathered, so Granddad’s leaving.”
“It has to do with my mother, doesn’t it? She was Valentina.”
Jared nodded, afraid to say more.
“Maybe now that he finally gets to see her again he can leave.”
“He’s been seeing your mother off and on for the past twenty-two years. So why now?”
“Is there someone different here now?”
“Actually, there is. Jilly.”
“Parthenia!” Alix said and turned around to look at him. “Maybe it’s not just one person who mattered, but all of them. And think how it happened, from designing the chapel to Izzy’s relatives fighting, even to finding Valentina’s journal. Maybe now that all of us have gathered together, he can leave. We’re a sort of séance of spirits from the past.”
“I like that idea very much,” he said, thinking that if she was right, it meant that Victoria was in no danger. He kissed Alix firmly. “Thanks. You’ve made me feel better. But then you always do.” He glanced out the window to see the growing daylight. Victoria would be up soon. “I was thinking that we should turn Valentina’s journal over to your mother now, before the wedding. It might keep her occupied enough that you and I can do all the things Toby has planned.”
“Good idea. Izzy’s guests will start arriving day after tomorrow and we have to meet planes and ferries, then we have to get them settled. How angry do you think they’re going to be when we tell them that Izzy isn’t here?”
He caressed her cheek. “Do you care?”
“No,” she said. “Because of the way they’ve treated Izzy, I don’t. I do feel bad about not letting Mom know, but she’d—”
“Put you in a dress with a train so long that you’d have to attach a caboose?”
Laughing, Alix put her arms around his neck. “I love you.”
“Nice to finally hear it,” he said. “I thought maybe you said yes just to get near Montgomery.”