True Love (Nantucket Brides 1)

Caleb smiled. “You are right. Parthenia is Jilly. Does this mean I have taught you something?”

“Don’t get your hopes up,” Jared said, grinning. His grandfather may look different but he was certainly the same man.

Caleb chuckled. “Parthenia was John Kendricks’s second wife, and she was a very good mother. But in between, young Alisa loved Valentina, just as she does now. When she heard that Valentina was missing, she stole the journal and hid it where only Valentina would look for it.”

“Why didn’t she tell people what was written in the back of the journal?” Jared asked.

“My guess is that she didn’t have time to read it. The old place burned down—probably set fire to by Obed—just days after Valentina disappeared. Besides, Ali was just a child. Maybe she forgot. Forgot for a couple of hundred years, that is.”

“If you knew where the journal was, why didn’t you have someone dig it up a hundred years ago?”

“I didn’t know there even was a journal until your Alix came here in this life when she was four. Sometimes young children remember things from before they were born, but they forget them when they’re an adult. Alix and I were playing checkers and she told me that she had a very big secret. When I encouraged her to tell it, she said that she’d sneaked into the bad man’s house, found her mother’s favorite book, and put it in the oven. Of course I thought she was talking about Victoria, and it wasn’t until years later that I figured out what she meant. Mother in this life; friend long ago.”

Caleb smiled in memory. “But even though I knew where the journal was, it wasn’t the right time to dig it up. Ken had to get over his anger, and Parthenia had to come home to us. Everyone had to be in place, starting with your young Alix, but she had no reason at all to return to Nantucket for any length of time. Addy had always felt bad for not searching more for Valentina, so she and I concocted the will that made you so angry.”

Jared smiled. “Sometimes we don’t know what’s good for us.”

“In your case, that happens often.”

Jared groaned. “I can see that having a human body hasn’t softened you.”

It was Caleb’s turn to groan. “I had forgotten what human pain feels like. This body creaks and aches. And Victoria’s demands …” He gave a little grin.

“Speaking of which, does Victoria know the truth about you?” Jared asked. For all of his grandfather’s complaints, Dr. Huntley’s body was looking a great deal healthier than it had a few weeks ago.

“She pretends to know nothing, but she’s always been one to keep secrets to herself.”

“Like how she knew about the wedding?” Jared’s head came up. “Did you know she knew about that? Or did you tell her?”

“I may have helped, but it wasn’t difficult to guess what she was up to.”

“I certainly didn’t see it!”

“You weren’t meant to, but that doesn’t make you less of a man. Valentina has often put me in places I didn’t want to be.” He smiled. “Now it’s time for you to go to your wife. And need I tell you that I want grandbabies right away?”

“I’ll give it my best effort,” Jared said as he got up to leave. He started to say more, but didn’t. He wanted to know how his grandfather was doing at his job, and more about how he was adjusting to being alive again. He had thousands of questions and he planned to get to them all, but not now. “I’m glad you came home,” Jared said.

“So am I,” Caleb answered.

Jared paused at the door. “Tell me, now that you have Valentina back, was she worth a wait of two hundred and two years?”

Caleb smiled. “You waited thirty-six years for Alix. How much longer would you have gone?”

He didn’t hesitate. “Forever.”

“Yes,” Caleb said. “You will wait for True Love forever.”

TO SEA FOREVER