For All Time (Nantucket Brides 2)

“No one!” Caleb said and there was anger in his voice. “Tabby’s mother sold her daughter. Lavinia Weber owed that little pencil pusher money and the ugly little bastard promised to forgive the debt and to support all those sea widows—but only if pretty little Tabitha would marry him. So she did. Her mother snatched her from Garrett’s arms and wed her to Osborne that very night. Parthenia’s wedding celebration went from happiness to tears. If the captain had been there he would have stopped it, but he was locked away in an attic and brooding. Stupid man!”

Dr. Huntley’s vehemence and anger were so strong that for a moment they were all silent.

“Was her husband good to Tabitha?” Toby whispered.

“No,” Caleb said, his voice calmer. “Osborne put a new roof on the house, but after that, he would do nothing else. He told Lavinia that Tabby didn’t like him, so the bargain was off. Lavinia’s screams of outrage were heard all the way to ’Sconset. She said that nobody liked him so it didn’t count that Tabby didn’t. But her words didn’t matter because Osborne never gave that family another cent.”

“What did Tabby do?” Toby said.

“Earne

d her keep and supported all of them. She ran Osborne’s store and she never received a word of praise or thanks for all she did. She died when she was in her early thirties, with no children. Everyone said she willed herself to death because she never got over her love for Garrett.”

“And what happened to him?” Graydon asked.

Dr. Huntley took a long breath before he answered. “Three years later Garrett went down with his brother Caleb, on the ship the captain had stubbornly led into a storm. He was trying to get home to Valentina.” Reaching out, he took Victoria’s hand in his.

Again, everyone was silent.

“How did we get on this depressing story?” Victoria asked. “It was all so very long ago. What I want to know about are Toby’s dreams. Anything I can use for a book plot?”

Victoria’s words broke the misery that had descended on the group. As Graydon got up and opened another bottle of port, Toby began to tell them about her dreams. While she talked, Caleb kept nodding his head. When Toby said she’d sent Valentina to the attic, he said, “So you were the culprit! Go on. I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

When Toby said Ken and Jilly looked exactly like John Kendricks and Parthenia, they smiled at each other. “I knew we were meant to be together,” Ken said.

“Ha!” Victoria said. “If it hadn’t been for me, you would never have come together.” She looked at Toby. “What I want to know is if this was real. Did you actually visit that time?”

“Of course I didn’t,” Toby said. “I dreamed it all. I’ve spent every summer of my life on Nantucket so I probably read a journal of Tabitha or Parthenia, or someone. And I remembered it in my sleep.”

They all looked at Dr. Huntley in question. As the director of the island’s historical society, he would know about that. “It’s true that there are snippets of the story in some of the letters and journals we have.”

“See?” Toby said. “I’m sure that’s how Dr. Huntley knows what happened. Right?”

He didn’t answer her question. “Did you change anything while you were in any of your dreams?”

“No, nothing,” Toby said, but then her head came up. “Actually, I did. I lost a key to a box. It’s still in Kingsley House, keyless, but when I saw the box, it contained—”

“Jade zodiac symbols,” Dr. Huntley said. “Captain Caleb bought them in China as a gift for the woman he loved. The key was lost at Parthenia’s wedding, and the captain always thought one of those Starbuck brats stole it.”

“How could you possibly know that?” Ken asked.

“Didn’t I tell you that my Caleb knows everything about this island?” Victoria said, her voice full of pride.

“In my dream,” Toby emphasized, “I dropped the key behind an unfinished window seat in Kingsley House.”

“Shall we go look for it?” Caleb said as though it were the most ordinary thing in the world. No one hesitated in leaving.

It took them only minutes to reach Kingsley House, but when they got there, Caleb refused to enter.

“I’ll wait out here for you,” he said as he stood on the little front porch.

“But, darling,” Victoria began, but even she could see that he wasn’t going to budge.

Jilly put her hand on Caleb’s arm, her face sympathetic. “If it’s ghosts you’re worried about, I have a bit of intuition about them. I’ll warn you if—”

“Intuition?” Caleb said. “You can see them. Poor creatures have to hide from you. Ghosts hold no fear for me. It’s just that I’ve seen enough of that house. Go and look for your key, then come back out here to me.”

Everyone, even Victoria, gave up arguing and went inside. Ken flipped the light switches on as they went to the back parlor and Toby pointed out the cushioned window seat.