Ever After (16 page)

In the store, Hallie concentrated on what she needed to get the cleaning done, and did her best to ignore Jamie's nervousness.

Before they left, she'd made a list. When she was ready to go, she fully expected Jamie to chicken out. In fact, he seemed to be sweating at the prospect of going. But she said, “Don't let me forget to call Braden's mother and get her recipe for oatmeal raisin cookies. They're his favorite.”

That comment seemed to strengthen Jamie's resolve so much that he went with her across Kingsley Lane to Jared's big house. He waited outside while she got the car keys, then they walked down the lane to a small house to get the car. On the drive, he grasped the armrest at the two roundabouts, but he did well.

By the time they got to the store, Hallie was thinking, James Michael Taggert, what in the world
happened
to you?!

The cleaning supplies were in a far corner and as soon as they were away from other people and the open space, Jamie calmed considerably and they filled the big cart to the brim. On the way to the register, they bought a vacuum cleaner and many dust bags for it.

When Jamie insisted on paying for it all, Hallie protested. “Let me win
something
over Braden the Magnificent,” he mumbled as he handed over his credit card.

By the time they left, Hallie was dizzy with hunger and she pulled into the parking lot of a restaurant called Downyflake. Jamie almost refused to go in, and when he did, he wouldn't sit at a table near a window. He took one in a closed corner.

They had thick tuna melt sandwiches and Jamie ordered a dozen doughnuts to go. On the way to the car, he offered her one. “Braden doesn't like fat women,” Hallie said.

“You're not fat,” Jamie said, “and any man who doesn't like the look of you doesn't like
women
.”

“You're sweet.” She was smiling, but then said, “Oh, no! How do I get out of here?” Two pickup trucks were on either side of the borrowed car, both parked at an angle. There was little space on the driver's side for her to get in the door. “We'll have to wait for one of them to move.”

“Give me the keys,” Jamie said as he handed her his crutches. He hopped his way between the car and a pickup, opened the door as wide as possible, and managed to wedge his big body inside.

Hallie stepped back as he deftly maneuvered the car out. She tossed his crutches in the back, then got in the passenger seat. “Do you remember the way home?”

“I do,” he said, but when he reached the road, he turned right instead of left.

“Where are you going?”

“Actually, it feels good to drive. Do you mind?”

“Not at all,” she said and leaned back in the seat. There was a map of Nantucket in the glove box so she was able to tell him where to turn as they spent the morning exploring the island. Jamie had to drive using his left leg, but he did it with ease.

On the way back, they stopped at Bartlett's Farm to load up
on groceries. Jamie didn't want to go in, but when Hallie said she couldn't remember Braden's favorite cheese, he went with her.

“You're doing this on purpose, aren't you?” he said.

“Oh, yeah. Next time we're going there.” She nodded to the huge nursery full of plants.

“Let me guess, Braden loves flowers. Do they have any to match his superhero cape?”

“I was thinking more of matching his eyes.” She laughed at Jamie's grimace. She'd never had a jealous boyfriend before and she was enjoying it. Not that Jamie was her boyfriend, of course, but whatever he was, she was liking this teasing.

When they got back to the house, the kitchen table was covered with one of Edith's glorious teas, this one all sweets. On the bottom plate of the tiered stack were little coconut tarts with tiny wild strawberries on top and three-inch apple pies with cheese oozing from the crust. On the top were squares of gingerbread with bits of apples and grapes sticking out.

“I bet she heard how her daughter-in-law has been bothering us and this is her apology,” Hallie said.

“Whatever the reason, I love the woman. I'm starving. Try this.” He held out a mini cupcake with bits of red, ripe cherries on top.

Hallie turned away. “I think I'll just have a salad.”

Jamie groaned. “Not the caped crusader again! Did you know that you've lost weight since you got here?”

“That's ridiculous. Edith's pastries are nothing but calories.”

“So what's this?” He stuck his finger into the waistband of her jeans and pinched a couple of inches of empty space.

The truth was that her clothes were a bit loose on her. She'd thought she wasn't drinking enough water, but maybe that wasn't it.

“Look, Hartley,” Jamie said, “between two workouts a day and all the energy you expend digging into me, you're using
more calories than you take in. And when you consider the work we're going to do this afternoon—”

“I'm sold,” Hallie said as she took the chocolate cupcake and ate it in one bite. “Divine.” She sat down and began to pour the tea.

As always, they ate it all. After they washed the dishes, they made a little drama of beginning the project and went outside to the double doors that led into the old tea room.

“Maybe your ghosts cleaned it up during the night,” Jamie said, but it was exactly as they'd left it. In fact, the light was brighter so the place looked worse. Cobwebs, grime as thick as shoe leather, the air gloomy with floating dust.

“Okay,” Hallie said, “I think we should take everything washable outside and start hosing it down. What's left inside, we'll vacuum, then hand dust.”

“Good plan,” Jamie said and after they'd hauled the supplies from the car, they began. They put on white cup masks and opened all the windows and doors. Hallie began taking load after load of dishes into the kitchen to wash them, while Jamie tackled the pantry.

At first they worked in silence, but gradually they began to talk. Jamie asked her a lot of questions about her life. As she had earlier, she talked only about before her father married Ruby.

“I don't understand something,” he said as he raised his mask. “If your dad was gone most of the time and you just said that a lot of his work was in Florida, when your grandparents left, why didn't you go with them? Why did you stay with your stepmother, who you hardly even knew?”

“I wanted to go with them and my grandparents begged Dad to let me go, but Ruby said Shelly needed her big sister. Dad was still crazy about Ruby then, so he agreed and said I couldn't leave.” She gave a little laugh. “Sometimes I felt like I was being used for body parts. My function in life became to
‘help Shelly.' Helping my stepsister took precedence over school-work, my social life, et cetera.” When she looked at him, she saw the concern on his face. “Feel sorry for me now?”

“I don't believe in pity,” he said. “I don't take it and I don't give it out.”

“Good philosophy,” she said. “Sometimes you just have to accept what is and live with it.”

“I agree completely,” he said and they smiled at each other.

A
t six o'clock Hallie had an unpleasant run-in with one of the many spiders in the room and Jamie gallantly saved her life—or at least that's the way he described it. When he said he had earned a hero cape, she laughed.

They were both dirty and tired, but a half day's work had made a big dent in cleaning the place. When they went through the pantry to the sparkling clean, well-lit kitchen and looked at the dirt on each other, they laughed.

“We should go upstairs, take showers, put on clean clothes, then come back down here and have a civilized dinner,” Hallie said.

“What are you? A Montgomery?” Jamie said as he went to the kitchen sink, pushed up his sleeves, and began to lather his hands and face.

“You're going to have to explain to me about your relatives
so I can understand these comments.” Hallie went to the other side of the big sink and took the soap from him. For all that she wanted some part of her to be clean, her job was always in her mind. She hadn't seen his bare forearms before and she couldn't help sneaking glances at them. There was a long scar running up his left arm and three small ones crossing his right wrist.

When he saw her looking, he turned away and grabbed a towel.

“Montgomerys,” he said, as though the little incident hadn't happened, “were born with a salad fork in their hands.” He pulled a container of chicken out of the fridge. “At home they use real napkins that somebody has washed and even ironed.”

“They sound like monsters,” Hallie said without a smile.

“They're too delicate for that. Mom said the two families are Beauty and the Beast. Guess who is who?”

Jamie's hands and face were clean, but his hair and neck were coated with sweat-drenched dirt, and his heavy clothing was filthy.

“I don't know,” she said as she frowned in decision, “you're kind of pretty.”

Laughing, Jamie bent over and kissed her neck. “You're—” He stopped because he was sputtering. “I think I got a mouthful of cobwebs.”

“That'll teach you,” she said as she ran a towel over her neck. “Are you going to share some of that chicken?”

After they ate, Todd called and as always, Jamie sought privacy to talk to him. But as he walked away, Hallie heard him say that he'd driven a car. “Yeah, Hallie did it,” Jamie added.

Smiling and feeling like all her late nights of studying were paying off, she cleaned up the kitchen.

Later, after a long, hot shower, Hallie turned in early and, as was becoming her habit, she awoke at two
A.M.
For a moment she thought Jamie was going to forgo his nightly terrors, but at
the first groan, she was by his side. She was beginning to develop a routine for calming him. Telling him he was safe and saying her name and Todd's helped. But most of all, sleeping kisses settled him.

Within minutes he'd calmed down, turned on his side, and began to sleep peacefully.

She started back to her own room, but instead she paused to stroke his clean hair. “Tell me what happened to you,” she said softly. “Tell me what you went through that did this to you.” But there was only silence from him, and she went back to bed.

When she awoke the next morning Jamie was already at work. She dressed and went to the kitchen, where a beautiful breakfast of cheese, pastries, and hard-boiled eggs was on the table. It looked like Edith had been there early.

She opened the door into the pantry, but that was a mistake. Dust filled the air. Coughing, she waved her hand about. “How long have you been at this?” she asked Jamie, who had his arms full of animal-shaped pewter molds.

“I started before daylight,” he said. “About four, I guess.”

She was about to express astonishment but saw the twinkle in his eyes. “Got here ten minutes ago, did you?” she said, laughing.

“More like eight. Did you eat?”

“Just starting. Come on, the tea is hot.”

After they'd eaten, they went back to cleaning. What they found in the pantry was fascinating. Items were three rows deep and they seemed to cover all the years since the young women had died. There were iron pots and wooden implements in the back, and what looked to be Victorian gadgets in the middle. In the front was cookware from after World War II. There were even a few ration cards.

“I guess we should contact the Whaling Museum and get someone to come look at these things.” Before them, spread out
on the sheets they'd put on the grass, were a lot of the artifacts they'd cleaned, many of which they had no idea what they were. “Or maybe we should call Dr. Huntley at the NHS.”

“Are you sure?” Jamie asked. “Didn't he say the sailors brought the Tea Ladies gifts? If that's true, then all of this belongs to them.”

“You think we should put it all back in there, don't you?”