Ever After (30 page)

For a moment Jilly looked shocked, then she smiled. “Oh, my goodness! I think that whatever you're doing, it's working. Shall we return?”

When they got back to the tea room, Jilly turned down a cocktail and Hallie got her some orange juice. Jamie was still frowning and watching Hallie's every movement.

Jilly went to stand by Kit. “If that boy loses her, it will be the worst thing he's ever done in his life.”

“I agree completely,” Kit said.

“Why are you here?” Todd asked his brother.

It was the morning after the dinner party and Jamie was sitting by the swimming pool at the house of a man named Roger Plymouth. They had no idea who the guy was, but they'd been told that he was in the wedding in Lanconia and that's why the house was empty.

The six bedrooms were all full of the Montgomery-Taggert bachelors who'd happily agreed to a vacation on Nantucket to attend Aunt Jilly's wedding. But then the Montgomerys always agreed to go anywhere there was water, and the Taggerts had come because Jilly was theirs.

Right now all of them were either at Kingsley House or at Hallie's getting ready to watch Graydon's wedding on TV. Todd was dressed and holding car keys as he prepared to leave. But Jamie had on a big pair of swim trunks and was sitting in the sun. He knew his wounds benefited from the ultraviolet rays, but he didn't show his scars around anyone except his brother. And Hallie, he thought.

“What?” he asked Todd.

“I asked why you're here. Dad had the TV set up at Hallie's house so you two could watch it in private. But you came here late last night and now you're just sitting there. The wedding won't wait on you.”

“Hallie invited half the Montgomerys and all the Taggerts to come to her house. At least it seems like that many.” Even Jamie thought he sounded sulky.

Todd put the keys in his pocket and sat on a chair in the shade. “I'll stay here with you. In case—”

“In case what?!” Jamie said. “In case I
need
something? In case a plane goes overhead and I freak out at the noise and land face down in the pool?”

Todd had had a couple of years to get used to his brother's mood changes: smiling one second, enraged the next. He was unperturbed, but then he knew that the girl was Jamie's problem.

“The old me would have gone after her.”

Todd looked at the sun glistening off the pool water. “I'm not sure about this, but I don't think this girl would have given the old you the time of day.”

“What does that mean? That she prefers half men?”

Todd was keeping his own temper down, but it wasn't easy. “Is that why she kicked you out of the house last night? Because you're a wounded soldier?”

“Of course not! Hallie's not like that.” Jamie took a breath. “Jilly wasn't feeling well, so Hallie suggested she stay there with her, in the quiet. It was good advice. Kit used Hallie's car to drive me out here.”

“What happened at the dinner last night? Anything bad?”

“No,” Jamie said. “It was all good. Uncle Kit and Hallie seem to have formed some sort of alliance over the Tea Ladies. Hallie described her dream and Uncle Kit told about seeing them and I told of seeing one of them.”

“You didn't tell me that you saw a ghost.” Todd's voice was sharp. It wasn't easy for him to keep his opinions to himself. This girl Hallie seemed to be pulling his brother away from him. It was as though the twin bond was being stretched so far that it just might break. War hadn't snapped it apart, but this pretty girl from Boston might cut the tie.

The problem was that Todd didn't trust her. He knew his brother was falling for her, but Todd didn't think she felt the same way about him. She liked him and she hadn't been repulsed by the sight of Jamie's wounds, so that was in her favor. But he didn't sense any real depth of feeling coming from her.

Earlier this morning Todd had called Uncle Kit and asked what the hell had so angered his brother. “He's back to where he was months ago. What happened?!”

“I think it's just a case of the green-eyed monster,” Kit said. “At dinner Hallie mentioned that she'd had a call from a guy named Braden and that he was coming to visit. I wouldn't have thought anything about it, but young Jamie's face swelled up so red he looked like some poisonous fish. He really should work on controlling his emotions.”

Todd thought so too, but he wasn't going to side with anyone against his brother.

“Do you know who this Braden is?” Kit asked.

“Vaguely,” Todd said. As a law enforcement agent, he wasn't going to tell what he knew about anything. “I'll see you later today.” After he hung up, Todd thought about what he did know about Braden Westbrook. When Todd had visited his mother, she'd gone on and on about how she so very much wanted her son to marry Hallie.

“Everyone complains about mothers-in-law,” Mrs. Westbrook said, “but no one thinks what we mothers have to put up with. I'm scared my son will marry someone like…like Shelly.”

“What does Hallie think of your son?”

“She thinks no one knows, but Ruby—that's Hallie's late stepmother—and I used to agree that if Braden said, ‘Hallie, jump into that volcano for me,' she wouldn't hesitate.
That's
the kind of mother I want for my grandchildren. Do you know what I mean?”

“I do, yes,” Todd said.

He hadn't told his brother of the conversation, but he certainly remembered it.

His worry was that Hallie was very good at her job and that to her, Jamie was just her client. She cared about him and would do anything she could to help him heal, but it ended there. On the day she'd seen how deeply injured Jamie had been, she'd mainly been concerned that he'd insulted her
profession
.

Todd feared that when Jamie's knee had healed and he could walk again, Hallie would consider her job done. She'd kiss him on the cheek, tell him goodbye, and look to the next patient. Add that to what Jamie had already been through and Todd wasn't sure his brother would ever recover.

“Stop thinking so hard and leave,” Jamie said. “Go enjoy yourself. I'll be fine here. Actually, I'd like some down time. I'll sit in the sun and let it heal me.”

Todd looked at his brother. “You want me to go to the house and report back to you, don't you?”

“Yeah,” Jamie said and gave a bit of a smile.

Todd stood up. “I'll take one of the cars Plymouth said we could use, but I'll leave the Range Rover for you. Keys are in the kitchen.”

“I won't be there,” Jamie said. “I don't want to ruin everyone's good time.”

“You won't,” Todd said, but he knew it was no use arguing. “Just so you know, though, if Raine makes a play for her, she's on her own. I won't tackle him even for my brother.”

Jamie gave a bit of a laugh, then waved his brother away.

H
allie awoke with a sense of panic. She hadn't gone to Jamie at two
A.M.
! She was halfway out of bed before she remembered that he'd left with Uncle Kit after the dinner.

It was still early so Hallie lay back in bed, snuggled with her pillow, and thought about the dinner. It had turned into an evening of the Tea Ladies, as each one told all that he or she had experienced.

Jilly was a wonderful audience. She expressed shock or delight at everything that was revealed.

Hallie described her dream and showed the drawings that had been behind the big cupboard. “Have you ever heard of anything like that?!” she asked.

“Actually,” Jilly said, “Toby and Graydon…” She trailed off. “No, nothing.”

Jamie told of seeing the beautiful young ghost and of hearing
“Juliana has died,” but he didn't say that it had been Hallie who'd whispered it. That led to Jamie and Hallie telling Caleb's story of why the young women were ghosts.

“I'd like to read the documents that tell the story,” Hallie said.

“I doubt there are any,” Jilly said.

The other three looked at her in interest, but she just smiled. “Kit said something about a box you found.”

Hallie got up and pulled the old wooden box off the shelf and set it down in the middle of the table. “I didn't open it. Jamie was—” She broke off. There was no need to mention Jamie's panic attack.

But to Jamie, they were family. “She didn't have time to open it because I was coming apart and crawling across the floor in panic,” he said. “Same ol', same ol'.”

Kit and Jilly gave him a look of sympathy—and that bothered Hallie.

“The oddest thing about Jamie's attacks is that hugging and kissing are the
only
things that soothe him. I'm beginning to wonder if they're real.”

Hallie was still standing and for a moment the three of them looked at her in shock. Kit was the first to laugh and Jilly followed. Jamie picked up her hand and kissed the palm.

After that, anything left of his bad mood was gone.

At dessert, Kit showed the card that had been inside the envelope with his name on it. F
IND
T
HEM
was beautifully handwritten on it.

They passed the card around, but no one had any idea what it meant. “Find who?” Hallie asked.

“Who are you missing?” Jamie asked, but Kit said nothing.

The box was full of recipes, and they seemed to cover centuries and the world.

“Look!” Hallie said to Jamie as she held up a yellowed card.
“This is for those cookies you like so much.” Her statement led them to talk about the wonderful teas Edith left for them.

“They're very high calorie,” Hallie said, “but we eat them anyway.”

“Doesn't look like it's hurting you,” Jamie said. “That dress used to be tight.”

“I know. I think it's all the work on your naked cousins. Digging into Raine's muscles probably used a couple thousand calories.”