True Love (38 page)

“Jared didn’t tell you about me?”

“No, he didn’t,” she said. “But then he didn’t volunteer any information about his cousin Wes either.”

When the man laughed, Alix was almost sure she’d heard the sound as a child. “I think I’ve met you before, but you’re …” From the look of him he was a bit younger than Jared, which meant that he wouldn’t have had that deep, adult laugh when she was so young.

“We did meet when you were a child,” he said, smiling. “But
you’ve met so many of my family that perhaps you can’t place me. I’m Caleb.”

“That seems appropriate,” she said.

His smile made her relax. “I take it that the great cache of material isn’t making you want to dive in and explore?”

“No, it’s not.”

“I will tell you a secret,” he said. “I have read every word on those papers in the boxes.”

“Have you?”

“Oh, yes. In fact, I am directly responsible for a great deal of the information stored here. Would you like for me to tell you the true story of Valentina and Caleb? The one the rest of my family doesn’t know?”

Alix hesitated. Perhaps she should wait until Jared returned and Caleb could tell both of them. But she couldn’t resist. She nodded.

He looked around the attic. “For this story of great and deep love, we need to create the proper atmosphere. I have a … What do you call it?” He made a small circle with his hands. “It plays music. Do you have a gramophone?”

She smiled at the image of the old-fashioned machine, which fit right in with the artifacts surrounding them. “No, but I have an excellent laptop and it will play your CD.”

He smiled at her as though she were the most intelligent of people. “I remember seeing a gown in a box down the first aisle. Its owner was rather tall, like you, and I believe the garment will fit you. Perhaps you’d like to put it on and while we talk I could teach you a dance from Valentina’s time.”

“Oh,” Alix said, her eyes wide. As a woman in a modern world that rarely bothered to dress up for anything, she started to protest. But then she glanced at the window. The rain was still coming down hard and she had nothing else really urgent to do, so why not dance with Jared’s handsome relative? “Where is the dress?”

Caleb smiled at her with such warmth that Alix felt herself take
a step toward him. Good grief! she thought, stepping back. If the real Captain Caleb had this magnetism, she could certainly understand why Valentina ended up pregnant before they were married. He seemed to understand Alix’s thoughts, but didn’t comment as he gave her directions to find the box containing the dress.

She found it easily but getting it out was difficult. She had to remove six other objects off the top and drag it out. It was a dress box, dark green, with the name of a store in Boston on the lid.

When she got it to the front, Caleb was standing by the chair and smiling. She wondered why she hadn’t been introduced to him. Did he live nearby?

“That’s it,” he said.

It took Alix only moments to open the box. Inside was what looked to be a white cotton dress. Pulling it out, she held it up under the single bulb of light. It was beautiful: crisp, clean cotton, with a deep square neck, long sleeves, and a floor-length skirt done in folded-over layers. It was, without a doubt, a wedding dress. She looked at Caleb. “1950s?”

“I believe so.” He paused. “Would you like to try it on?”

She looked at the long white dress. There was really no reason for her to put it on, but then lately her mind had been so full of weddings and all that goes with them that she felt drawn to the gown. And then, of course, there was Jared. Hadn’t she said that her wedding dress would be cotton? “I think I’ll go downstairs to put it on.”

“Then you’ll come back to me?” he asked in a way that took her aback. He sounded as though he’d be devastated if she said no.

“Yes, I will,” she said as she ran down the stairs to her bedroom.

Once in the room, she couldn’t help going to Captain Caleb’s portrait. The man upstairs really did resemble his ancestor! “He’s not
quite
as handsome as you are,” she said. “But he’s a close second.”

In the next minute she’d stripped off her clothes. On impulse she rummaged in a drawer to find her best white lacy underwear and put it on. She started toward the gown but instead went to the bathroom
and put on makeup. She was glad her long hair was clean. She pulled off the tie for her ponytail and managed to sweep it up into a soft chignon. It wasn’t a professional job but it was more fitting for the elegance of the dress.

At last she returned to the bedroom, wearing just her underwear, and picked up the dress. As she stepped into it, she had to struggle with the tight, narrow sleeves, then work to fasten the buttons up the back. Only when she had it on did she look in the mirror. If the dress had been made for her, it couldn’t have fit better. The neckline was low, showing rather a lot of cleavage. She made a halfhearted attempt to pull it up, but then smiled. Her breasts had never looked better!

As she went up the steep, narrow attic stairs wearing a wedding dress and carrying a laptop, she was hesitant, but the moment she saw Caleb her reluctance vanished. He wore a tuxedo, one of that utterly perfect kind, like out of a Cary Grant movie. It fit him exactly, curving in at the waist and showing his long, heavily muscled legs. She didn’t know what gym he went to, but it should be given an award.

The look he gave Alix made her stand up straighter. “Goddesses must envy you,” he whispered.

His words were flattering and of course untrue, but they made all Alix’s doubts leave her. She set her laptop down and inserted the CD that he’d put on the table. The first tune was a combination of Scottish and Irish reels, with a lot of violins. It was fast-paced but also lyrical.

Smiling, he held out his hand to her.

When she took it, an instant warmth went through her. His touch wasn’t as electric or sexual as Jared’s, but it was calming—and invigorating at the same time. Her concerns about the work she needed to do fell away. All that seemed important was this moment and what this man had to tell her.

Stepping back from her, he bowed, and even while Alix didn’t know the dance he was leading her into, she did seem to know. She
curtsied, then turned and walked forward four steps, Caleb beside her. She stopped, turned back toward him, and lifted her hands to touch his.

“How do I know what to do?” she asked.

“Past memory,” he said, turning her around once more. “But now is not the time for thought. Just feel, and I will tell you the story. Valentina was extraordinarily beautiful. She had red hair and green eyes, and a waist the width of a man’s hand.”

They were moving to the music toward the far wall. “She sounds like my mother.”

“She is exactly like her.”

“Then she must have caused a stir among the young men on the island.”

“Oh, yes,” Caleb said in a voice that sounded faraway. “They all made complete fools of themselves when she was near.”

“Did she and Captain Caleb fall in love immediately?”

“He did. He didn’t know it then, but he did. As for Valentina, at first she despised him.”

“Isn’t that always true of Great Romance?” Alix turned full circle, then came to face him.

“Perhaps to read about, but not to experience. Their meeting came about because the Captain returned from his long voyage earlier than expected.”

“Just as Izzy and I did,” Alix said. “And if we hadn’t shown up early, I wouldn’t have met Jared.”

“Are you referring to your sister?”

Alix laughed. “I can believe Izzy was my sister in another life. I guess that next you’ll be telling me that an alternate me knew Jared.”

“You made buildings together,” Caleb said. “Many of the houses on this island are yours. You drew them; he built them.”

Alix found herself laughing again. “What a marvelous prevaricator you are! You
must
meet my mother. With your plotting and her writing you’d be a perfect match.”

“We were,” he said.

“Yes, of course. You couldn’t be anyone other than Captain Caleb. But how could Valentina ever despise
you
?” Alix couldn’t help flirting with him. If there was ever a man made to flirt with, this was him. His eyes had a soft, bedroom quality, and combined with the beautiful dress, she was beginning to feel like the most desirable woman in the world. Long ago, Alix had found that with a mother like hers, she needed to be smart and talented and accomplished. When it came to pure sex appeal, no one could compete with Victoria. But right now this man was making Alix feel like she was a temptress.

“You see,” Caleb said, “when the Captain arrived back on Nantucket, he didn’t know who Valentina was. She’d come to the island after he left on a voyage to China, so he hadn’t seen her.” He turned about, then came back to Alix with a look that said he’d been away from her much too long.

Her face was close to his. He was clean shaven and she could smell his skin. It was salty and oh, so very male.

A new tune played, this one softer and slower. Caleb held out his arms to her. It seemed the most natural thing in the world to slip into them. He led her into a waltz that was so light she wasn’t sure her feet were touching the ground. Around and around they went, higher and higher.

Alix put her head back and closed her eyes. When she opened them she was glancing
down
at the window,
down
at the stacks of artifacts. She and this man seemed high, high up, above the floor. As an architect, she knew it wasn’t possible, the ceiling was too low, but right now she didn’t feel like a businessperson of any type. The beautiful white wedding gown swirled around her body, nearly surrounding the two of them in a soft mist. Within her, she could feel a deep sense of herself as a woman. All the enticing, alluring touches that made her who she was were coming out of her, radiating.

And this man, this beautiful man, was making it happen.

Alix let the sensations and feelings seep into her body. The music grew louder, as though there were an orchestra in this vast room. She
smelled food and perfume. She heard laughter and people talking. When she looked down, there was light: golden, glowing, and warm. It was candlelight, flickering and radiant, illuminating the flushed and rosy skin of a hundred people.

Alix seemed able to see beneath the floor. The entire downstairs was awash with light and laughter. “I see it,” she whispered, clasping Caleb’s hand tighter.

“Who do you see?” he whispered back.

“My mother! The men are around her. She looks like she does in the mornings before she puts on makeup. I’ve never seen her eyebrows unplucked.”

“That’s Valentina,” Caleb said softly. “Who else is there?”

“Many people. That man looks like my father.”

“He is John Kendricks, a widower and the schoolmaster, but he also built this house while the Captain was away,” Caleb said. “Do you see yourself? Perhaps you’re John’s daughter. There on the window seat.”

“Oh, yes. The girl with the sketch pad reminds me of myself. What is she drawing?”

“A house, of course,” Caleb said. “Do you see Parthenia? She would be with your father. They were deeply in love.”

“There!” Alix said. “Is the pretty woman beside him Parthenia?” The woman was standing to one side, smiling, but not laughing and chatting as the other people were. “She seems very quiet.”

“She is.”

“Who is the gray-haired man? He looks like Dr. Huntley.”

“That’s the Captain’s father,” Caleb said. “He will do
anything
for his son.”

Alix closed her eyes again and the music grew louder. Opening her eyes, she smiled at Caleb. “Yesterday I was calculating how much cement to order for a job. Now I’m wearing a beautiful gown and dancing on air. Literally. By the way, where is the Captain?” Still breathless from the dance, she looked for him.

“You won’t see him down there. He’s just coming home from his
long voyage; he felt like he’d been at sea forever. He’s tired and hungry and he wants to see his new house.”

“So the luscious Captain Caleb was coming home that night?”

Caleb smiled. “Luscious. I like that word. But this evening he was anything but. As he stepped onto Kingsley Lane he saw his new house lit up—and he didn’t like it. You see, John and Parthenia were getting married that night and half the island was invited. But the Captain didn’t know that. All he saw was that there were a thousand candles, and many carriages and horses outside. The manure was ankle deep.”

“What a romantic image,” Alix said, laughing. “Did the Captain run the people out?”

“No, he was never like that. But he didn’t yet want to see anyone, so he sneaked inside and made his way up the stairs to his bedroom. Unfortunately, he found his bed covered with ladies’ cloaks, so he went up to the attic.”

“To hide away and sulk.”

“No!” Caleb said, sounding affronted, but then he twirled Alix even harder and gave a little smile. “Perhaps it was so, but for whatever reason, he was there when Valentina came upstairs.”

“With a young man?” Alix asked.

“No. She wanted to remove her shoes and be quiet for a moment. She had been danced off her feet.”

“Was this a romantic meeting?”

“Hardly,” Caleb said, a smile in his voice. “You see, he didn’t know her and from the look of her, he believed it was quite possible that she was a lady of the evening.”

“It sounds to me like Captain Caleb had just returned from exotic ports, took one look at the gorgeous, voluptuous Valentina, and made a serious pass at her. I don’t think it was his
mind
that was involved in that first meeting.”

“Perhaps,” he said, grinning. “I think the schoolmaster’s daughter is too clever. You’ll never get a husband that way.”

Alix returned his smile. “My mother is also very clever and
she
got Captain Caleb.”

His laugh rang out and indeed it was the one Alix remembered so well, so deep, coming from way inside him, rumbling upward like rich, dark, sweet molasses. “I swear I have not laughed so well since you were last here. Now, where was I in my story?”