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Authors: Jude Deveraux

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BOOK: Ever After
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Waiting for them on the kitchen table was an afternoon tea so lavish it would have pleased King Edward VII. There were two tiered stands with three pretty plates on each one, all of them loaded with food in miniature—two of each item. One stand had savory dishes: crustless sandwiches cut into shapes, miniature quiches, tiny pickled quail eggs, and dumplings tied
up like little purses. The other stand held desserts: scones, tarts, pies the size of silver dollars, tiny bowls of creamy coconut pudding. From the look of it all, it was a smorgasbord of food from around the world.

There was also a steaming hot pot of tea, a jug of milk, a bowl of sugar cubes, and pretty cups and plates. To the side were glasses of champagne with raspberries in them.

“Beautiful,” Hallie said.

“I don't know about you, but I'm starving.”

They sat down at the table and Hallie poured the strong black tea and added milk to their cups, while Jamie filled their plates.

“How do you think Edith got all this here?” Hallie asked. She was eating a dumpling filled with vegetables and chicken.

“Probably someone from the B&B brought it over in one of those electric golf carts.” He had just finished a little lobster roll. “Best lobster I've ever had and I've spent a lot of my life in Maine. Wonder where they got it.”

“This cheese is fabulous.”

Jamie smiled, his mouth full.

“I'd like to see some of Nantucket,” Hallie said as she bit into a cupcake that tasted of oranges. “Try this. It's really good.” She'd meant for him to take the other cupcake off the plate, but he took the half she'd bitten into from her hand and ate it.

“Fuzzy navel,” he said.

“What does that mean?”

“It's a drink of orange and peach juice and that's what it tastes like. My guess is that it's made with peach schnapps and if so, it's fairly lethal. Here, try it again.” He bit into the second cupcake, then handed her the other half.

Hallie hesitated, but there was a look of challenge in his eyes. Daringly, she bent and took the cake from his hand with her lips. “Mmmmm. Quite delicious.”

Jamie was smiling broadly. “It's named fuzzy for the peach and—”

“Navel for the orange. Now, as I was saying, I'd like to see some of the island. Jared drove through town and I saw some nice shops. Maybe you'd like to go too.”

“No, thanks,” Jamie said. “I have enough trouble with these blasted crutches without tackling streets and sidewalks.”

She'd already learned that half of what Jamie said was teasing, so she played along. She mentioned beaches and a meal out. No, he didn't want to do that. Drinks at sunset? No. A boat ride? He said he'd had enough of that with his Montgomery relatives. “They
live
on the damned things. I like the earth.” No matter what she came up with to try to entice him to go into town, he said no.

“I guess I'll have to go alone,” she said as she picked up a piece of what looked to be poppy seed cake. For a tiny bit of a second, she saw something flash across his eyes, some emotion, but she wasn't sure what it was. If it weren't coming from such a strong, healthy young man, she would have thought she'd seen fear. But that was, of course, ridiculous.

Whatever it was, it was gone in an instant and Jamie's handsome face was back to smiling. “What I want to know is where Edith came from,” he said.

“You mean where she grew up?”

“No. Here. Twice now I've seen her walking out from the side of the house. Yesterday when I woke up, I went looking for my brother with the intention of telling him what I thought about what he'd done to me.”

“And what was that?”

Jamie waved a sweet, sticky ball of rice around before popping it into his mouth. “It's a long story, but my point is that on the far side of this house are two big doors and they're locked. I thought maybe my brother was hiding in there so I used a bit of force to try to open them, but they didn't budge.”

Hallie licked coconut off her fingers. “Let me see if I get this straight. You woke up angry at your brother—for a reason that you won't tell me—and tried to batter down a couple of
my
doors to get to him? Possibly with the intention of murdering him?”

Jamie nearly choked on a square made of carrots and honey but managed to recover himself and said, “Pretty much.” His eyes were laughing. “I wonder if Edith has a key and what's—”

“In there?” Hallie finished for him.

“My thoughts exactly. What would you say about searching for the key? Whoever finds it gets to kiss the other one.”

“And what does the loser get?” Hallie asked.

“Two kisses?”

She laughed. “Go on and start searching. I'm going to clean this up and have it ready in case Edith returns for the dishes.”

“I'll help,” he said.

After they cleaned up the kitchen, they went out to the side of the house and inspected the doors, but as Jamie had said, they were locked tight. He wanted to try again to use his considerable strength to open them, but Hallie persuaded him not to. Inside the house, all the doors that led into the hidden room were also locked. They began to search for the key, but even though they looked through every drawer, under every piece of furniture, they didn't find any stray keys. They did, however, find brochures and tickets dated from the 1970s to two years ago.

As they made a pile of what they found, they speculated about Henry Bell. He seemed to have been very interested in the history of Nantucket. Twice he'd won the annual
Jeopardy
-like Nantucket trivia contest. There were a couple of newspaper articles with photos of him with Nat Philbrick, who wrote so well about Nantucket.

What they saw made Hallie and Jamie say they were going to learn more about the island. But when Hallie repeated her
invitation to go exploring, Jamie's face closed. He said that he'd be the researcher and she could do the footwork.

By ten Hallie was yawning, but Jamie looked wide awake, as though he never planned to go to sleep. She wanted to ask him about the medication he was taking, but she didn't. Instead, she bid him goodnight and went upstairs to bed.

Maybe some part of her mind was on alert because just as she'd done the night before, she awoke at two
A.M.
She lay there for a while, staring up at the silk rosette on the underside of the bed canopy, and listening. But the house seemed quiet.

She was just about to go back to sleep when she heard a faraway sound, something like a groan. If it hadn't been for what happened the night before, she wouldn't have paid any attention to it.

Without a second thought, she leaped out of the bed and ran down the dark stairs. She stubbed her toe on a table leg, but she kept going toward Jamie.

The nightlight was on, but this time there was no pill bottle on the desk. Jamie was in the bed, rolling back and forth, making soft sounds of panic.

“I'm here,” she whispered as she put her hands on the sides of his head. He calmed somewhat, but his legs were moving, his brace hitting the side of the bed.

Keeping her hands on his face, she stretched out beside him. As before, he drew her close. He settled for a while, but when he again started thrashing, she lifted her head up to his and kissed him.

This kiss, their second one, had a bit more passion than the first one. When Hallie felt herself moving her leg between his, she pushed away from him. “Sleeping kisses are one thing,” she said softly, “but no sleeping screws.”

But the kiss did settle him and before Hallie knew what happened, she fell asleep in his arms.

Chapter Four

W
hen Hallie awoke the next morning, daylight was beginning to come through the window. She and Jamie were spooned together on the narrow bed like they were one person.

Peeling his arms from around her body was no easy feat. When she stood up, she had a crick in her neck and one in her lower back. The bed was too small for one person, much less a former football player and her.

She tiptoed up the stairs to her own bedroom and took a shower. When she went back down, Jamie was in the kitchen, his hair damp. As usual, he was covered in clothing from neck to ankles. Hallie had on a sleeveless top, cutoff jeans, and sandals.

“I think I'm going to go into town this morning,” she said, avoiding his eyes, as the memory of last night was too clear in her mind. She needed some distance from him. On the other
hand, exploring a new town on her own wasn't going to be a lot of fun. “Want to go with me?”

“No,” he said, his voice firm, as though he didn't want to be questioned any more. He ran his hand across the back of his neck.

She put a plate of scrambled eggs in front of him. “Are you all right?”

“Just…dreams,” he said as he picked up his cup of coffee.

She sat down across from him. “What kind of dreams?”

He hesitated, but then looked at her. His eyes were hot, intense. “If you must know, they're about you.”

“Oh,” Hallie said and got up to refill a cup that was already full. “Hazards of working together,” she mumbled. Or sleeping together, she thought. All in all, it probably would be better if they spent some time apart. “Tell me again when your relatives will begin to arrive.”

“I'm not sure what day. If I know the sprouts, they'll come running as soon as the ferry docks.”

“And who are the sprouts?”

“I have a brother and sister, twins, who are seven years old.”

“How wonderful!” Hallie said. “What are their names? Tell me about them.”

The tension that had been caused by Jamie's mention of his dreams was broken and they ate breakfast while he told of his family. The twins, Cory—a nickname for Cordelia—and Max, were going to be in the upcoming wedding and they were very excited about it.

As Hallie watched him talk of his family in such a loving way, she again wondered why he hadn't stayed with them for his therapy. Why go to Nantucket where he knew so few people? Why isolate himself with a stranger? Hallie knew that if she had a loving family, nothing on earth would get her away from them.

When she said she needed to change to go to town, Jamie
said he had another story to tell about the twins. She listened, then said she was going. But when Jamie came up with yet another story, she realized he didn't want her to leave.

How flattering! she thought, but she still excused herself and went upstairs to change. She put on a pretty flowered dress with a matching cardigan and her pink sandals.

When she went downstairs, Jamie was waiting for her. “Wow! You look very pretty. I was thinking that we should keep looking for the key to that room. We didn't check the attic. Or maybe we should spend the day in the garden and plan how to improve it.”

“When I get back, we'll search some more and talk about the garden. Anything you need from town? And it's not too late to go with me.”

“No, nothing,” Jamie said and stepped away from her. “Go. Have a good time. I'll call my brother or something.”

He sounded so sad that Hallie almost said she wouldn't go, but that was ridiculous. If he was a man who hated to be alone,
why
had he left the company of his extensive family?

But no matter how much his eyes seemed to be pleading, she didn't give in to him and left the house. She walked to the end of the lane, took a left, and went to beautiful downtown Nantucket. The old buildings, the wonderful little shops, were all fascinating to her.

As she wandered about, in and out of the stores, she kept thinking of Jamie. She went up the stairs to a shop called Zero Main and looked around. The clothes were beautiful, but as she started to leave, it hit her that she could afford some new garments. Ever since her father and stepmother had died, Hallie'd had to work, sometimes at three jobs. She'd had to support Shelly, then when Shelly had left for California to try her hand at acting, Hallie had put herself through school. And the house she'd inherited from her father had needed a lot of repairs.

BOOK: Ever After
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