Ever After Read online

  Hallie knew she was dreaming. She was standing outside the tea room, the doors were open, and the interior was beautiful. There were four little tables in the middle of the room, each one draped in divinely thin and floaty white cotton. At the side of the room was the big dresser, its shelves filled with dishes she and Jamie had found, only they were new and sparkling clean. In fact, everything was warm and inviting.

  But what drew Hallie’s eyes weren’t the objects but the beautiful woman who was sitting on the window seat on the far side of the room. Hallie didn’t think she’d ever seen anyone as pretty. Her dark hair was piled onto her head, framing every exquisite feature on her face. Hallie could imagine her on the cover of every fashion magazine published, and from the look of her body under that pretty silk dress, that included Sports Illustrated.

  Hallie wanted to say something to the young woman, but before she could take a step, another woman, equally pretty, walked through her.

  Hallie gasped in shock, but neither of the women seemed to be aware that she was there. This is a dream, she reminded herself, and stood at the doorway and watched and listened.

  “I wondered where you were,” Hyacinth said to her sister as she walked into their pretty tea room. She was halfway across before she saw the little man sitting in the shadows behind the far table. “Oh!” she said in surprise.

  Juliana was on the window seat, staring out at the garden. She had on her wedding dress, a grayish-blue silk that exactly matched her eyes. “He was Parthenia’s idea, and Valentina backed her,” she said. “They insisted that I have a quick portrait done on my wedding day. Come and sit with me.”

  Hyacinth stretched out by her sister, her pale pink dress a complement to her complexion, and looked at the small, dark man as he set out pots of ink. “Does he speak English?”

  “Not a word.”

  “Then his silence will be bliss,” Hyacinth said. “The house is already so full of guests that I want to run away and hide.”

  Juliana wasn’t fooled by her sister’s lighthearted tone. They’d been together every day since Juliana was born, but tomorrow she was leaving the island to live with the family of the man who would soon be her husband. She opened her arms and Hyacinth put her head on her sister’s shoulder.

  The new positioning caused a flurry of angry-sounding words from the artist, but Juliana just waved her hand. He could draw them together or neither of them.

  “How will I function without you?” Hyacinth whispered.

  “It won’t be for long. Leland said you’re to come to us in the spring. He has a cousin who is to visit. I think Leland means to wed you to him.”

  Hyacinth laughed. “He plans to turn the tables on us? Now I am to be matched with someone rather than find a mate for another? But poor Father could not bear for both of us to leave him.”

  Juliana glanced at the artist, who had stopped complaining and was now sketching the two young women. “Do you think Father will show up in Boston with his great oar and pelt your suitors?”

  “Probably,” Hyacinth said. “I saw him just moments ago and I’ve never seen anyone look so forlorn. He was in a chair by himself and brushed away anyone who came near him.”

  “After the ceremony I must remember to spend time with him. I cannot give everything to Leland. Not yet, at least.”

  When Hyacinth lifted her head to look at her sister, the little man again started complaining. He wanted them to remain still. Turning back, she gave him her sweetest smile and he quieted.

  “Do you love your Leland very much?” Hyacinth whispered. “With all your soul? To the end of time?”

  “I do,” Juliana said, then laughed. “I didn’t at first, not like everyone thinks I did. Only you know the true story of that day.”

  “Tell me again,” Hyacinth said. “Tell me a thousand times.”

  “Everyone believes it was love at first sight, but Leland…” She waited for her sister to add to the story. They’d laughed about it many times.

  “Leland had fallen asleep at his desk,” Hyacinth said. “He was lying on a freshly printed woodcut.”

  Juliana smiled. “The ink had come off, and on his cheek was a picture of two geese and—”

  “The word ‘sale’ written backward,” Hyacinth finished.

  “Yes,” Juliana said. “His cheek was facing me, so only I saw it and I couldn’t help staring.”

  “And everyone thought you’d fallen in love with him at first sight,” Hyacinth said.

  Juliana smiled in memory. “Especially Leland.”

  “But then he did fall for you the very moment he saw you.”

  “He says he did,” Juliana said. “But whatever his true feelings, it gave him the courage to…” She took a breath.

  “Kiss you in the pantry.” Hyacinth sighed.

  “I will always wonder if he would have been so brave if he’d ever felt Father’s oar on his backside.”

  “That sent many of our prospective suitors running,” Hyacinth said. “I still long for a man who dares to brave his wrath.”

  “There have been plenty of them,” Juliana said. “Caleb Kingsley climbed up the rose trellis almost to your bedroom window before Father heard him and began the chase. Caleb can certainly run fast! He would have made you a fine husband.”

  “I’m not so sure. I think he and Valentina are the better match. She returns Caleb’s grand emotions. I prefer a quieter life.” Hyacinth took her sister’s hand. “How will I have our tea parties without you?”

  “How will I bear meeting all of Leland’s relatives alone?” Juliana said. “They are such an elegant set. His mother got seasick just from the trip over to the island. And his sister asked how well I can play Mozart.”

  “And what did you reply?”

  “That I didn’t know any Mozart, but I could play ‘Lame Sally’s Jig’ on a brown jug.”

  “You didn’t!”

  “No,” Juliana said, “I didn’t. But I wanted to.” For a moment she looked around at the familiar setting and thought of all the laughter and good times they’d had there. “I will miss this room and this island every day of my life. Promise me something.”

  “Anything,” Hyacinth said.

  “That if something should happen to me, if—”

  “No!” Hyacinth said. “Don’t think like that on your wedding day. It’s bad luck.”

  “But I feel that I must say this. If all does not go well with me, bring me back here to this house, to this island. Let me rest here forever. Will you promise me that?”

  “Yes,” Hyacinth said softly. “And I ask the same of you. We must stay together always.”

  Juliana kissed the top of her sister’s head. “We’d better go or Father will think someone has stolen us away, and get out his oars.” She looked at the little man. “Finished?”

  He nodded as he got up and put the sketch on the big dresser to dry. It was of two beautiful young women, sitting side by side, heads together, the window behind them. Beside the drawing of them was one he’d done earlier of the bridegroom.

  The sisters, with the artist behind them, were nearly to the door when it was flung open by their friend Valentina. She was beautiful too, but in a colorful, flamboyant way, a striking contrast to the quiet loveliness of the two sisters.

  “You must get to the church,” Valentina said. “We’re all beginning to think you two ran off with a couple of handsome mermen.”

  “I’d rather have Leland,” Juliana said.

  “And I’m holding out for Neptune,” Hyacinth said. “I like his trident.”

  Laughing, they all left the room. None of them noticed the way the wind caught the pictures on the dresser and lifted them flat against the backboard. When the door closed, the papers fell straight down behind the big cupboard, hidden from view. And later, in the tragedy of what happened that day, no one thought to look for the drawings.

  When Jamie woke, he didn’t know where he was. As now seemed to always be the case, he felt a sense of panic. Where w