True Love Read online

  “I’ll be fine, really. Jilly put my eReader in with the clothes and I saw that she and Dad have filled it with Cale Anderson books. I’ll be fine. Actually, I could stand some time alone.”

  “Sure?” he asked.

  “Absolutely sure.” She looked at him. “Did you take any photos of that house in Maine?”

  Jared laughed in relief. “You are my girl! There are a couple hundred of them in the photo file on my computer under Warbrooke, and I made a rudimentary floor plan. Go through all of it so you can tell me your ideas.”

  “If you give me access to your computer, I can’t guarantee that I won’t snoop around in your most private files.”

  “Snoop all you want. The computer with all the juice on it is in New York.”

  Alix laughed. “Okay, go do whatever you’re not telling me about. I’ll be fine. Any drawing paper around here?”

  “In the upstairs bedroom closet is a box of my old supplies.”

  “That paper is probably as old as Valentina’s journal.”

  Jared put his hand to his heart. “You crush me. And when I get back, I’ll show you how old I am.”

  “I can’t wait,” she said sincerely.

  Alix would have liked for their kiss goodbye to be longer, but she could tell that something was bothering him and he wanted to leave and take care of it. A few days ago she would have pestered him to tell her where he was going and why. But not now. For the time being, her curiosity was sated and all she wanted to do was focus on a design project. No more ghosts! Or dancing with men who didn’t exist. Or supernatural glimpses of the past.

  She needed peace and quiet and to lose herself in a project.

  Chapter Twenty-five

  At Kingsley House Jared threw the back door open so hard that the old glass rattled. Usually, he treated the house with the respect it deserved, but not today. He slammed the door just as hard.

  He glared at the doorway, hoping to see his grandfather, but he wasn’t there. Jared went up the back stairs to the attic, two at a time. He pulled the string on the light so hard it came off in his hand. Angrily, he tossed it away.

  “Come out!” he demanded, and turned full circle, but Caleb wasn’t there. “Are Valentina and Victoria the same person? I know you can hear me so you can damned well answer.”

  “I am here,” Caleb said softly from behind him.

  When Jared turned, he gasped, for his ghostly grandfather looked almost solid. No wonder Alix thought he was real! Jared almost reached out to touch him, but didn’t. He just stood there, glowering and waiting for him to answer.

  “Yes, Valentina and Victoria are the same spirit.”

  Anger raged through Jared so strongly that he thought his head might explode. “You are going to leave the earth! Are you planning to take Victoria with you?”

  “I don’t know,” Caleb said in a quiet, calm voice. Only his eyes betrayed his worry.

  “You can’t do that to Alix—or to Victoria,” Jared shouted. “She deserves life.”

  “It’s not up to me,” Caleb said, raising his voice. “Do you think I want to be a … a …”

  “Go ahead and say it. You’re a ghost!”

  “Yes, I am,” Caleb said and his own anger started rising. “Do you think I chose to stay in this house for two hundred years and see people I love die? I see them as babies, watch them grow, laugh with them, cry with them, but always—always and always—I have to stand back and watch them die. It happens over and over, and no matter how many times I see it, the grief is the same. Each time it hurts just as much.”

  Jared didn’t relent in his anger, but when he spoke he wasn’t shouting. “And now you’re going to leave the earth and take Victoria with you. All because you love her. Is that love to you?”

  “Is that what you think of me?”

  “I don’t know what to think anymore. Please don’t do this. If you leave, you cannot take her with you!”

  Caleb tried to calm himself. “I told you that it’s not up to me. All I know for sure is that the same people who were involved when I was last on this earth are assembling again. And I know that on the twenty-third of June I will depart this place. Where I go I don’t know.” Caleb’s body seemed to be fading. “I must leave you now. I am tired.”

  “Since when do you get tired?” Jared shot at him.

  “The closer I get to the time, the stronger and the weaker I get.”

  “That makes no sense.”

  “None of this half life of mine makes sense.” He looked at his grandson with eyes that showed his misery. “Please believe me when I tell you that I don’t know what is going to happen. If it is at all possible, I will leave alone and I will not take Valentina with me.”

  “She is Victoria, she lives in this century, and she has people here—on earth—who love her very much.” Jared was too upset to think clearly and his grandfather was fading quickly. “Can Victoria see you?”

  For a moment he was brighter, less transparent. “If I allowed it, she could. But I’ve never wanted her to love half a man.” He began to grow dimmer. “Don’t let Alix get away. Don’t be the fool that I was. If I’d stayed with Valentina none of this would have happened, but I wanted one more voyage. I thought I needed to be richer than I already was.” There were tears in his voice and his eyes. “Learn from me. And talk to Parthenia. Her spirit has always been able to see inside you.”

  He was gone.

  Jared flopped down on the couch, feeling like he was single-handedly trying to stop a freight train.

  It was only minutes later that he knew he had to get out of the house. As he needed to breathe, he had to leave. The thoughts were so strong that he was sure his grandfather was controlling them. “Stop it!” he growled, and immediately the overwhelming feelings stopped.

  He stood up, calming himself, and more fully comprehending what Alix had been through. With these new powers his grandfather had, it was believable that he could show Alix visions of the past.

  Jared looked around the attic, at the familiar sight of too much left over by his family, then went down the stairs and out the back door. He thought of returning to Alix, but he had an idea that she was happily buried in the plans for the Montgomery house. How he wished he could join her! But the thought that Victoria might die soon was too strongly in his mind for him to relax, and he didn’t want Alix to pick up on his fear.

  He walked down the lane toward Main Street. Maybe Lexie or Toby was home. Alix’s questions had made him wonder who else in his family could see Caleb. Jared had grown up being told all the rules about his grandfather, but this morning he was questioning them. Maybe if the women had told the men and vice versa, they could have done something long ago. An exorcism?

  While Jared couldn’t imagine having grown up without his grandfather—especially after his father died and before Ken arrived—at the moment he wished someone had long ago sent the man away.

  Jared went to Lexie’s house, opened the back door, and called out, but no one answered. They were at work. He turned to leave, but then heard a noise in the back. Maybe one of them was in the greenhouse.

  It was Jilly. She’d just dropped a huge flowerpot, it had smashed, and she was trying to pick up the pieces.

  “Let me do that,” Jared said as he bent and began gathering the pot shards.

  Jilly stood up. “I was trying to help but I did this. I should probably quit, but the girls are so busy and I needed something to do.”

  Jared looked about the greenhouse. He wasn’t a gardener but even he could see that the place needed a good cleaning. “How about if I do the heavy lifting and we work together?”

  “You must have other things to do,” she said. “I’m sure Alix needs you.”

  “She’s working on a remodel plan for that big old house in Warbrooke, and besides, she’s glad to be rid of me.”

  Jilly looked hard at him for a moment and deep into his eyes. Something was bothering him. “How about if we start at this end?”

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