Ever After (28 page)

Hallie put her hands behind her back and began to pace.

Jamie smiled as he watched her, amused by the deep frown of concentration she was wearing. But after a few minutes his smile began to fade. He could afford to laugh about this idea of wanting a family because he had one in abundance. But what would it truly be like to have no one?

When he was in Afghanistan, the thought of family and home kept him going. At every mail call there were letters from his family. His parents wrote constantly. His mother's letters were full of funny, loving stories about everyone. His siblings, even little Cory and Max, had sent him drawings, gifts, and food.

When he saw that some people with him never received any mail, he'd sent a plea to his mother to get the relatives to write to them. Within a week, Montgomery-Taggert letters were coming in by the bagful.

Jamie watched as Hallie picked up the paper that told about her one and only cousin and read it again. She seemed to be memorizing it, studying it, trying to get a real person out of it.

He remembered what Todd had told him about her stepsister, and Hallie had made some rather horrific offhand comments about her life after her father had remarried. What had happened to her?

As he watched Hallie, he realized that her wounds weren't visible, as his were. She didn't have to wear long sleeves to cover the scars, but right now he was thinking that it was possible she was as deeply scarred as he was.

He pulled his phone out of his pocket and punched the button for his mother's number. She answered instantly.

“Jamie!” Cale said, her voice on the verge of panic. “Are you all right? Do you need me? I'm just next door. Tildy has me buried in ribbons, but I'll gladly leave. I can—”

“Mom!” Jamie said, making Hallie stop pacing and look at him. “I'm fine. I feel better than I have since—Anyway, yes, I'm great.”

Hallie sat down on the end of the couch and watched him.

“I know you're busy,” Jamie said, “but I have some urgent business I want you to do. Did you see that Aunt Jilly found Hallie's relative?”

“No,” Cale said, her voice serious. “What's going on?”

“I want you to bring him here. Now.”

Hallie drew in her breath.

“Can she hear me?” Cale whispered.

“No,” Jamie said cheerfully. “Not at all.”

“You said ‘relative' singular and ‘him,' also singular. Is there just one—besides that stepsister I heard about?”

“Yes, Mom, you're exactly right.” Jamie gave Hallie a thumbs-up. If there was anything on earth his mother knew about, it was rotten families. He'd only met people from her side once and it had been a disaster. A sister had threatened to
write a tell-all book of lies about Cale if she didn't pay millions. Jamie didn't know what his father did, but the sister went away and was never heard from again. “You think you could get this guy here for the wedding?”

“If it's possible, I'll do it.” Cale lowered her voice. “But first I'll make some calls and find someone who knows him. After I verify that he's a good guy, I'll send the jet to pick him up.”

“Brilliant,” Jamie said. “Let me know everything as it happens.”

“Of course I will. And Jamie, dearest, how are you really and truly?”

“It's what you wished for.” He was looking at Hallie and smiling.

Cale drew in her breath. “That you're beginning to heal?”

“Yes, you have it right.”

“Okay,” she said. “I'm now going to go somewhere and cry, then I'll make some calls. Oh, no! Here comes Tildy. I have to hide. Jamie, I love you more than you can imagine.” She clicked off.

He put his phone down and looked at Hallie. “He'll be here as fast as my mom can get him here. Which means he'll probably knock on the door at any second.”

Hallie was calming down. “I'm sorry for getting so excited about this. It's just that I never dreamed this could happen. My mother's family only seems to give birth to single children, no siblings, and my dad grew up as a ward of the state.”

It came to Jamie to make a joke about that being a blessing, but he didn't. He wanted her to tell him what had happened with her stepsister, but at this point he knew better than to ask her directly. “You have any girlfriends you want to invite to the wedding? The big meal is a buffet, so there's room for more people.” He handed her some papers from the box. The rain was coming down hard and the fire felt good. Her legs stretched out beside him, her feet by his hip. His uninjured leg was beside
hers, but the braced one was half on, half off the couch. He shifted so their legs were together, then pulled the blanket over them.

Hallie looked like she was about to protest, but when a flash of lightning lit up the room, she didn't. “This is some storm. I wonder why we weren't warned about it on the news?”

“Dad says that storms on Nantucket aren't for sissies.”

“That looks to be correct. Anyway, I have no special girlfriends to invite. A few work friends but not that BFF.”

Jamie picked up a copy of an article from the local newspaper dated 1974 and told Hallie of the first lines. A young couple on their honeymoon had been staying at the Sea Haven Inn. The wife went to the police and said her husband had been talking to two women at the house next door and they'd told him to get a divorce.

“Listen to this!” Jamie said and began reading aloud. “ ‘When the police investigated, they found that the room where the husband said he'd had tea with the young women was securely locked and when it was opened, the inside was filthy.' ”

Jamie showed the page to Hallie. There was a grainy black-and-white photo of the tea room and it was just as dirty as it had been when they'd first seen it.

Hallie took the page and continued reading. “ ‘When questioned, the husband told the police that the beautiful young women he'd had tea with were ghosts. He said they only appeared to him because he'd not yet met the woman he would love with all his heart. He said he needed to be free so he could search for her.' ”

“This was on their honeymoon?” Hallie said. “No wonder his wife was furious!” She read more, telling how the owner of the house, Henry Bell, had denied the existence of any ghosts. He said the room was locked when he bought the house, and since he didn't need the space, he'd left it locked. “Do you think Henry was telling the truth?” Hallie asked.

“I think he was lying through his teeth,” Jamie answered.

“I agree. I do think Henry was in love with them.” She put the paper down. “I just remembered the embroidery we saw. It was on the porch and you took a photo of it.”

Their eyes met and in the next second, Hallie was running through the house to get it while Jamie looked on his phone for the photo. When she didn't come back right away, he called for her, but there was no answer. He called twice more but still no answer.

A bright flash of lightning was followed by a crack of thunder so loud the old house seemed to quake. Hallie's disappearance, the lightning, then the noise, were too much like what Jamie had experienced on the battlefield. He rolled off the couch and hit the floor hard. He couldn't remember where he was, but he
had
to get out of there!

He was crawling across the floor on his stomach, his braced leg dragging behind him, and keeping his body low.

Hallie came into the room carrying a heavily laden tea tray, a bag over her shoulder. “Look what Edith dropped off. Sorry I took so long, but I couldn't find the tray. Jamie? Did you fall?”

When she set the tray and bag on the dresser and looked down at him, she realized that he wasn't himself. He was like he was during his nightmares, awake but not awake.

“Jamie!” she said. “It's me, Hallie. You are safe.” But he didn't respond. And he was crawling toward the blazing fireplace! She put her hands on his shoulders and pulled back, but he kept moving. “Jamie!” she shouted, but again there was no response. What could she do? “Help me,” she whispered aloud. Jamie was now inches from the fire. “Please help me know what to do!” she cried out.

Suddenly, she stood up straight, her shoulders back. “Soldier!” she yelled. “Halt!”

He stopped moving.

Hallie turned on the two floor lamps to put as much light as
she could in the room. When she looked back, Jamie had collapsed onto his stomach, his face buried in his arms. She knelt down at his head and stroked his hair.

“Go away,” he mumbled. “I don't want you to see me like this.”

She sat down beside him. “I'm not leaving.”

He turned his head away from her. “Get out of here!” he shouted. “I don't want you!”

Hallie didn't move. “You can yell at me all you want, but I'm not leaving.”

“I told you to get out!” His voice was a growl.

She still didn't move but just sat there beside him and waited. She knew he was embarrassed; she could feel it. It was like something that filled the room. Waves of regret and sorrow, fear and helplessness, were all around them.

Jamie turned onto his back, his hands on his chest, which was still heaving.

Hallie just waited. If she'd learned no other lesson in her life, she was very well acquainted with patience. Since she was eleven and her father had come home with a new wife and a pretty little stepdaughter, Hallie'd had to cultivate patience. It was a seed that had been planted on that first day and it had grown with the rapidity and strength of Jack's beanstalk.

It took a while for Jamie's breathing to quieten, for his heart to stop pounding. She saw a tear in a corner of his eye.

How awful it must be to be a man, she thought. To always be burdened with having to be strong, to show no weakness. A loss of strength made him think he was less than who he was supposed to be. Weakness took away who he
was
.

Finally, Jamie turned his head toward her. Just a bit, but it was enough for her to know that he was himself again.

She didn't say anything, just patted her lap in invitation.

He didn't hesitate as he put his head on her lap and his arms around her waist. “I'm—”

She put her fingertips over his lips. She did
not
want to hear an apology.

For a while he held on to her so tightly that she almost couldn't breathe, but she didn't try to loosen his grip. Instead, she just stroked his hair and waited for him to relax. When she felt his arms begin to loosen, she said, “Edith left us some tea. Want some?”

He took a while before he answered, then he nodded. She waited for him to sit up, and when he did, she wasn't surprised that he wouldn't look at her. When he tried to stand up, he stumbled and almost fell. Hallie's instinct was to help him, but she didn't. Instead, she got the big tray of tea off the dresser and put it on the coffee table. Jamie sat down on the couch.

“Look at this.” Hallie opened the bag and tossed him the embroidery hoop. “See the difference?”

Jamie still hadn't looked at her, and she could see he was having trouble focusing on the embroidery. “It's still the same.”

“That's what I thought at first too, but look again.”

He picked up his phone and compared it to the picture he had taken that first day. “This is yellow.” Finally, he met her eyes.

“Right. The first one we saw had birds on it, but this one is of daffodils. Here are the birds.” She handed him a pillow. Jamie put both on the table. “You know, this is a bit creepy.”

“Very,” she said and handed him a cup of tea with six different types of cookies on the saucer.

He took a drink, then said, “Hallie, I…” He couldn't seem to find words for what he wanted to say. “I don't hurt anyone,” he said at last. “If I'd ever come close to hurting anyone, I wouldn't have allowed myself to be here alone with a young woman.” He took a breath. “It's just that sometimes I don't know where I am.” He paused. “I didn't mean the things I said.”

Hallie nodded in understanding. “I know.” She could tell that he didn't want to say any more about it. But that was all
right because she too had things she didn't want to talk about. She gasped. “The box! We forgot the box.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The one that hit me on the head. Remember? You freaked because you thought I was bleeding to death and you washed my hair. I turned into Meryl Streep fighting for her Kikuyus and—” She looked at his blank face. “It's a girl thing. I'll go get the box, but you stay here. Okay?”

“Yes,” he said softly. “I'll stay right here and wait for you. Just this time don't take too long.”

She wasn't sure, but she thought maybe he was making a joke about what had just happened.

She went to the pantry but didn't switch on the light. Instead, she leaned back against the wall and put her hands over her face. That had been truly
scary
! She'd not known how to help him. Stand back and let him get over it by himself? Or step in and
do
something?

When she closed her eyes, she seemed to hear the words “In every war, the soldiers are different. This one responds to love.”

Her eyes flew open, but no one was there. But she knew who had “spoken.” The same voice had told her which bedroom to choose, had told her to give a soldier orders, and was now giving her advice.

“Hallie!” Jamie yelled.

“I'm here,” she answered back. “I'll be there as soon as I find it.” When a bit of lightning highlighted the old box as though a spotlight had been turned on it, she rolled her eyes. “Why am I not surprised? And I bet that tea is still piping hot.”

When she heard what sounded like the laughter of two young women, she hurried out of the pantry.