True Love

by Jude Deveraux

  Caleb took a breath. “On the day she disappeared she wrote that she’d paid an off-islander to take her and our son to the mainland. She was going to make her way home to Maine. She felt she could tell no one she was leaving, not even Parthenia, because she feared what Obed might do to them when he found Valentina gone. She also knew that his rage wouldn’t be because she and the child had left, but would be due to the fact that she was taking her soap recipe with her. But then she saw that as her son’s future.”

  “He did get the recipe,” Jared said, and he knew the next part of the story. After Valentina disappeared, Obed had continued to make and market Kingsley Soap. It made Obed rich. Besides that, when Caleb exchanged ships with his brother and wrote a will leaving everything to Valentina and their son, that money went to Obed. For a while he had been a very rich man.

  But it hadn’t lasted long. A few years after his ship went down, Caleb had shown up as a ghost. He’d been confused and dazed, not understanding what had happened to him, and the only person who could see him was his young son, Jared.

  When Obed saw the boy talking to what looked to be nothing, the man reacted out of fear. Obed beat the child. That night Caleb’s anger made him so strong that even Obed could see him. The man screamed in terror and died instantly—before Caleb could get an answer from him about Valentina.

  “He must have found out about her plan to escape,” Jared said.

  “Yes. She said she thought he’d always paid people to spy on her. He was the lowest of the low and always loved sneaking about.”

  “What did the journal say happened?” Jared asked.

  Caleb got up from the chair, went to a cabinet in the wall, and withdrew Valentina’s journal. He sat back down, opened it to the last page, and began to read.

  I have killed my wife. I did not mean to. May God forgive me but what the woman said put the devil into me. She said she would rather be with Caleb in death than with me in life. At her words, my soul was taken from me. For a while I could not see and when I was myself again she was dead on the floor, her neck twisted half around. I go now to give myself over to the authorities and take mortal man’s idea of justice, although I swear I am not guilty. As she always did, Valentina forced me to do what I did not want to. She deserved her ill fate, but I do not. May the Lord and my fellow man have mercy on my innocent soul.

  When Caleb finished reading, he looked up at Jared. The pain in his eyes was breathtaking.

  “But he didn’t turn himself in,” Jared said.

  “No. I figure he took her … her body to sea, then he blackened her name forever. He must have paid those men who told her relatives that they’d taken her to the mainland.”

  Jared was thinking about what people did for money. Obed’s treachery, his greed, caused the deaths of many people. Caleb, in his urgency to get home, had taken an entire shipload of men down with him.

  But Obed hadn’t lived long enough to receive the full benefit of the soap company he’d killed to get. Caleb’s son and Susan, the woman Obed had married soon after Valentina’s disappearance, had run the company. For a long time the Kingsley family had been very wealthy, but many years later, Five wasn’t good at business so he’d sold the company and squandered the proceeds. By the time Jared was growing up, nothing but some old houses that needed constant repair were left. And it was only through Caleb, with Addy’s help, that they were saved from being sold.

  “Why didn’t he destroy the journal?” Jared asked. “You’d think that with his confession written in it, he’d be frantic to find it.”

  Caleb smiled. “He probably was, but young Alix found the book and hid it.”

  “My Alix? Oh. You’re talking about reincarnation again.”

  “I am. She was Alisa back then, the daughter of John Kendricks and his first wife. Parthenia—”

  “Who is now Jilly.”

  Caleb smiled. “You are right. Parthenia is Jilly. Does this mean I have taught you something?”

  “Don’t get your hopes up,” Jared said, grinning. His grandfather may look different but he was certainly the same man.

  Caleb chuckled. “Parthenia was John Kendricks’s second wife, and she was a very good mother. But in between, young Alisa loved Valentina, just as she does now. When she heard that Valentina was missing, she stole the journal and hid it where only Valentina would look for it.”

  “Why didn’t she tell people what was written in the back of the journal?” Jared asked.

  “My guess is that she didn’t have time to read it. The old place burned down—probably set fire to by Obed—just days after Valentina disappeared. Besides, Ali was just a child. Maybe she forgot. Forgot for a couple of hundred years, that is.”

  “If you knew where the journal was, why didn’t you have someone dig it up a hundred years ago?”

  “I didn’t know there even was a journal until your Alix came here in this life when she was four. Sometimes young children remember things from before they were born, but they forget them when they’re an adult. Alix and I were playing checkers and she told me that she had a very big secret. When I encouraged her to tell it, she said that she’d sneaked into the bad man’s house, found her mother’s favorite book, and put it in the oven. Of course I thought she was talking about Victoria, and it wasn’t until years later that I figured out what she meant. Mother in this life; friend long ago.”

  Caleb smiled in memory. “But even though I knew where the journal was, it wasn’t the right time to dig it up. Ken had to get over his anger, and Parthenia had to come home to us. Everyone had to be in place, starting with your young Alix, but she had no reason at all to return to Nantucket for any length of time. Addy had always felt bad for not searching more for Valentina, so she and I concocted the will that made you so angry.”

  Jared smiled. “Sometimes we don’t know what’s good for us.”

  “In your case, that happens often.”

  Jared groaned. “I can see that having a human body hasn’t softened you.”

  It was Caleb’s turn to groan. “I had forgotten what human pain feels like. This body creaks and aches. And Victoria’s demands …” He gave a little grin.

  “Speaking of which, does Victoria know the truth about you?” Jared asked. For all of his grandfather’s complaints, Dr. Huntley’s body was looking a great deal healthier than it had a few weeks ago.

  “She pretends to know nothing, but she’s always been one to keep secrets to herself.”

  “Like how she knew about the wedding?” Jared’s head came up. “Did you know she knew about that? Or did you tell her?”

  “I may have helped, but it wasn’t difficult to guess what she was up to.”

  “I certainly didn’t see it!”

  “You weren’t meant to, but that doesn’t make you less of a man. Valentina has often put me in places I didn’t want to be.” He smiled. “Now it’s time for you to go to your wife. And need I tell you that I want grandbabies right away?”

  “I’ll give it my best effort,” Jared said as he got up to leave. He started to say more, but didn’t. He wanted to know how his grandfather was doing at his job, and more about how he was adjusting to being alive again. He had thousands of questions and he planned to get to them all, but not now. “I’m glad you came home,” Jared said.

  “So am I,” Caleb answered.

  Jared paused at the door. “Tell me, now that you have Valentina back, was she worth a wait of two hundred and two years?”

  Caleb smiled. “You waited thirty-six years for Alix. How much longer would you have gone?”

  He didn’t hesitate. “Forever.”

  “Yes,” Caleb said. “You will wait for True Love forever.”

  TO SEA FOREVER

  Acknowledgments

  Spending time on the island of Nantucket has been an experience like none other, and I’d like to thank a lot of people.

  Betsey Tyler has written books on the individual histories of houses on Nantucket, books I greatly admire. As fell
ow historians, she and I hit it off at our first meeting and she lent me a book that was very helpful.

  Nat Philbrick answered my questions about research and inspired me with his great books. I am in awe of his research! His wife, Melissa, talked to me about weddings and what’s happening on Nantucket. They are both delightful company!

  Nancy, a.k.a. Nancy Thayer, and Charley Walters. They drove me around the island, took me to Daffy Day, and put on the most wonderful dinner parties at their beautiful old house so I could meet people. It was kind and generous of them.

  Twig Perkins and all his gorgeous, intelligent, funny (GIF) men. Twig answered all my many questions about the HDC and building permits, and gave me some insider hints. Plus he and his GIF men did a fabulous job of remodeling for me—even though each man made me prove myself to him. Twig stood back and laughed at it all. Oh, the joy of hearing, “She’s right.”

  Twig’s wife, Jude, and I met while I was on a garden tour. She has chickens and a fabulous house. Our names being the same has caused great hilarity.

  Julie Hensler for architecture. Julie was in her glorious garden digging up flowers and I interrogated her about becoming an architect. I thought I knew everything, but I asked her just to be sure. After I found out that I knew nothing about the schooling needed, she took me on a tour of a Harvard classroom.

  Dave Hitchcock (one of Twig’s GIF men) for helping me with the fishing and showing me his beehives. And for shortening all the furniture in my office so it fit a normal-size person.

  Jimmy Jaksic let me tag along to one of the weddings he was putting on. I kept asking everyone if they knew of a wedding planner I could interview, but no one did. Then one day I was in my side yard and said hello to my neighbor. We started chatting and I found out Jimmy was a wedding planner. I almost jumped over the fence to start asking him questions.

  Tricia Patterson takes care of my hair and entertains me with stories of what’s going on around the island. So far, I haven’t found a book she hasn’t read.

  Jose Partida and his men (also GIF) of Clean Cut Landscaping took on the horrendous job of bulldozing my little half acre and putting in a beautiful garden. They helped me fight the War of the Deer (we lost) and Jose was always dragging me away from my pages and telling me I work too much.

  Georgen Charnes for supplying me with lots of books for the research of the glorious island of Nantucket, and for sending me maps and journals. Scott Charnes for taking me out on his boat. Cassie for being her perfect self.

  Zero Main is real and the clothes are wonderful! Noël lets me stand in a dressing room, brings me lots of clothes to try on, and tells me what looks good.

  Downyflake. I don’t know what I’d do without Downyflake. I sit there and write while they serve me and it’s wonderful! Some of my best ideas have come to me while eating my eggs and cranberry muffin. And the excellent staff entertains me with stories of what’s happening on the island.

  John Ekizian, my publicist. John runs the Facebook pages, but more than that, he makes me laugh. He is the absolute king of one-liners. He’s made me laugh so hard my stomach muscles get sore.

  Linda Marrow, my dear, beloved editor who has the magic ability to instantly see what’s wrong with something and how to fix it. Her comments are short and to the point and exactly on the spot. She has a true talent!

  By the way, the real name of the historical society in Nantucket is NHA, Nantucket Historical Association. I changed it to NHS because I didn’t want to offend anyone by putting a former ghost in as the director.

  I would especially like to thank my Facebook buddies. I was dragged into the social media world kicking and screaming. I did not want to do it! I only agreed when I was told that I could tell about my daily experiences in trying to write a novel. I wouldn’t have to just post that everything was happy and easy, but could say when my fictional characters and circumstances in the publishing world were driving me crazy. I wanted to be real, not what people seem to think of writers, that we sit around and wait for ideas to come to us, then casually write them down. Even with that in mind, I still worried about what seems to be the new American pastime of anonymously slaughtering people on the Internet. What a shock I was in for! The people—mostly women—on my site have been truly wonderful! They have been so supportive that it has given me new vigor in my writing. They often make me laugh and have sympathized with my complaining when I had some obstacle put in my way. They answer my daily questions with such insight that all day I think about what they’ve said. Since they have been with me through every step on this book—even to knowing its true title—I have set up a file on my website that contains a lot of the documents that I created so I could write this book. There’s a map of Kingsley Lane, a genealogy chart, before and after rewrites, and even scenes that didn’t get into the book. I just want to say thank you to all of them. You are great!

  About the Author

  JUDE DEVERAUX is the author of forty-one New York Times best-sellers to date, including Moonlight in the Morning and A Knight in Shining Armor. There are more than sixty million copies of her work in print worldwide.

  For updates, bonus content,

  and sneak peeks at upcoming titles:

  Visit the author’s website: judedeveraux.com

  Find the author on Facebook: www.​facebook.​com/​Jude​Deveraux

  Follow the author on Twitter: @JudeDeveraux1

  Don’t miss Jude’s next novel, Prince Charming!

  For updates, bonus content,

  and sneak peeks at upcoming titles:

  Visit the author’s website: judedeveraux.​com

  Find the author on Facebook: www.​facebook.​com/​Jude​Deveraux

  Follow the author on Twitter: @JudeDeveraux1

  Don’t miss Jude’s next novel, Prince Charming!