“It’s as though I know this room. Wet laundry was hung over there.”
When Graydon looked where she was pointing, he saw some big iron hooks in the beams. Perfect for a clothesline.
“Herbs dried over there. There were a lot of them needed for the candles.” There were holes where smaller hooks had once been.
“We … I mean, they sold candles. The children played in that corner. Young Thomas cried because the toy his father made him fell through the boards and we couldn’t find it.” Toby threw up her hands. “This is strange. Why do I keep making up these things? Maybe I should tell Victoria and she can use the stories in her books.”
“Or you could write them yourself.”
“No, thanks!” Toby said. “Being a writer is too isolated for me.”
“So what do you want?” he asked, his face serious.
“I’m an American. I want it all. Husband, kids, nice house, a career that makes me feel that I’m doing something to help people. You ready to go downstairs?”
“After you.” As he followed her downstairs, he said softly, “That’s exactly what I want out of my life too.”
They spent half an hour looking in each of the four bedrooms and three baths, checking for water damage or mold, but saw none.
Toby flipped light switches and turned on faucets, but nothing happened. “The utilities were on the night I slept here. Did someone turn them off?”
“Not as far as I know,” Graydon said as they went downstairs. What he hadn’t told her was that he was most curious to see the room that she said frightened her.
They went down the large main staircase and he followed as she went from room to room. He never remarked on how familiar she seemed to be with the house. On the day they argued—well, actually, Graydon hadn’t said much—he got the idea she hadn’t done much exploring.
“The dining room. Wouldn’t this look wonderful with half a dozen Oriental carpets? All of them on top of each other. Brought back from faraway places and shiny new. A Queen Anne dining set with seats upholstered in red plush, brought over from London, would be in the middle of the room.”
Next was what she called “the stair room.” “The family would use this. It would keep the children off the front stairs, which meant that no adults tripped over their games, shoes, and dropped mittens.”
“And Young Thomas’s lost toy?”
Toby laughed. “He was a corker. Lost everything as he walked.” She went through a door to a narrow room full of cabinets, with a tiny powder room tucked against the wall. “Of course this wasn’t here,” she said of the modern plumbing.
“What was the room used for?”
“Concoctions,” she said quickly. “Anything that could be made to sell. Candles, face creams, cordials—and soap. But then, Valentina and her transparent soap took that market away from everyone else.”
Graydon followed her and listened. She went to a room she called the back parlor, to a bedroom, and finally into the kitchen. “This is all new,” she said.
Since the kitchen didn’t look like it had been remodeled since the 1950s, what she was saying was odd.
Again, Graydon was glad to see no sign of leakage about the house. It may not have been lived in for years, but someone had done a good job of maintaining it. They went back to the front and into the big parlor. The fireplace, with its carved surround, was beautiful. In the back was the sitting room where Graydon had found Toby sleeping. He hadn’t wanted to disturb her, so he’d returned to the house to get food, a blanket, and a pillow. And he’d not let her know that he had slept on a hastily prepared pallet just outside the door. He wasn’t about to let her spend the night alone in that big, empty house! Just as he’d hoped, the next morning she’d awakened in a better mood.
“That’s all of it,” Toby said. “There’s a cellar, but it’s not very big and is only used for storage. If you want to see it, we can.” She started to leave the room.
“Wait,” he said. “Where is the room you’re afraid of?”
“I don’t know what you mean,” Toby said and began to walk faster.
Graydon stepped in front of her and put his hands on her arms. “It’s all right. I’m here and you’re safe.”
“I don’t know what you mean,” she repeated, louder and stronger. She twisted away from him. “I think I’ll go back home. I’ll see you later.”
She hurried out of the house so quickly that Graydon was reminded of a cartoon character going so fast he couldn’t be seen. He was torn between wanting to go after her and staying in the house to find what had so upset her.
It didn’t take him long to find the hidden room. But then the palace had rooms and closets and stairs hidden everywhere, so he knew what to look for. Finding the way to open the door that was so cleverly hidden in the paneling took longer. Slide, push, lift. He had to do them all to get the door open.
What he saw was a small room with a window in the far wall. To his right was an old cabinet that looked original to the house. There was a frame for what looked to have been a sort of chaise longue.
He wondered what the room had been used for originally. Maybe it had once been a place to store wood for the many huge fireplaces in the house. But no, that would have been outside. What he didn’t see was anything about the room that would cause fear in anyone.
But as he stood there, it was as though a feeling of sadness began to come over him. He needed to leave and see if Toby was all right, but he didn’t move. Slowly, he was beginning to feel that his life was ending, that everything he’d ever thought and felt, all he’d ever wanted to do, all that he’d ever accomplished, meant nothing.
A low light seemed to fill the room and he could hear a woman weeping, then two women, then more. It was as if the whole room was full of women crying in grief.
When Graydon felt like there was a weight on his chest and he couldn’t breathe, he turned and left the room. He slammed the old door, then bolted it. For a moment he leaned against it, his heart pounding. The little room he was in, with the old cot and the fireplace on the far wall, seemed very normal. And the whole house was quiet. Yet he had just felt the most extreme sadness he’d ever known in his life.
As he stepped away from the panel, he decided to call his aunt Cale and see what she knew about the history of the house. Knowing her, by now she’d thoroughly researched every year of its existence. And Graydon wanted to know every bit of it.
He slowly walked back to Toby’s small house. The front door was open and for a moment he stood in the small entryway. He needed some time to calm himself after being in that room in the old house.
“You have to help me with these party plans,” he heard Toby say. “I do not know how to do this,” Lorcan said, sounding confused. “I’ll show you,” Toby said.
Graydon smiled, as he had an idea that Lorcan wasn’t used to the easy chatter of female friends.
He well remembered Lorcan when she was twelve and had just qualified to enter the government program. She had been a tall, thin girl in clothes too short for her, but her grandparents couldn’t afford more. Their faces had shown their love and hope for their only grandchild.
Graydon had attended the welcoming ceremony, then, as always, had hung around for a few days to watch the students. It amazed him that you couldn’t predict who would succeed and who would fail. He and Daire had long ago seen that, even more than muscle and training, it was heart and will that made a champion.
For three days the students were allowed to wrestle, fight with rubber swords, train in a gym, and attend a few academic classes. During those days, little instruction was given, and few rules. The idea was to see what each student was capable of, without interference.
On the first day, Graydon had been called away by his mother to be charming to some women who were making new cushions for their private chapel. It had been difficult for him to say the empty phrases of flattery, as his mind was elsewhere.
That night, over beers, Daire said, “I have a cha
mpion.”
“Which one?”
“I’ll not tell you. Come and see if you can guess.”
“It’s the big kid with the snarl,” Graydon said. “He frightened even me.”
Daire smiled. “Can you stay tomorrow or does your mother have you scheduled for flower arranging?”
“I would laugh if that weren’t real. Was it the lad with the heavy brows?”
Daire didn’t answer, and the next day, Graydon saw why. Within hours, he saw that the tall girl with the long black hair was Daire’s future champion. She was fast, lithe, and smart. It was as though she knew what her opponent was going to do before he did it.
By the end of the third day, every student had tried to hit Lorcan, but none of them had succeeded. One large boy got so frustrated at Lorcan’s dips and dodges that he ran at her to try to pin her against a wall. For a second her eyes widened at the sight of two hundred pounds of muscle coming at her.
Graydon took a step forward, meaning to stop the boy before he crushed the girl, but Daire put his hand on Gray’s arm. A split second before the boy hit Lorcan, she dropped to the ground into a ball, head down, arms around her knees.
The boy slammed into the wall hard.
Daire gave Graydon a look to stay back. As the teacher, Daire wanted to see the reaction of these new students to what Lorcan had done. Who would get angry and cry “Foul!”
It was the biggest boy, the one Graydon had said would scare him, who started the laughter. Daire’s eyes were on the student who had slammed into the wall. How would he react to Lorcan having made everyone laugh at him? His nose was bloody, he’d cut his forehead, and he had his hand to his chest. With a dazed expression, he looked down at Lorcan, still in a ball between his feet.
Reaching down, he picked her up by her shoulders—and Daire stepped forward, meaning to protect her. This time it was Graydon who stopped him.
The boy, nearly twice as big as Lorcan, held her up by her shoulders and stared at her. “It’s like fighting my cat,” he said at last, and everyone laughed even harder.
The big boy threw his heavy arm around Lorcan’s skinny shoulders and led her over to the other young men. The girls who were in the training program were left in their own group.
From then on, Lorcan was one of the boys—and she had to train twice as hard to gain the muscle and strength that came so easily to them. But she had an agility that they would never possess. They teased her about it, but they also envied her.
“Daire?” Graydon heard Toby say. “How are you doing on the menu? And when are we planning to host this dinner? How long will it take the clothes to get here? I need to make out an invitation to Victoria and Dr. Huntley’s wedding, so I need a plan. And Jilly and Ken should come too, although Victoria and Ken tend to take potshots at each other.”
There was silence in the room.
“I know no answers to these questions,” Daire said.
“What are potshots?” Lorcan asked.
“A bit like machine-gun fire. No! Not for real, but Victoria and Ken used to be married. Sorry. I forget that you two don’t know anyone here. Let’s see if we can make a plan and a schedule.”
“Where is Graydon?” Daire asked and there was what sounded like fear in his voice.
“Go on,” Toby said. “Find him. I left him across the lane in that old house. Why don’t you two have a boys’ night out? Lorcan and I can do all this. Since Graydon’s grandfather knows about the twins’ exchange, do you think it would be all right if I emailed him the measurements?”
“I’m sure he’d love that,” Daire said, heading quickly toward the door.
Graydon was waiting for him outside. “You look like you just escaped a fate worse than death.”
“You have no idea,” Daire said.
“Shall we see what there is to do in Nantucket at night? Unless you want to help plan a wedding, that is. I warn you, if you do help you get called a ‘girlfriend.’ And if you don’t—”
“Let me guess. I’m insensitive,” Daire said, then sighed. “I miss the days when a man just showed up on his wedding night.” There was such longing in his voice that they both began to laugh.
“To the beer!” Graydon said.
“Yes! Forward to the beer.”
That night, while Graydon was out, Toby did what she’d wanted to for days. She looked on the official website of Lanconia. What did the blue-blooded Danna look like? When the photograph came up and Toby saw that the woman was the one in the photo Rory carried in his wallet, she shut the lid of her computer. “Oh, my goodness,” she whispered. Graydon was to marry the woman his brother loved?
All in all, it was something that Toby did not want to think about.
Graydon and Daire were in The Brotherhood restaurant, where they’d eaten a huge amount of seafood and were now on their fourth beers. For the whole time they’d talked about all things Lanconian.
Daire told Graydon about his new students. “Of course there is no Lorcan in the group,” he said.
“No star who shines brighter than all the others?” Graydon asked. He was staring at his glass, a faraway look in his eyes.
“You are homesick?” Daire asked.
“Not at all!” Graydon said. “I like this island very much. If I were here longer I’d get to know people. I’d like to work on my sailing and I hear they have good teachers. And some of my American family seems to be moving here.”
“You cannot stay with her,” Daire said softly.
“I know. I have never, even when I was a child, neglected my duties. Country always comes first.”
Daire wasn’t going to let his friend dwell in self-pity. He changed the subject. “What is it about that old house and the dreams of a girl that so intrigue you?”
Graydon was glad of something else to think about. “That house should be sealed off forever. There were things in there that shouldn’t be.” He paused a moment, then told Daire what he’d felt in the little room, the sadness and the grief that had run through him.
“What are you going to do about it?” Daire asked.
“When I left the house I thought I’d find out what happened there, but now I’m not so sure I want to. I have so little time here that I just want to enjoy it. Toby seems to have ensnared Lorcan into her wedding designing so perhaps tomorrow you and I can do some serious training.”
“In between Rory’s frantic calls?”
Graydon took his time in responding. “I don’t know how I will do it, but my mother is going to stop speaking to Rory the way she does. He has sacrificed a lot for me and for Lanconia.”
Daire knew that Graydon was referring to Danna. He was close enough to both brothers to know who loved whom. “How are you going to leave this American girl when the time comes?”
When Graydon looked up at Daire, what he felt and what he was going to feel were in his eyes.
Daire leaned back. “I would not trade places with you. Perhaps you could—”
“Do not say it,” Graydon said. “If I had any sense I would have left days ago, but I cannot. I must stay on this island as surely as I have to breathe.” He paused. “Let’s get out of here and go get drunk. Do you have any money?”
“Not so much as a centime,” Daire said.
“I have Rory’s credit card. Toby showed me how to use it but I’m not sure I remember.”
“Smile at our barmaid and let her show you,” Daire said, “then let’s go get so drunk that we forget all women everywhere.”
“There’s not that much liquor on the earth,” Graydon said.
Toby was awakened by a crash and some loud cursing. Or rather some shouts in Lanconian that sounded an awful lot like curses. When she looked at the clock, she saw that it was just after three A.M. It seemed that Graydon and Daire were at last returning home. All evening she’d been worried about them, but the look Lorcan gave her made Toby keep her concerns to herself.
“He is with Daire,” Lorcan had said in a tone that suggested there was no ne
ed for further questions.
But Lorcan’s words didn’t keep Toby from constantly glancing at the clock and the door. She was trying to concentrate on the wedding plans she’d present to Victoria, but she couldn’t keep her mind on them. “I just hope she’ll like these,” she mumbled.
“Daire likes anything historical,” Lorcan said.
“I didn’t mean—” Toby began, but stopped herself. “Does he? I know so little about you two personally. Either of you have a boyfriend or a girlfriend?”
“Daire lives in the barracks with his students, but he sometimes returns to his parents’ home for the …” She couldn’t seem to remember the word.
“Weekend?”
“Yes,” Lorcan said. “If there are women, he is discreet, although he does make all women feel at ease.”
There was something about her tone that intrigued Toby. “What else does Daire like besides history?”
For fifteen minutes, Lorcan talked nonstop. In the entire time she’d been on Nantucket she hadn’t spoken so many words. She didn’t seem to notice that a quarter of them were Lanconian. She just kept on going. She told Toby what Daire liked to watch on TV—American and English shows such as Spartacus and Game of Thrones—what he read—biographies—what movies he liked—anything with an intricate plot that used what, according to Lorcan, was his prodigious brain. She told of the foods he liked and disliked. It seemed that his favorite vegetable was asparagus.
Toby wanted to ask, “And how long have you been in love with him?” but she didn’t. She looked down at her notebook to hide her smile. How very interesting, she thought.
At about ten she gave up waiting for the men to return and went to bed. But she didn’t sleep well. Her worry made her restless. If something bad happened, how would anyone know to call her? But then, maybe someone from the wedding had seen Graydon and would realize that he was a Kingsley. But what if no one recognized him?
She flopped about on the bed, dozing off now and then but always just barely. When she heard Graydon and Daire on the stairs, bumping into furniture and cursing in Lanconian, she let out her breath in relief.
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