After they’d eaten, they went back to cleaning. What they found in the pantry was fascinating. Items were three rows deep and they seemed to cover all the years since the young women had died. There were iron pots and wooden implements in the back, and what looked to be Victorian gadgets in the middle. In the front was cookware from after World War II. There were even a few ration cards.
“I guess we should contact the Whaling Museum and get someone to come look at these things.” Before them, spread out on the sheets they’d put on the grass, were a lot of the artifacts they’d cleaned, many of which they had no idea what they were. “Or maybe we should call Dr. Huntley at the NHS.”
“Are you sure?” Jamie asked. “Didn’t he say the sailors brought the Tea Ladies gifts? If that’s true, then all of this belongs to them.”
“You think we should put it all back in there, don’t you?”
“It’s an option,” Jamie said.
She was watching him. “You pretend that you don’t believe in them, but you do think they exist as ghosts, don’t you?”
“I’d like to think there is more than just the finality of death, yes.” When he looked at her, there was something in his eyes, an emptiness, a hollow place that ran through them. It was there and gone in an instant.
He knows about death, has felt it, she thought. But in the next second Jamie gave his devil-may-care grin and he was back to being the guy who jetted around the world from one party to the next.
“What’s made you—?” she began, but he cut her off.
“You ready to hit it again?” he asked.
Obviously, he didn’t want to talk about anything serious. “Shall we take on the last layer of the pantry?” She looked him up and down. The heavy sweatsuit he had on was covered in dirt and drying sweat. “If I can stand the smell of you, that is.”
Jamie looked down at himself. “You’re right. I’ll be back in a few minutes.” She watched him disappear into the house, then sat on the grass and began to clean some more of the old kitchen items. There were half a dozen pretty white ceramic molds that she thought were for ice cream. They had designs of fruit and flowers on the bottom. She dunked one into a bucket of warm, soapy water and began to wash it.
She wondered if her ancestor Leland Hartley had touched the molds. Had he eaten ice cream made from them? The thought led her to that wedding day long ago, when two beautiful young women had caught a fever and died within a week.
What were they like? she wondered. Did they have dreams for the future? Were Juliana and Leland planning on living on Nantucket? Or were they going to his home in Boston? If they w
ere leaving, what about Hyacinth? Was she going too?
No, Hallie thought, Hyacinth would stay with their father—which would make the wedding day sad as well as happy.
Hallie was so absorbed in her thoughts that she didn’t hear Jamie approach.
“Better?” he asked from a few feet away.
Smiling, she looked up at him, but her face froze. He had changed clothes. He was still covered, but he had on a thin outfit meant for jogging. The long-sleeved shirt fit him snugly—and showed off muscles that curved over his body. He also wore pants loose enough to go over his brace but tight enough to show off his heavy leg muscles. Superman would envy his body.
When she looked up at his face, she saw his smug expression. He certainly knew how good he looked!
Hallie made herself turn away long enough to recover from her awe, then put her professional face back on. “You’ll be cooler in that,” she said seriously. “Ready to go back to work?”
Jamie’s smirk turned into a frown as he stepped back. “Yeah, sure.” Looking a bit disappointed, he went into the house.
Hallie got up to follow him, but when she stood up, she found her knees were weak, and her skin was overheating. She leaned against the side of the building and tried to calm herself. Jamie Taggert looked like every movie star and professional athlete she’d ever been awed by, ever giggled about. His beautiful face was over a body that made her ache to touch him. She could feel her lips on those abs!
Jamie looked out the door to see her leaning against the building. “If you’re too tired to do this, I can finish by myself.”
“No, no,” she said as she pushed away from the wall. “What should we do next?”
“You could climb on the stepladder and hand down things from the top shelf.”
“Sure,” Hallie said and he went back inside. She took a step toward the door, but then she saw the new hose and hand sprayer they’d just bought. She picked it up and sprayed herself in the face with ice-cold water. The way she felt, she could have dived into a glacial pool and turned it into a hot spring.
“Come on, Hartley,” he yelled from inside, and she went back into the house.
When Jamie’s phone vibrated, he took it out of his pocket and looked at the text message. I HAVE INFO, Todd had written.
He glanced at Hallie. She was sitting on the floor washing the legs of the tea tables. When he told her he needed to call his brother, she didn’t look up, just waved her hand.