Alix hesitated. Perhaps she should wait until Jared returned and Caleb could tell both of them. But she couldn’t resist. She nodded.
He looked around the attic. “For this story of great and deep love, we need to create the proper atmosphere. I have a … What do you call it?” He made a small circle with his hands. “It plays music. Do you have a gramophone?”
She smiled at the image of the old-fashioned machine, which fit right in with the artifacts surrounding them. “No, but I have an excellent laptop and it will play your CD.”
He smiled at her as though she were the most intelligent of people. “I remember seeing a gown in a box down the first aisle. Its owner was rather tall, like you, and I believe the garment will fit you. Perhaps you’d like to put it on and while we talk I could teach you a dance from Valentina’s time.”
“Oh,” Alix said, her eyes wide. As a woman in a modern world that rarely bothered to dress up for anything, she started to protest. But then she glanced at the window. The rain was still coming down hard and she had nothing else really urgent to do, so why not dance with Jared’s handsome relative? “Where is the dress?”
Caleb smiled at her with such warmth that Alix felt herself take a step toward him. Good grief! she thought, stepping back. If the real Captain Caleb had this magnetism, she could certainly understand why Valentina ended up pregnant before they were married. He seemed to understand Alix’s thoughts, but didn’t comment as he gave her directions to find the box containing the dress.
She found it easily but getting it out was difficult. She had to remove six other objects off the top and drag it out. It was a dress box, dark green, with the name of a store in Boston on the lid.
When she got it to the front, Caleb was standing by the chair and smiling. She wondered why she hadn’t been introduced to him. Did he live nearby?
“That’s it,” he said.
It took Alix only moments to open the box. Inside was what looked to be a white cotton dress. Pulling it out, she held it up under the si
ngle bulb of light. It was beautiful: crisp, clean cotton, with a deep square neck, long sleeves, and a floor-length skirt done in folded-over layers. It was, without a doubt, a wedding dress. She looked at Caleb. “1950s?”
“I believe so.” He paused. “Would you like to try it on?”
She looked at the long white dress. There was really no reason for her to put it on, but then lately her mind had been so full of weddings and all that goes with them that she felt drawn to the gown. And then, of course, there was Jared. Hadn’t she said that her wedding dress would be cotton? “I think I’ll go downstairs to put it on.”
“Then you’ll come back to me?” he asked in a way that took her aback. He sounded as though he’d be devastated if she said no.
“Yes, I will,” she said as she ran down the stairs to her bedroom.
Once in the room, she couldn’t help going to Captain Caleb’s portrait. The man upstairs really did resemble his ancestor! “He’s not quite as handsome as you are,” she said. “But he’s a close second.”
In the next minute she’d stripped off her clothes. On impulse she rummaged in a drawer to find her best white lacy underwear and put it on. She started toward the gown but instead went to the bathroom and put on makeup. She was glad her long hair was clean. She pulled off the tie for her ponytail and managed to sweep it up into a soft chignon. It wasn’t a professional job but it was more fitting for the elegance of the dress.
At last she returned to the bedroom, wearing just her underwear, and picked up the dress. As she stepped into it, she had to struggle with the tight, narrow sleeves, then work to fasten the buttons up the back. Only when she had it on did she look in the mirror. If the dress had been made for her, it couldn’t have fit better. The neckline was low, showing rather a lot of cleavage. She made a halfhearted attempt to pull it up, but then smiled. Her breasts had never looked better!
As she went up the steep, narrow attic stairs wearing a wedding dress and carrying a laptop, she was hesitant, but the moment she saw Caleb her reluctance vanished. He wore a tuxedo, one of that utterly perfect kind, like out of a Cary Grant movie. It fit him exactly, curving in at the waist and showing his long, heavily muscled legs. She didn’t know what gym he went to, but it should be given an award.
The look he gave Alix made her stand up straighter. “Goddesses must envy you,” he whispered.
His words were flattering and of course untrue, but they made all Alix’s doubts leave her. She set her laptop down and inserted the CD that he’d put on the table. The first tune was a combination of Scottish and Irish reels, with a lot of violins. It was fast-paced but also lyrical.
Smiling, he held out his hand to her.
When she took it, an instant warmth went through her. His touch wasn’t as electric or sexual as Jared’s, but it was calming—and invigorating at the same time. Her concerns about the work she needed to do fell away. All that seemed important was this moment and what this man had to tell her.
Stepping back from her, he bowed, and even while Alix didn’t know the dance he was leading her into, she did seem to know. She curtsied, then turned and walked forward four steps, Caleb beside her. She stopped, turned back toward him, and lifted her hands to touch his.
“How do I know what to do?” she asked.
“Past memory,” he said, turning her around once more. “But now is not the time for thought. Just feel, and I will tell you the story. Valentina was extraordinarily beautiful. She had red hair and green eyes, and a waist the width of a man’s hand.”
They were moving to the music toward the far wall. “She sounds like my mother.”
“She is exactly like her.”
“Then she must have caused a stir among the young men on the island.”
“Oh, yes,” Caleb said in a voice that sounded faraway. “They all made complete fools of themselves when she was near.”