Jessie tries to read but is too agitated. She is so angry at Exalta, and when she feels this way, there is only one cure. She can hear Exalta, Kate, and Blair going back and forth between the house and the street, where the Scout is parked. They’re leaving for the beach without her. Jessie loves Smith’s Point not only because they can drive right onto it but also because there are big, pounding waves on the ocean side and calmer water on the sound side and she can easily walk between the two. Tuckernuck is so close that, with binoculars, Jessie can see the people over there riding on the sand roads in their bare-bones Jeeps. Smith’s Point also has shells and driftwood for collecting, and the sand is flat, good for walks. Despite this, Jessie is glad they’re leaving her behind.

She waits until they all pile into the Scout with an umbrella, a stack of towels, the picnic basket, and a Styrofoam cooler. Blair seems to have a hard time climbing into the back seat and for a second, Jessie thinks Blair will have to stay home, but she manages to hoist herself up and Jessie silently cheers. Kate gets in the driver’s side and the Scout takes off down Plumb Lane, then turns right onto Fair. Jessie waits five minutes, ten minutes, twelve minutes—just in case they’ve forgotten something and have to turn around. She predicts they’ll be gone three hours at least.

Jessie slips out of Little Fair. The door to Mr. Crimmins’s room is open but he’s not home. During the day he works as a caretaker at other people’s houses and is usually gone until dinnertime. Jessie pauses in the doorway, wondering if there is anything of value she could steal from Mr. Crimmins. She sees only a novel, The Godfather, a drinking glass by the bed, and the clothes in the closet. None of it is appealing, and it’s not Mr. Crimmins she’s after, anyway.

She goes back into All’s Fair through the kitchen and sees that her mother has left her a ham and butter sandwich wrapped in wax paper and a spear of dill pickle, which is Jessie’s favorite lunch. She takes a bite of the pickle but leaves the sandwich for later. She can’t afford to get distracted.

In the den, she considers the whirligigs. Which one would Exalta miss the most? Probably the man on the tricycle—but what would Jessie do with it? Hide it somewhere in Little Fair? Bury it in the yard? Put it out with the trash? Exalta would immediately suspect that Jessie had taken it, and an inquisition would follow.

Then Jessie gets an idea.

She tiptoes up the stairs and down the hall to her grandmother’s room. She turns the knob, steps inside, and closes the door behind her. The room is dim and cool; Exalta keeps her curtains drawn and her air conditioner running, even though she’s not home. The rest of them are forbidden to do this—it’s wasteful!—but the rules don’t apply to Exalta because she owns the house. Kirby has long proclaimed that if she ever inherits the house, she’s going to run the air conditioners full blast all day, every day.

Jessie takes a look around. She has been in this room only a few times before. There are two twin beds, side by side. They are so high off the ground that Exalta uses a step stool to reach hers. There’s an armoire and a dressing table on top of which is a three-sided mirror, a silver hairbrush, and a matching hand mirror.

Jessie lifts the hand mirror. It’s an antique, engraved on the back with Exalta’s mother’s initials, KFB, for Katharine Fox Baskett.

Over by the closet door is a triangular table on which Exalta keeps her jewelry. She brings only a few pieces with her because Nantucket is casual, and the rings she keeps in the porcelain boxes at home, for example, would be out of place here. But there on the table is the burgundy velvet box. When Jessie opens the box, she sees her gold-knot necklace with the diamond.

Jessie removes the necklace from the box but leaves the box itself, closed, on the triangular table. Then Jessie tiptoes out of the room and hurries back to Little Fair, where she wraps the necklace in a hankie and tucks the hankie into her drawstring purse. She will wear the necklace to dinner.

It isn’t really stealing, Jessie tells herself, because the necklace is hers. But taking it without Exalta’s knowledge or permission has done the trick. Jessie feels better.

Exalta leaves for her bridge game at five and Blair orders two pizzas from Vincent’s to be delivered at six. Kate and Blair exchanged words about why Blair ordered two pizzas.

You’re enormous, Kate said bluntly.

I’m hungry, Mother, Blair responded. I’m eating for three.

Jessie puts on her blue seersucker sundress from the year before but it’s tight around the top, so Jessie has no choice but to go down to the kitchen and ask her mother and sister for help with the zipper.

“You’ve outgrown this,” Kate says.

“You’re getting breasts,” Blair says. She turns to Kate. “Have you bought her a bra?”

“She’s only twelve years old,” Kate says.

“Thirteen,” Jessie says. Her cheeks are burning with both embarrassment and pleasure. She’s getting breasts!

“You need to take her to Buttner’s to get her a training bra, Mother,” Blair says.

Kate sighs. “I’m not ready for this.”

“Fine.” Blair turns to Jessie. “I’ll take you.”

“Find something else to wear,” Kate says.

Jessie goes back upstairs to put on her only other choice, a white eyelet A-line sundress, which is a bit more forgiving. She secures the chain around her neck, then studies herself in the mirror. She wishes Pick were here to see her but he has already left for work. Jessie should have suggested they go to the North Shore Restaurant.

When Jessie and her mother arrive at the Mad Hatter, the maître d’ greets Kate with a bow. “Good evening, Mrs. Foley,” he says.

“Mrs. Levin,” Kate says. “Come on, now, Shep, I’ve been Mrs. Levin for fourteen years.” Her tone is light; she seems unbothered. It was a simple mistake, and Shep is an older gentleman who has known Jessie’s mother since she was Katie Nichols. But Jessie can’t help studying Shep. Does he seem like an anti-Semite?

“Of course. I’m sorry, Mrs. Levin. This must be young Jessica Levin, then. If I’m not mistaken, you’re celebrating Jessica’s birthday.”

“Yes, correct, thank you, Shep,” Kate says, and she ushers Jessie forward.

The Mad Hatter is Jessie’s favorite restaurant because walking into it feels like entering another world. There are detailed murals on the walls depicting scenes from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, not only the Mad Hatter himself but also an imperious-looking Queen of Hearts, the White Rabbit, and a rendition of the Jabberwock that Jessie was afraid of when she was younger. The previous year when they came here for dinner, Tiger and Kirby told Jessie that Lewis Carroll, the author, had written the books while smoking opium.