The Scent of Jasmine (25 page)

Alex had told her that she needed passion to marry someone, and now she knew what he meant. It was true that he’d done a bad thing in falsifying his appearance, and that he’d laughed at her for weeks. He’d even encouraged her to think of him in a way that wasn’t true, but she’d forgiven him. She knew without a doubt that if Micah, Ephraim, or Ben had done something half as bad, she’d never have forgiven them.

She well remembered what he’d told her once.
“You should look at a man and feel that you’ll die if you don’t spend the rest of your life with him. Your heart needs to leap into your throat and stay there.”
At the time, she’d thought she could never feel that way about anyone.

And, too, now she knew about making love. Even the thought of it made her warm all over. Who could have imagined that something so basic could be so exciting, so fulfilling? Alex’s hands all over her! She thought of the positions that the two of them sometimes got into and her face turned red. If someone had told her she’d someday be stark naked with her ankles wrapped around a man’s neck, she would have told them that was impossible.
She
would never do such a vulgar, disgusting, primitive thing! Never!

But she had, and she’d loved it. She had to suppress a giggle when she thought of doing something like that with Micah. Alex had told her that some couples only did one position, and she’d laughed. Now that she thought about it, Micah would probably have done only one way and that one very quickly.

“If you don’t get that look off your face, we’ll have to stop and rent one of these hotel rooms,” Alex said from beside her, his voice low and husky.

“Actually, I was thinking about Micah.”

“You have more brothers? Or is he one of your cousins?”

“As if you don’t remember! There! Look at that hotel. It looks like a place Tally would stay.” She was pointing to a conservative, well-kept smaller hotel just on the outskirts of the noise ahead of them.

“That place for a rich young man alone in New Orleans? I don’t think so. From what you’ve told me, I think it’s more likely that he’d stay there.” Alex pointed down the street to the three-story building that seemed to be the source of the noise. The windows and open doors blazed with light that fell out into the street. Men with garishly dressed women on their arms strolled about, their laughter drifting on the night breeze.

“You’re wrong,” Cay said. “For all that Tally sometimes lacks mature judgment, he is a good boy. He would never go to such a place.”

“How about if we ride around the back and take a look in a window? If we don’t see him, I vote that we get a hotel room, and tomorrow we’ll get cleaned up and look for him. Or for both of them if your other brother is here, too.” Alex had to work to keep the enthusiasm out of his voice when he thought of at last getting to meet his childhood friend. Other than his father, Nate had been the most important person in Alex’s life. The frequent letters they’d exchanged had helped him through everything.

“All right,” Cay said. “But we just look through the window. We do
not
go inside. I’ll walk through a swamp full of alligators with you, Alexander McDowell, but I’ll not go into a disgusting, immoral place like that one.”

“Me, neither,” he said seriously. “Never have been in one and never will be.” He turned his horse away.

“Is it me, or are you getting worse at lying?”

Alex’s laugh came back to her, and she shook her head at him.

Twenty minutes later, they were at the back of the big building, and the music from inside covered any sounds that they made. The high-pitched, excited laughter of women was underscored by the throaty, suggestive sounds from the men. Cay gave Alex a look that told him she’d been right about the place.

“He’s not in there!” she hissed at Alex as they moved under the tall windows. Alex had to half crouch to keep his head from being seen.

When they got close to the front, he stopped and stood upright. “I’ll look and save your delicate sensibilities.”

“Having morals doesn’t mean I’m delicate. I’ve had enough strength to save your ungrateful life about a dozen times now.”

Alex didn’t bother to answer her as he looked in the tall, brightly lit window.

When several minutes passed and he said nothing, Cay looked up at him. The bottom of the window was above her eye level, so she was leaning against the wall. “What do you see?”

“Several old friends. How do you think you’d look in a red dress?”

“Will you keep your mind on the business at hand? Do you see my brother?”

Alex pulled himself away from the window to look down at her. “How would I know? I’ve never seen your brother before.”

“Why didn’t you say—?” She cut herself off from saying what she should have thought of herself. “Lift me up.”

Alex made no expression, but she knew he was laughing at her. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. A sweet, innocent boy-girl like you would be shocked by what’s in there. Why, there’s one young man with a woman on his lap and he has his face buried in her . . .” Alex made a gesture to indicate a prodigious bosom. “Someone who is as innocent as you are couldn’t possibly see something as immoral as— Ouch!”

Alex held his arm where she’d hit him.

“Lift me up so I can see, and stop making fun of me.”

“If I did that, I’d have to give up talking. All right, lass, just don’t hit me again. With all the alligators you’ve been wrestling, your punches are beginning to hurt.”

She narrowed her eyes at him as he put his hands about her waist and lifted her. She put her feet on his bent thigh and stood still to get her bearings.

The first thing she saw—the only thing she saw—was her brother Tally sitting at a gaming table, one hand full of cards, the other around the waist of a woman who Cay thought was fat. Or she would be when she removed her corset. The middle of her was pulled into a small circle while the top and bottom bulged out in a truly vulgar way.

“Anybody you recognize?” Alex asked, his arms around her, his face pressed against her side.

She could tell by the laughter in his voice that, somehow, he knew exactly who the young man was. “I don’t know anyone in that place,” she said firmly.

“Are you sure? I could swear that I saw a resemblance between you and one of the young men in there. But I guess it was my imagination.”

“Let me down!” she hissed, but he still held her up. Bending, she tried to get below the level of the window, but Alex’s strong hands on her waist kept her standing on his thigh. “So help me, if you don’t let me get down, I’ll make you sorry.”

“And what would you plan to do to me?” he asked suggestively.

“Not whatever it is you have in your tiny brain. Let go of me!” She struggled against him for a moment, then realized she was still standing in front of the window. When she glanced back inside, Tally was staring at her. At first she thought he couldn’t possibly see her, but when he unceremoniously dumped the woman off his lap, put down the cards, and got up, all while his eyes were glued to Cay’s, she knew he’d seen her and recognized her.

She bent down so she was out of the window. “Tally saw me, and he’s coming out here.”

Alex immediately put her down. “What do you want to do? We could hide tonight and see him tomorrow.”

“Hide? From Tally? Not in this lifetime. I want you to . . .” She looked around. “I want you to help me get on top of that roof.”

“You want what?” He looked to the small building that ran along half of the back of the hotel. It was low, only one story, and the roof slanted sharply. “If you’re afraid of him, I’ll talk to him first.”

“I’m not afraid of him and I don’t want to hide from him. If you won’t help me up, I’ll have to do it myself.” She threw her leg up to get on top of a rain barrel, but it was too tall and her legs were too short.

Alex had no idea what she was up to, but curiosity overcame his common sense. She shouldn’t be walking on a roof in the middle of the night, but he wanted to see what was going to happen. Putting one hand under her round little fanny, he pushed her upward. He had to climb onto the barrel to help her up to the roof, then he went back to the ground just in time to see her brother come out the back door.

Standing in the shadows, Alex watched. Since he’d met Cay, she’d complained incessantly about this brother, and he wanted to see them together.

Tally was a tall young man, with dark hair that had a reddish tint. He was handsome in a mischievous way that Alex thought women would like, and he looked as though laughter was never far from him. Silently, Tally left the lighted hotel doorway and walked into the dark back alley. Alex wondered why Tally wasn’t calling to his sister. Instead, the young man walked slowly, looking about him cautiously.

When Cay stepped to the edge of the roof and looked like she was about to jump, Alex left the shadows. What in the world was she doing?

Tally stopped walking when he saw Alex, and his eyes widened. In the next second, Cay emitted a sound that was a combination of Indian war cry and an alligator roar, and she leaped from the roof onto Tally.

Alex ran forward to try to catch her, but she hit Tally hard. He staggered backward but didn’t fall. And Alex could see the way he was holding her, protecting her, so that not even a strand of her hair was hurt.

Alex stepped back and watched. Obviously, this was something that had happened between them many times. But, still, just in case, Alex stood nearby, ready to step in if he was needed.

“What the hell are you wearing?” Tally asked as he struggled against her.

It was Alex’s guess that Tally wasn’t used to the muscle his sister had developed in the last weeks, so he was unprepared when she slipped her ankle about his foot and pulled. Tally hit the ground hard, but as he fell, he held Cay in a way that kept her from being injured.

“I’m going to tell Mother that you were cursing and Alex made me into a boy.”

Tally looked up from the ground at Alex; Cay was on top of him. “Is this the man that kidnapped you and put you in mortal danger?” When he started to get up, Alex braced himself.

Cay put all her weight on Tally’s left arm, and it looked like she was going to break it. “Who! Who, you idiot!”

Tally stopped struggling and looked at her in consternation. “What?”

“It’s ‘who’ not ‘that.’ Alex is the bastard
who
stole me and took me into the wilds of the Florida jungle. I can see that you haven’t been studying while I was away.”

“I was traipsing all over the country looking for you, so how was I to read anything?” He twisted his arm out from under her and tried to get up, but Cay threw her body over the top of his.

“You touch him and I’ll make
you
into a girl,” Cay said as she pushed him down.

Out of the shadows came another young man, one Alex had not seen inside. He had dark blond hair, very serious eyes, and he was handsome, but in a calm way, very unlike Tally’s fiery good looks. In an instant, Alex knew who he was, and for a moment the two of them stood there in the dim light and stared at each other. They’d been corresponding since they were children and they knew more about each other than anyone else did. They had confided things in their letters that they had never told another person.

“No one is castrating anyone,” Nate said calmly as he put his body in front of Alex and looked down at his brother and sister wrestling on the ground.

Cay didn’t hesitate as she got off of Tally and threw her arms around Nate. There was no wrestling, no falling to the ground, and no raucous remarks, just a quiet embrace.

“You’re all right?” Nate asked. “Not hurt in any way?”

“Not at all,” Cay said, standing on tiptoe, her arms around her brother’s neck.

“Did you learn anything on your journey?”

“Everything. And more than that, I drew pictures of it all.”

Nate’s eyebrows rose. “Did you? Where are they?”

“Jamie Armitage has them.”

“What?” Tally asked as he got up from the ground and dusted himself off. “An Armitage is involved in all this?”

“He calls himself Mr. Grady, and he led the trek.”

“How many of there were you?” Nate asked. “And where did you go? Down the St. Johns? What wildlife did you encounter? What—?”

Cay kissed Nate’s cheek. “I think you should talk to Alex about all that. He studied the books and knows the names of everything. I’m going to give the drawings to Uncle T.C. and let him identify the plants.”

“And I guess this is Alex?” Tally asked, still looking as though he’d like to hit him.

“Yes.” Cay moved away from her brothers to stand near Alex. It was all she could do not to slip her hand into his, but she thought that would be too much for Tally to handle. With his hotheaded temper, touching Alex might make Tally start hitting. “Alex and I—”

She broke off when she saw Tally look to his right, down the side of the building, and draw in his breath. Cay looked at Nate, and he gave a brief nod. She didn’t see that he gave another look to Alex.

“He’s here?” Cay asked in a whisper.

“Who’s here?” Alex asked, speaking for the first time in minutes. Only Nate saw the way Alex stepped closer to Cay, as though to protect her from whatever, whomever, Tally was looking at.

But when Cay looked at Alex and shook her head, he stepped back. Nate noted that it had been a silent communication between them, saying that she was safe and he didn’t need to protect her.

Slowly, Cay walked around the side of the building, Alex close behind her. Walking toward them was a big man, as tall as Alex, but with several more pounds on him, and from the way he moved, it was all muscle. Alex instantly knew he was the brother Cay talked about so often: Adam. From what Alex had gathered, her eldest brother was a stern and formidable character, and Alex braced himself. He didn’t care if Adam was her brother or not, if he said even one unkind word to her, if he started to bawl her out, Alex was going to take him on. After all Cay had been through, no one, not even a brother, had the right to hurt her in any way.

Alex watched as Cay stood still and her brother stopped several feet away from them. Alex looked to see if she was so still because she was afraid of him, but he couldn’t read her expression. Alex’s hands made into fists. He might lose a fight with the man, but he’d die protecting her.