Penny was silent. Frowning. “What…what did she do to cause her father to disown her?” she asked simply. Again Lauryn felt a lump in her throat and was unable to answer. She didn’t like the fact that her beautiful, joyously natured friend was distressed.
“She became pregnant and insisted that it was Lauralynn’s husband who was the baby’s father.” Brant had a way of just saying things plainly. Lauryn felt physically ill when she saw the tears escape Penny’s eyes and begin traveling down her cheeks.
“Penny, I don’t mean to cause you pain or to upset you or make you sad,” Lauryn assured her. “It’s just that…we have to find out what happened to Lauralynn. And we know, from these letters we found that Lauralynn had seen Carissa a short time before the battle when she was lost. We just…we were just hopin’ that somebody in your family knew somethin’ to help.”
Penny wiped at her tears and sniffled. “I suppose…the one to ask would be….Granny Carry.”
“She’s still alive then?” Brant asked. “Where? Can we talk to her?” Lauryn sat in stunned astonishment, unable to speak. Her grandmother’s sister, alive still?
Penny shook her head and rose from her seat going toward the window. “She….she lives in Memphis with my Uncle Nathan. She’s not well at all. She’s been bedridden for months and months.” Penny stood wringing her hands nervously. Then suddenly, and unexpectedly, she turned back to face Brant and Lauryn. “She’s a good, good woman. Always loving and kind and…and…honest. This is so hard to take in.”
Lauryn rose to her feet and rushed to Penny enveloping her in a loving and friendly embrace. “It’s all right, Penny. It’s fine.”
“Think of it this way, Miss McGovern,” Brant offered. “You and Lauryn…you’re cousins.”
“What’s all this about?” Jeffrey asked entering the room.
Immediately, Penny released Lauryn and answered, “Wonder….wonderful news, Jeffrey.”
Brant dropped his head for a moment, uncomfortable. “Brant and Lauryn….Brant and Lauryn have discovered a family connection.”
Lauryn fancied for a moment that Jeffrey’s smile of greeting faded slightly. “How so?” he asked. “Good to see you again, Brant.” Jeffrey offered a handshake and Brant accepted.
“Well,” Lauryn began, for Penny shook her head, clearly too unsettled to tell the tale to her brother. “It seems that your Nana and my Nana were…were sisters.”
“What?” Jeffrey exclaimed, smiling and obviously in disbelief. “What nonsense have you two girls cooked up this time? And Brant? How did they lure you into such a game?”
“It’s no game,” Brant stated, retrieving the photograph from its place on the sofa nearby and handing it to Jeffrey.
Jeffrey studied the photograph for a moment frowning. He turned it over, reading the information written on the back of it. “Well, I’ll be dipped in….in batter,” he stammered.
“It seems true enough,” Lauryn began. “Isn’t it…isn’t it marvelous, Jeffrey?”
But Jeffrey frowned, apparently skeptical. “If it’s so marvelous, why does Penny look like she’s goin’ to vomit, Brant looks like he’s ready to beat the waddin’ out of the devil…and you, Lauryn…” His eyes narrowed as he continued, “You look like you been seein’ one too many ghosts these days.”
It was Penny who came to their rescue. Lauryn was grateful because Brant had inhaled deeply, straightening his shoulders and clinching his jaw tightly shut as if preparing for battle.
“Dear Jeffrey…” Penny began. “It’s all…it’s all quite lewd, actually.” Penny swallowed hard. “It seems that Lauryn’s great-grandfather…I guess we can call him great-grandpappy now, too…it seems he had Granny McGovern…um…disowned when she was younger.”
Now it was Jeffrey’s turn to appear indignant and defensive. He inhaled a deep breath and curtly said, “Really? And you believe that, Pen? That Granny could do anythin’ to warrant her own father disowning her.”
“It’s true, Jeffrey,” Brant nearly growled. “I’m not saying that your grandmother isn’t the most wonderful of women. By the look of your family…your sister…she must be a great person. But even great people make mistakes…in their past…perhaps mistakes that have been paid for dearly…not to be talked about later on. And…”
But Jeffrey put a hand up to quiet Brant’s explanation. He hung his head guiltily for a moment and then said, “I know all about it.”
“What?” Penny and Lauryn exclaimed simultaneously.
“Granny told me…last month when I was in Memphis. She…she was afraid she was goin’ to pass on without any of us knowin’. Daddy didn’t even know. He thought Grandpa McGovern was his real father. But…but he’s not.” Jeffrey reached out taking Penny’s hand and squeezing it reassuringly.
“Did…did she tell you who was his father, Jeffrey?” Lauryn ventured.
Jeffrey swallowed hard. The defensive expression gone from his face, replaced by the relief of truth telling, he said, “Yes.”
“And….” Brant prodded.
“A young man named James Nettles. A Franklin boy that left soon after…soon after she…” James stammered.
“It’s irrelevant, Jeffrey,” Brant told him. “You’re father was your grandfather’s son. And that’s that.”
“That’s what I told Granny,” Jeffrey admitted. “That’s what I kept telling her. But…but she wanted someone to know the truth.”
“Why didn’t you tell me, Jeffrey?” Penny asked. It was obvious that the secret Penny and Jeffrey’s grandmother revealed to Jeffrey had weighed heavily on his mind.
Jeffrey shrugged. “What good would it have done?”
“What good would it have done?” Lauryn suddenly exclaimed. “Jeffrey,” she began as tears flooded her cheeks. “You know the tiniest bit about what…about what I’ve gone through in my life because of my Nana’s sister’s disappearance that day durin’ the war! Did it not occur to you that your grandmother may have been able to help me? Didn’t you once think that maybe…maybe she knew somethin’ that would give me a hope gettin’ on with my life and…and…”
“No, Lauryn. I…I honestly didn’t,” he confessed. As Lauryn buried her face in her hands for a moment, suddenly overwhelmed with anger, resentment and anxiety, she felt Brant gather her into his arms, softly stroking her hair as she cried against his shoulder.
“It’s all right, Lauryn,” Penny offered. “We’ll…we’ll go now. The four of us! We’ll go to Memphis and talk to Granny.”
“No,” Jeffrey demanded. “She’s suffered enough.”
Lauryn was suddenly furious! Mad and out of her sensible mind.
Pushing herself from Brant’s embrace, from the strong arms she only wanted to linger in, she turned to Jeffrey, outraged. “She’s suffered enough? What about those who still suffer, Jeffrey? What about the Captain? What about Lauralynn and Brant and me? What about the fact that I’ll never have Br…never have what I want…not a chance at it, until your Granny’s sister is found? If she’s as wonderful as you say…then she’ll be glad to help us! Right? Won’t such a wonderful woman…repentant of her sins that caused such devastation to her family…won’t such a profoundly wonderful woman be glad to help her family now?”
Jeffrey stood silent, attempting to control his own anger. It was Penny who offered hope.
“Jeffrey…has it occurred to you that…that maybe Granny needed this to happen?” Penny reached out and took hold of her brother’s arm. “That, in order to live…or die…in peace….that maybe she needs to…”
“I’m going to Memphis,” Brant suddenly growled. “With or without the rest of you.” With that he nodded to Penny, turned and left by way of the front door, slamming it violently.
“So am I,” Lauryn said, leaving the room almost as dramatically as Brant. She didn’t hear Penny tell her brother she was going, too and he could join them or not.
“Carissa? Alive?” Nana breathed as she sat in the rocker on the front porch of Co
nnemara. She was listening to Brant reveal what they’d discovered about the McGovern family.
“You never noticed the resemblance, Nana?” Lauryn asked. “Truly?”
Nana shook her head, still disbelieving. “I…I thought I had imagined it.” The elderly woman closed her eyes for a moment and inhaled deeply the warm, fragrant air of Tennessee. “I have a sister,” she whispered. “Livin’.”
“Yes, Nana. Yes,” Lauryn soothed.
“I was so much younger than my sisters,” Virginia began. Lauryn knew she was in the past. As surely she knew it as she knew that Brant was somewhere other than the front porch in his mind. He stared off into the grass of Connemara’s front lawn, silent and as brooding as a man could ever be.
Her attention was quickly drawn back to her Nana as she said, “Their childhoods were over by the time I was a toddler. But they used to dote on me like I was their favorite dolly. They’d play games with me, dress-up their old china dolls for me…give me the prettiest tea parties you ever saw. They had secret places they played in. They always said they’d show me…but they never did. Always just played with me on the porch here, under the gazebo, in the cellar when days were too hot to stand the sunshine out."
“Pardon me, Miss Virginia.” It was Penny. All three Connemara residents were startled from their private thoughts as Penny spoke.
“Penny,” Nana greeted, her eyes filling with tears. “You are the image of her, child.”
“Oh, Penny,” Lauryn began standing and suddenly feeling awkward. This girl, this sweet girl that had been her dearest friend for so long…now things were strange between them. “Penny…I…I…”
“I’ve reserved tickets for all of us on the mornin’ train to Memphis. Even you, Miss Virginia,” she said. “Jeffrey wants to go, too….We’ll all go together.” Penny was frightened, nervous, uncomfortable. It was painfully apparent.
Lauryn watched as Nana smiled at her and held her arms open to hug her. “Angel girl, Penny McGovern,” Nana chuckled through her tears. “And to think…all these years wasted when you should’ve been callin’ me, ‘great-auntie Virginia.’” With a heavy sigh of relief at acceptance, Penny threw herself into Nana’s arms and hugged her tightly.
Lauryn wiped the tear from her cheek, feeling an overwhelming love and attachment to her dear friend. She glanced at Brant who was standing now, smiling in relief. He winked and nodded his encouragement.
After Penny and Nana wiped their tears from their cheeks, Penny turned to Brant. “I…I don’t know exactly how this all affects you, Mr. Masterson,” she admitted. “I don’t know if your own childhood was disrupted as Lauryn’s was, I don’t know if you simply care because you love Lauryn…” Lauryn winced, expecting Brant to offer an immediate argument at Penny’s inference. When he did not she glanced at him carefully, in time to see him smile. “But it’s important to me that you understand that I will do anythin’ to help. Anythin’.”
Brant smiled at Penny and pulled her into one of his powerful embraces, kissing her cheek softly. “Thank you, Penny,” he chuckled, and Lauryn tried to squelch the twinge of jealousy in her throat.
Then Penny turned to Lauryn. “I…I love you, Lauryn,” she said. “You have been my best friend…my whole life. And…and when this is all over…I know we’ll be closer than ever.” Lauryn felt guilty for once again letting jealousy enter her heart where Penny was concerned.
“Nothin’ could change the way we love each other, Pen,” Lauryn told her and they giggled and tightly hugged. Lauryn glanced at Brant, over Penny’s shoulder as they embraced. He winked again assuring her all was well.
“Oh!” Penny exclaimed, suddenly releasing Lauryn. “I almost forgot!” Quickly, she reached down and picked up a small wooden box sitting on the front porch step. Lauryn was puzzled for she hadn’t noticed Penny carrying anything when she arrived.
“I want to share this with you, Lauryn,” Penny explained. “And with you, Miss Virginia…I mean Auntie Virginia,” she giggled excitedly. “My granny gave these to me when I was just six or seven. She said they belonged to her when she was a little girl and that she wanted me to have them always.” Penny removed the lid from the box to reveal a good amount of crumpled paper within. “I got to thinkin’…that it would be wonderful for us to split the pieces up now…some for me, some for Lauryn, some for you Auntie Virginia…and we can take a piece or two to Granny when we go.”
Lauryn gasped, and her Nana clutched at her chest, her own breath lost to her as Penny reached into the box and produced a small, child-sized, white china cup embellished with the tiniest of lavender flowers.
“It’s a child’s tea-set,” Penny said, completely unaware that even Brant held his breath and had paled. “Granny said she adored it when she was a little girl…and every piece is here except for one of the cups. I suppose it was broken or lost or somethin’ and…Lauryn? Are you all right, Lauryn?”
It was the last thing Lauryn heard for several long, long moments. The next thing she knew, she was aware of the soft, green lawn of Connemara beneath her, of Penny’s frantic voice calling to her to wake up and of Brant’s hand at her cheek as he gently patted it.
She opened her eyes to behold Brant’s worried face just a breath above her own. “The cup Brant,” she breathed. “Laura’s cup…”
“I know, sugar,” he mumbled. “I know. Are you all right?” He helped her to sit up. He looked to her Nana still sitting in the rocker, leaning anxiously forward. “She’s fine, Mrs. Kensington. She’s fine.”
“All this time,” Lauryn said, as she sat at Henry’s feet caressing the soft petals of one of the pansies that grew there, “All this time…just down the street…” She couldn’t put her thoughts into words. Her mind was still whirling with the events of the day. “This seems to be the longest day of my entire life,” she said finally, leaning back against Henry’s legs, overwhelmingly tired all at once.
“Tomorrow…tomorrow we’ll know more,” Brant assured her. “I know it.” He looked at Lauryn from where he sat in front of her. “This will all begin to unravel tomorrow. It has to.” He smiled at her and she noted the way the corner of his mouth twitched slightly.
It was time, she told herself. The events of the day had been far too emotionally overwhelming. She needed Brant. Needed to be in his arms. Needed reassurance that he needed her. And she was tired. Too tired to think clearly, to remember her plan to test him.
So, with every ounce of the remaining physical and mental strength she could muster, Lauryn reached out and took hold of the front of Brant’s shirt. Clutching the fabric tightly in her fists, she pulled him forward and captured his mouth with her own in a very intimate, very impassioned kiss. His surprise was not long lived, however, for he had her face cupped firmly in his hands as he returned her kiss just as furiously.
His kiss was so deep, so driven that she could not breath and finally had to break from him to find one saving breath before she would have slipped into another faint.
Her time to catch her breath was not long, however. Before she’d even gotten control of her senses enough to open her eyes, Brant fairly flung her onto her back in the pansy beds at Henry’s feet.
“My hell, Lauryn,” he breathed, a delighted grin spreading across his face. “I thought I was going to explode before you found the guts to break that damned promise I made to you.”
“Don’t swear, Brant,” Lauryn whispered breathlessly, smiling up at him.
“Don’t talk,” Brant ordered, his mouth finding hers again in the brutal passion ignited by the power of lovers kept apart too long.
He’d kept himself from her too long! Lauryn knew it by his manner of kissing her. His kisses were driven, thirsting. There were moments he seemed to forget she was a tender young woman whose face, lips, arms, waist, shoulders were not used to such ravaging, however careful he was of respecting her virtue. Brant was barely in control of himself and Lauryn secretly thrilled in the knowledge.
After a long
while, and Lauryn had no way of gauging how long, Brant drew a deep breath, kissed her once more very tenderly on the mouth and raising his head, studied her for a moment. His thumbs caressed her tender lips, the back of his hand stroked her cheek as he gazed down into her eyes, which Lauryn knew were sparkling with emotion.
“Lauryn,” he mumbled. “Lauryn…you know I love…I love…” Though her heart sunk at Brant’s inability to confess his heart to her, she was not fully disappointed. And…she understood. There was still too much keeping them apart. Too much to be done for them to be completely happy in one another.
So, understanding, she finished for him, “You love to kiss me.” She reached up caressing his whiskery jaw line with her palm. How she loved to touch him, assuring that he was real and living.
He sighed, obviously delighted by her soft caress and disappointed in himself for not being able to finish his own sentence. But he smiled and nodded. “Yeah,” he whispered, in defeat, brushing a wild curl from her forehead.
“I love…to kiss you, too,” she whispered. He grinned, and kissed her gently several more times before helping her to a sitting position.
As he pulled several violets from her hair, he glanced up at Henry who had been watching them the entire time. “Sorry, man,” he said to the statue. “But…you just aren’t man enough to handle a woman like this.”
Lauryn smiled, and strangely enough, felt rather sorry for Henry, the mateless statue. Brant looked at her again, pulling another petal from her hair.
“Don’t let me make any stupid statements about never touching you again, Lauryn,” he told her. “You’re lucky you weren’t….compromised before now.”
The Fragrance of Her Name Page 36