“So she got rid of him by faking her own death,” Adam said. “Since it worked that time, I guess that’s why she decided to use the same ploy again years later. What did she do when she was dressed in her fine clothing?”
“She went to the nearest rich estate and presented herself as a young lady who had lost her memory.” Alex grimaced. “When I knew her, she said she couldn’t understand my accent, but today I found out that she’s good at mimicking. She showed me her original, impossible-to-understand London accent, then switched to the sounds of the English aristocracy. She even imitated my Scottish brogue. She should have gone on stage.”
“I give it to her that she has courage.”
“That’s not what I would call it.” Alex lit his cigar. “To make a long story short, a few years later, she married the rich widower who owned the house. He was forty-five and she was nineteen.”
“Were they in love?”
“Megs said they were, but who knows? She used to tell me that she loved me more than life itself.”
“Maybe she wasn’t lying,” Adam said, and Alex gave a guffaw.
“With her, I’ll never know. It seems that her entire life has been a lie.”
“Maybe a necessary one.”
“If that’s supposed to make me have sympathy for her, I ask you to go through what I did and see if you can make yourself care about her unhappy life.”
“But then, she was the reason you met my sister,” Adam added.
Alex smiled. “Even evil sometimes has good inside it.”
“Was the murder what made her come to America?”
“Aye, it was. Her husband’s nephew, who was to inherit, showed up, and he didn’t take kindly to his rich uncle marrying a young, fertile woman. He hired some men to search and found out who she actually was.”
“Ah, blackmail.”
“At first, but she says it became something much worse. When he persisted in trying to blackmail her, molest her, all of it, Megs picked up a candlestick, hit the nephew over the head, and killed him.”
Adam sat there, looking at Alex for a moment. “For her to go back to get a certificate declaring your marriage to be invalid would mean she’d have to stand trial for murder.”
“Aye, she would,” Alex said quietly. “I told her that I hope she can escape that, so I’ve promised to help her in any way that I can, but I’m not going to give up my life for her.”
“And she’s willing to return to England to face this?”
“Not at all. In fact, she threatened to hit me with a candlestick.” Alex looked at Adam. “I don’t trust her. Right now I have those guards Nate hired in the room with her. I know that if she were given half a chance, she’d flee. Any woman who could do what she did to me, I don’t trust. I’m going with her, first to Charleston, then to England. Whatever I have to do to get the proof that an American judge needs, I’ll do it. If she has to stand trial for murder, so be it. I’ve sworn to her that I’ll stay with her out of . . . of respect for another human being, but that’s all. Maybe I’ll change, but right now, I feel that if they hang her, she deserves it.”
Alex rubbed his hand over his face. “How could I have thought I loved a woman I didn’t really know? I should have been like Cay and made a list of the woman’s good and bad points.”
“I think my sister would disagree with you on that. I think that if you asked her now, she’d tell you that you should let passion carry you away.” He was looking hard at Alex.
“What woman treats a man convicted of murder with all the kindness and consideration that she would a guest in her own home?”
“My sister,” Adam said. “Since the day she was born, she’s been nothing but loving to us. Tally’s done some truly awful things to her, but Cay’s always managed to stand up to him.”
“And what did you do to Tally when you caught him?”
Adam gave a one-sided grin. “I’d rather not say, but by the time he was eight, he knew better than to torture his sister.” Adam’s eyes turned serious. “What do you plan to do about my sister?”
For a moment, Alex couldn’t speak. He walked to the far side of the room. “I think I’m going to need at least a year to clear all of this up.”
“I take it you mean that during that time you won’t see my sister?”
When Alex took a breath, it caught in his throat. “I want to give her a chance to make up her own mind. I want her to know what she really and truly wants. She was put with me in a live-or-die situation, and I worry that maybe she thinks she loves me because of what we went through together.” Alex straightened his shoulders. “And there’s the subject of class. I’m just a poor man from the Highlands. I’m good with horses and not much else, but Cay is beautiful, educated, and used to a life that I’ll never be able to give her.” He looked at Adam. “Unless I used her father’s money, and I won’t do that. I know Cay’s been sheltered, and she’s had little exposure to life. Those men she wanted to marry—”
“Horrible!” Adam said. “They were all half my sister’s intelligence, a quarter of her education, with not an ounce of her talent. Cay wants to please our parents, and she thinks to do that by making a suitable marriage.”
Alex didn’t smile at Adam’s words. “And I’m not ‘suitable.’ If she chooses me, I want it to be of her own free will, not because of . . . of memories.”
“That’s very noble of you. If I were in your place and had found a woman I could love, I’d never let her go. If I had to, I’d lock her in a room and hide the key.”
“That’s a good idea. I’ll—” Adam’s look cut him off, and Alex laughed.
“You want something from me, don’t you?” Adam said.
“Yes. While I’m away settling this horror, I want you to see that Cay is exposed to more of life. She found our foray into the wilds exciting, and I fear that that’s what she likes about me. Wild rides across the countryside, sleeping in tents, hacking at alligators with a knife.”
“I don’t think I know the girl you’re talking about. My little sister likes silk dresses and tea parties with French porcelain.”
“She also likes—” Alex didn’t finish that sentence because he’d been about to say that she liked making love in the moonlight. “I saw a different side of her, one that she’s just beginning to discover.”
“And you want her to see more of that?”
“Yes, I do.”
Adam looked at Alex for a long moment. “She’s young, beautiful, and rich. Are you sure you want to put her out there so other men can see her?”
“Of course I don’t. If I’d never met Megs . . .” Alex paused, then looked back at Adam. “The truth is that I would never have looked at Cay if it hadn’t been for all I’ve been through. If I’d met her under normal circumstances, I think I would have seen her as Nate’s little sister, and I would have ignored her. I’ve always been attracted to the tall, beautiful, mysterious type.”
Adam smiled. “Aren’t we all? But in this case, the mystery had an evil core to it. I think that what you ask has some sound reasoning behind it, but in the same circumstances, I don’t know that I’d be as generous as you are. I’ll talk to Mother and she’ll see that Cay is introduced to men outside of Edilean.”
“Outside of Virginia. Outside of this country. Take her to Italy and get her an Italian drawing master. I don’t think she knows how talented she is. I can see Charles Albert Yates paintings hanging in museums around the world.”
“I see. C.A.Y. Yet another thing you know about her that her family doesn’t.”
“I have to go and get some sleep,” Alex said. “Do I still have the hotel room?”
“I kept Cay’s room open for you. I believe you know where it is.”
Alex grinned. “Aye, that I do.” He stopped at the door. “I don’t know how I’m going to get through all this without Cay’s humor. No matter how bad things were, she made me smile.”
“She does that to all of us. As soon as she learned to talk, she made jokes
.”
“And drew.”
“Yes. She drew and painted everything. You should ask Mother about the time she painted the drawing room wall.”
“I would love to. There’s something I wanted to ask you. Cay often talks about her mother’s great beauty. Is she as pretty as Cay says?”
“Better. She’s older now, but she still stops men in their tracks—much to my father’s annoyance.”
“Cay thinks she isn’t as pretty as her mother is.”
“And what do you think?” Adam asked.
“I think God was smiling when He made Cay.”
“That’s what we all think. Will you write her?”
Alex’s hand tightened on the door handle. “I don’t think so. I want to give her time to make up her own mind. The idea of a bad marriage scares her, so I want her to be sure of what she decides to do.”
“I’ll tell her the truth of what happened and where you went and why.”
“Thank you,” Alex said. “You know, I thought you were going to be different than what you are. Or maybe it was just jealousy at hearing your name morning, noon, and night. I’m beginning to think that you’re worthy of being Cay’s brother.” With a smile, Alex left the room, closing the door behind him.
Adam stared at the door for a few minutes, then went to the desk to start writing a letter to his mother. He planned to comply with Alex’s wishes about exposing Cay to other things, and to other people in her life, but Adam knew who he wanted for his brother-in-law, and he was going to work to see that it happened.
He began the letter.
Twenty-seven
ONE YEAR LATER
Edilean, Virginia, 1800
Cay was sitting by the pond not far from the house, an easel in front of her, a watercolor tablet on her lap. She was idly painting the pretty little ducks on the water, the cattails growing along the edge, and the—
The smell of jasmine reached her, and she couldn’t help but close her eyes in delicious memory. The scent brought to mind nights full of hot, humid air and making love for hours.
When she opened her eyes, she saw the form of a man reflected in the water and instantly knew who he was. She tried to still her heart, which had started pounding, and worked to control her urge to leap up and throw her arms around him. It had been so very, very long since she’d seen him.
“I saw Tim,” she said and tried not to stop painting.
“Did you?”
The sound of his voice, so very familiar yet at the same time sounding like something from the faraway past, made her pulse race. His accent had mellowed, and that made her want to cry. She’d missed that change. Had his wife taught him how to speak like an English gentleman?
“I did,” she said. “He didn’t recognize me, so I flirted outrageously with him, and I asked about his trip into the wilds of Florida.”
Alex put a large bouquet of jasmine by her easel where she could see it. Pinned to the stems were the three diamond stars and her pearl earrings that she’d left behind when they went to New Orleans. Alex knelt on the grass beside her, but she still didn’t look at him. “And what did he say about that trip?”
“According to Tim, he saved my life half a dozen times.”
When Alex spoke, there was laughter in his voice. “And what did you do to that poor lad for saying that?”
Cay didn’t look at him but kept painting, as though his presence meant nothing to her. She didn’t realize that she was painting the pond pink. “I did nothing whatever. However, later, he did have a most unfortunate accident with a rowboat. It seems that a poor little snake—well, not so little—had crawled inside the boat with him. Tim was so agitated that he fell into the pond. I had no idea he couldn’t swim, so Tally had to dive in and save him.”
Alex sat down on the grass. “He must have been glad Tally was there.”
“Tim said he was saving Tally.” She took a breath and began to fill in the sky with pale green paint. “Hope and Eli got married two months after they met.”
“Nate told me. You were right about that match.”
“Thankfull came to visit me, and Uncle T.C. happened to be here at the same time.”
“That was a stroke of good luck. Did the twins come with her?”
“Aye, they did,” Cay said, realizing she was slipping into the Scottish brogue that they’d always used between them. “And my mother found husbands for them.”
“Did she?” Alex picked up one of the brushes from the wooden box on the ground and handed it to her.
Turning her head just slightly, Cay took the brush and looked at Alex’s hand, but not at his face. It was a hand that she knew so very well, and it had touched every inch of her body.
“I hear that Armitage came to visit.” Alex’s voice was serious.
“Yes, he did, and we had a long talk. He told me that he knew who I was on the trip. Not at first, but after he saw my drawing, he said he remembered me. He said he also figured out who you were.”
“I thought he did. I was afraid he’d have me locked up when we got to the trading post.”
“Jamie said he thought about it, but that he’d watched us and knew that you weren’t hurting me. Adam told him everything about what happened.”
“Your brother’s been a good friend to me.”
“He’s like that.” Cay used the brush that Alex handed her to paint the ducks purple. “Jamie asked me to marry him.”
“Adam wrote that to Nate and he told me,” Alex said. “When he read that to me, I went out and got drunk for three days, and I had to wait for nearly a month before a letter got to us saying that you’d turned him down.”
“My mother was glad, but my father thinks I’m an idiot.”
“And what do you think?” Alex asked softly.
“That I haven’t a brain in my head.”
Alex laughed. “I never loved you for your brain, anyway.”
His words made Cay’s heart pound so hard that her corset stays were straining. She wanted so much to look at him, but she’d had a year to think about her life and her future, and there were things that bothered her. “I heard that you and she spent a lot of time together in Charleston. I was told that you two make a beautiful couple.”
“And I heard that your mother introduced you to a thousand young men.”
“She did,” Cay said, smiling as she put a blue bill on a duck. “She took me to London, Paris, and Rome for eight whole months, and I met everyone. My father’s distant cousin married an earl’s daughter, so that makes their son an earl. They have little money and no estate, but he does have the title. My mother used every connection she could get to introduce me to every eligible bachelor in three countries. She wanted to take me to Vienna, too, but by that time she was so miserable from missing my father that I couldn’t take it anymore.”
“What did you do?”
“I got sick. None of the doctors were clever enough to figure out what was wrong with me until I finally told one of them. We conspired, and he informed my mother that I was suffering from such a severe case of homesickness that she had to take me home immediately. My mother packed and had us on a ship within twenty-four hours. The funny thing was . . .”
“Was what?”
“That when she got home, she was so ill that she had to stay in bed for four whole days—and my father was so worried about her health that he stayed in there with her.”
Alex laughed, and when he did, he reached out to take the hem of her skirt in his hands. He wasn’t sure, but he didn’t think he’d laughed even once in the last year. Between the hell that he’d been through and the seriousness of Nate’s company, there hadn’t been much to laugh about. “And what about the young men you met?”
“Some of them were wonderful,” Cay said enthusiastically. “But some of them were horrible. I met a duke’s son who told me that if I asked him to marry me, he would consider it. I think he believed I should be flattered by his offer.”
“But you weren’t?”
“Not in the least. I went on enough picnics that I nearly turned into a basket. Opera, ballet, concerts. And dances! I must have worn out a hundred pairs of shoes with dancing.”
“And the result was?”
“What my mother wanted: marriage proposals, of course. My family is rich, thanks to what my mother came into the marriage with, and my father increased the money. Add that to the fact that I’m not difficult to look at, and that even the Englishmen admitted my manners didn’t embarrass them, and I had dozens of men on their knees before me.”
“And did you accept any of their proposals?”
She took a moment before answering. “I was so angry at you for leaving me behind that I wanted to. I fantasized about writing a letter telling you that I was very happy, madly in love, and going to marry a fabulous man.”
“But you didn’t,” Alex said, and there was the beginning of relief in his voice.
“No, I didn’t. But then none of the men knew me. They looked at me to see whether or not I’d fit into their lives. How many children could I bear? Was I capable of taking care of their estates? And my favorite was whether or not I would put up with their affairs. You know who was the only man I was truly attracted to?”
Alex tried to hold his frown back, but he couldn’t. “No, who?”
“One of the horse trainers on the huge estate of an Englishman who wanted to marry my dowry. He was a tall man, with broad shoulders, and lots of dark hair. The English called him a ‘wizard’ with horses.”
“A wizard?”
“I called him Merlin, and when we went out riding, I kissed him.”
“Did you?” Alex’s hands clenched into fists.
“Yes.” Cay’s voice changed to anger. “Yes! While you were kissing your wife”—she sneered—“sleeping with her, for all I know, I kissed a man.”
The Scent of Jasmine Page 30