The Scent of Jasmine Read online

  “No, it’s . . .” She looked around them at the still night. They were far enough south now that the plants were beginning to change. She’d noticed flowers that she’d only seen in Uncle T.C.’s drawings. “I didn’t think it was boring then,” she said as she looked at the ground. “Alex.”

  “What did you say?”

  “That when I was at home, I didn’t think it was boring.”

  “No, I heard that. What was the last part?”

  She smiled. “Alex. Is that what you wanted to hear?”

  “No, I like Mr. McDowell better.”

  She picked up a clod of dirt and threw it at him, and when she hit his arm, he made sounds as though he were truly hurt. “You aren’t a gentleman.”

  “Never wanted to be. I just wanted what a gentleman’s stallion had.”

  Laughing, she stood up. “I think it is time for sleep. I’ll just have my maid warm the bed for me and get my chocolate and I’ll be ready to turn in.” She expected him to laugh, but he was looking at her hard. “What is it?”

  “You don’t look like a boy.”

  “I hope not.” She glanced down at her clothes. “I must say that these breeches do give a person a great deal of freedom. And the lack of . . . of certain undergarments made riding today much easier.”

  “No, it’s the way you walk, the way you move. Lass—” He held up his hand. “Cay, I mean, you’ll never pass as a boy looking like that.”

  She put her hand to her hair. She was not going to cry! “I know. My hair is—”

  “I could shave your head and you’d still look like a girl. It’s the way you stand, the way you move your hands.”

  “What’s wrong with the way I move my hands?”

  “There’s nothing wrong with any of it if you’re a lady entering a ballroom. But you look like a girl in boy’s clothing.”

  “Oh,” she said, at last understanding what he meant. “You want me to move like Tally does.”

  “I don’t know, but try it.”

  She walked to the far side of the fire, put her shoulders back, her flattened chest out, and strode past him with a swagger that said she was the best and the greatest. When she stopped, she used her fist to wipe her nose, and looked at him in an insolent way, as though daring him to fight her.

  Alex chuckled, then he full out laughed. “Surely you’re not telling the truth. The boy couldn’t walk like that.”

  “He does all the time.”

  “Let’s try it again, only this time not as though you’re trying to start a brawl. Shoulders back is good, but less swagger to your walk.”

  “Maybe more like Adam.” She walked again, only this time she ate up the ground in just a few long strides, and she had a look that said she was too busy to pay attention to the rest of the world.

  Alex cleared his throat to keep from laughing.

  “No good? How about Ethan?”

  Alex put out his hand to say she could try it.

  Cay went back the other way, only this time she went slowly, noticing everything, and when her eyes lit on Alex, she gave him a long look, as though she’d never seen him before but would very much like to get to know him.

  “Lord in Heaven!” Alex said. “Surely the boy doesn’t do that.”

  Cay shrugged. “Girls follow him down the street.”

  “Well, uh, I don’t think that you need to do that. We don’t want people following us. What about the other brother? What was his name?”

  “Nathaniel. Nate.”

  Cay looked about for something, then picked up a leather satchel lying by her saddle. “Pretend this is a book.” She held it close to her face and walked slowly across the space, oblivious to everything but the book. When she came to the end, she kept her head down but walked around a tree.

  She returned to the fire and looked at Alex. “Well?”

  He couldn’t keep from laughing. “I don’t think any of them are right. Could you not . . ?”

  “Not what?”

  “Well, lass . . . Cay, could you not walk like me?”

  “Oh? You mean like this?” She puffed out her chest, put on a frown, and glared down at an imaginary person. “Can’t you come on, lass? I haven’t got all day. You’re more trouble than you’re worth.” She hurried off into the darkness, leaving herself behind.

  “I don’t. . . ,” Alex began, then shook his head. “Maybe I do. But if you kept the walk and said nothing, you might do all right.”

  “Was there a compliment in there?”

  “Not from me,” he said, but he was smiling under all the hair on his face. “I think we should sleep now. We’ll work on your walk some more tomorrow.”

  “You aren’t going to tell me I have to sit with my legs apart, are you?”

  “Aye, I am,” he said solemnly.

  “Maybe that’s good. If I committed that big of a sin my mother will find me wherever I am.” She picked up Hope’s big cloak off the ground and wrapped it around her. She planned to use it as a cover and as protection from the earth, but as she looked down at her breeches, she thought about the reality of their situation. If someone guessed that she was female, and if they saw that she was with Alex, it wouldn’t be difficult to figure out who they were. They could both be put in prison.

  “I want you to cut my hair now,” she said softly, and she didn’t dare touch her hair or she’d start crying again.

  She saw that he was about to apologize, or maybe make an excuse about why they should leave it until the morning, but he didn’t. He nodded toward a piece of log nearby, and she sat down on it, her back rigidly straight.

  Alex took the scissors he’d taken from the store out of the satchel on the ground and went behind her. Her hair was still damp from her swim, but as it was drying, it was fluffing out into fat curls. To cut such hair was a great waste of beauty.

  Cay glanced up at him, saw his hesitation, and wanted to tell him not to make this harder for her. Instead, she decided to goad him on. “Did I tell you about Benjamin?”

  “And who is that?” Alex asked as he picked up a strand of her hair and held it. He wanted to put it to his face and feel it on his skin. Between the time in jail and the weeks of the trial, it had been months since he’d felt the softness of a woman. “You have a fifth brother?”

  “Benjamin is the youngest of my suitors. He’s just twenty-two and very handsome. Not as handsome as Ethan, of course, but very nice to look at. His family is quite wealthy, and he loves to gamble and play games and bet on horses.”

  “Bet on horses? Surely you aren’t thinking of marrying a gambler!” Holding a thick strand of her hair, he made the first cut. As the glorious red hair fell to the ground, he stared down at it.

  When Cay felt her hair being cut, she was determined not to cry. “But he makes me laugh and he comes up with wonderful games to play. I think maybe he’s the one I should marry. He’d think it was a great adventure that I ran across the country with a convicted murderer.”

  “What kind of man is he that he cares naught about what you’ve been through?” Alex cut more of her hair. “What if I were guilty as everyone thinks I am? Do you have any idea what I could have done to you by now?”

  “But you haven’t, and when I get back, I’ll tell Ben all about everything. He’ll even laugh about the jasmine oil I put in your hair.”

  “Will he now?” Alex asked, frowning as he cut more of her hair. “He won’t be jealous?”

  “Ben says that being jealous is a stupid emotion and when we’re married I must never be jealous of him no matter what he does.”

  “He sounds like he means to run off with other women while you stay home with a passel of brats.”

  “Isn’t that what a wife is supposed to do?”

  “No,” Alex said. “I think a couple should work together to raise a family.”

  “So you’re saying that a man should be jealous?”

  “I think—” He stopped because he realized she was teasing him. “You’re a bothersome bairn, is