The Scent of Jasmine Read online

  “He tried to kiss me!” Tim yelled, stepping away from Alex and looking at him in disgust.

  “I did no such thing,” Alex said as he grabbed his shirt and put it back on. “I was pulling a blanket over myself and I fell forward. If Tim wants to think that I was kissing him, that’s his own fantasy. Maybe he’s been alone too long.”

  Alex refused to meet Cay’s eyes while he made up this lie.

  “Tim, I think you should get back in the tent and let us sleep,” Mr. Grady said.

  “I don’t want to sleep with him,” the boy said. “And I don’t see why I have to change tents anyway. I was fine with Eli.”

  “You need to let me get some sleep,” Eli said. “Your snoring is enough to scare the gators. Young Cay here sleeps like a baby, and I need the peace he gives me. Let Alex take on your noises for a few nights.”

  If Alex’d had any doubts that Eli and Grady knew Cay was female, Eli’s words would have ended it. Alex looked at Grady, but he wouldn’t meet his eyes. It was obvious that they knew of the fight—maybe not the cause—but they knew of Cay’s anger, and Eli had given her an excuse to get away from Alex.

  For a moment, Alex debated whether he should admit the truth. If they all—except Tim, of course—knew what was going on, why couldn’t he say it out loud? But he couldn’t do that to Cay. He couldn’t admit that the two of them had been lovers. It wasn’t good for people to know that for sure, with all doubt removed. And, also, there was self-preservation. If they knew about Cay, they must know who Alex was. He didn’t want to have to sit around a campfire and answer questions about what had happened to him in Charleston.

  “You keep your hands off of me!” Tim ordered Alex while looking from him to Cay, as though he wanted to say that there was something “not right” between the two of them. Grady wouldn’t meet the boy’s eyes.

  “I think we should all get some rest,” Mr. Grady said. “And, Tim, if you want to sleep outside with the mosquitoes, that’s all right with me.” Turning, he went back into his tent.

  Cay was smiling. She seemed to be enjoying Tim’s anger and the look of consternation on Alex’s too-handsome face. She gave an exaggerated yawn and looked at Eli. “Shall we go back in and get some sleep?” She smiled at Alex. “Good night, brother. I hope some bug doesn’t eat away that pretty face of yours. It would be a shame to mar such pulchritude.”

  “Huh?” Tim asked when Cay was inside the tent. “What did he say?”

  Eli was chuckling. “Nothing that was meant for you. Now go to bed, boy, and try not to keep Alex awake.” He went into the tent after Cay.

  When they were alone, Tim looked at Alex in warning. “You touch me again and I’ll . . . I’ll . . .”

  Alex gave him such a hard look that Tim didn’t finish his sentence.

  With one more suspicious look, Tim went inside the tent.

  Alex was tempted to stay outside the rest of the night, but a mosquito bit him on the neck and as he slapped at it, he entered the tent. Tim was already asleep, and Alex heard what Eli meant when he referred to Tim’s snoring. The boy made a wheezing sound when he drew breath in, and it came out in a high-pitched whistle. At first, the sound made Alex smile. He’d been hearing it since they’d started the trip, but he’d thought it was a night bird. Now that he knew what poor Eli’d had to put up with for the entire trip, he wondered how the man had managed.

  The next morning, when Alex got up as tired as when he’d gone to bed, he was no longer smiling.

  “Best night’s sleep I’ve had since we started on this trip,” Eli said as he poured coffee into tin mugs and handed them around. “Not once did I wake up from hearing whistles and wheezes.” He slapped Cay on the shoulder so hard she nearly fell off the log she was sitting on. “I tell you, boy, you’re the quietest sleeper I ever met. If I could just find a woman that quiet, I’d marry her in a minute.”

  Alex was sitting across from them and glowering at Cay, but she was ignoring him.

  “Are you looking for a wife?” Cay asked Eli.

  “I told Mr. Grady before we left that this is my last time on one of his gadabouts. In fact, I said I didn’t want to go on this one, but he begged me. ‘I can’t go without you, Eli,’ he said. ‘Especially not on this trip.’”

  Alex looked at Cay to make sure she understood the significance of what Eli was saying. It was as though he was admitting that Grady, somehow, knew about Cay, and about Alex, too. They were to reach the trading post in just three days, and there they’d get horses and go riding south rather than on the flatboat. Alex couldn’t help but wonder what would be waiting for them at the post. A sheriff with handcuffs?

  But Cay wouldn’t look at Alex, didn’t acknowledge his hint to her. Her attention was on Eli. “I think I have the perfect wife for you.”

  “Do you?” Eli asked, his voice interested.

  “I don’t think that now is the time—” Alex began, meaning to cut her off. If, by chance, they didn’t know she was female, her matchmaking would give her away for sure.

  Again, Cay paid no attention to him. “She’s Uncle T.C.’s goddaughter.”

  “Miss Hope?” Eli asked, his eyes wide in wonder.

  “Then you know her?”

  “I had the pleasure of her company on one instance when I was with Mr. Grady. A very handsome young woman.”

  “Then you know about . . .” Cay hesitated.

  “Her leg? I do. But have you tasted that woman’s apple pie?” Eli was dousing the breakfast fire. “I always wondered why a fine lady like her wasn’t married.”

  “Then I take it you haven’t met her father.”

  “T.C.?”

  “Ah,” Cay said, “I see that gossip travels well. No, I meant the man who was married to Hope’s mother, Bathsheba.”

  “You mean Isaac Chapman.” There was no mistaking the dislike in Eli’s voice. “He once cheated me out of nearly a hundred dollars. When he dies, the devil will be richer.”

  “What did you do when you found out that he’d stolen money from you?” Cay’s voice was curious.

  “I’m ashamed to say that I hit him in the face, but then I took him to court, where I defended myself, and I won. The judge made him pay me back the money, pay the lawyer’s fee, plus give me another ten pounds for all my trouble.”

  “Well done!” Cay stood up. “I think you’ll do nicely. Hope asked me to bring her back a husband who could stand up to her father, and it looks like you can.”

  “Isaac Chapman won’t let me marry his daughter,” Eli said.

  “Yes, he will. After I tell Hope about you, she’ll make him agree,” Cay said. “Oh, but there’s something special she asked for.”

  Eli snorted, as though to say he knew there’d be a catch. “She’ll want a young, handsome man like Alex here, not an old duffer like me.”

  “Hope asked for a man who wouldn’t fall asleep on his wedding night.”

  At first, Eli showed his shock at those words, then he laughed loud and hard. “I can guarantee that I won’t do that. You can bet money on it that I’d never fall asleep while I’m in the bed with a strong, young woman like Miss Hope.”

  For the first time that morning, Cay looked at Alex and gave a malicious little smile to remind him that he had fallen asleep on his wedding night.

  Alex’s eyes widened at what she’d done, how she’d set up Eli just so she could end the conversation with a jab at Alex. That she’d use the night his wife was murdered was beyond what he thought her capable of.

  When Alex saw Eli and Grady looking at him with an expression of both amusement and sympathy, he was positive that they knew everything.

  Since they had enough food for a couple of days, Alex was allowed to stay on the flatboat that day, but he couldn’t get Cay away from the others to talk to her. His lack of sleep hadn’t put him in the best of moods, so when he did catch her sitting at the end of the boat with a sketchpad on her lap, he could hardly speak.

  “You’re endangering my life,” he said