The Scent of Jasmine Read online

  Reluctantly, Alex pushed her thigh off his stomach. “Your brother is in the room next door, and with the noise you make, I don’t dare do anything with you.”

  She put her leg back over him. “Since when are you afraid of Tally?”

  “It’s Adam who’s next door.”

  Cay removed her leg, opened her eyes, and lowered her voice. “In that case, what are you doing in here, and when did you take a bath?”

  He put her head back on his shoulder. “I’ve been up all night talking to Nate.”

  “Nate? My brother Nate?”

  “Of course. Why not?”

  “It’s just that Nate doesn’t talk to anyone. He’d rather watch and learn than give out information. So what did he tell you?”

  “I wanted to know what Grady was told or figured out, but we can’t ask him until he gets back from the jungle.”

  Cay knew Alex was stalling and waited for him to get to the important news. But she knew what he was going to say before he spoke because Alex’s arm tightened around her so she couldn’t move.

  “Nate told me about Lilith.” When Cay started to roll away, Alex held her in place. “You’re going to have to hear this sooner or later, so you can let one of your brothers tell you, or you can hear it from me. Your choice.”

  She knew that Alex would tell the story with more diplomacy than three of her brothers would. If Ethan had been there, she would have asked him to explain it all to her, but he wasn’t. Cay took a breath. “All right, tell me. But if we hear anyone at the door and we think it might be Adam, you have to go out the window.”

  Alex smiled. “You do know that we’re on the fourth floor, don’t you?”

  “If we were on the twelfth floor, you’d still have to go out that way. Neither your life nor mine would be worth anything if Adam were to find you in here with me.”

  “Nate said almost the same thing, and that’s why he’s keeping Adam busy.”

  Cay lifted her head to look at him. He was clean and had shaved, and she thought he was by far the most handsome man she’d ever seen. She’d never tell him, but she thought he was even better-looking than her brother Ethan. “You’ve certainly become friends with my brother in a short time.”

  Alex put her head back down. “Do you want to hear the story or not? There’s only so long Nate can occupy Adam before your eldest brother gets suspicious.”

  “Tell me,” she said and felt her body stiffen. She didn’t like to think about what she was going to hear. “Why is your . . .” She couldn’t say the word wife. “Why is that woman alive when so many people saw her with her throat cut?”

  “That’s just it. Very few people saw her. On that night the only people who saw her were the judge, the doctor, and the two men who handcuffed me. After that, Lilith’s body was taken to the doctor’s office, where she was put in a coffin that was nailed shut, and she was buried three days later.”

  “I take it she wasn’t inside the coffin,” Cay said, and wanted to add “more’s the pity.”

  “No. What Nate found out was that the doctor was in on the whole scheme. He provided the drugs that were used to put me to sleep, and he wrote the note that was careful not to say that I had murdered my bride, but just that I could be found with her. The doctor threw the note through the judge’s window and woke him up. The doctor also got the policemen, and he led all of them to my room. But only the doctor actually looked closely at Lilith. The other three men were too busy throwing me to the floor and telling me that I was a first cousin to the devil. Even I only had a quick glimpse of Lilith. But what I saw has haunted me since that moment. That one look was enough.”

  “I guess I should ask why she did such a horrible thing to you.”

  “That part we don’t know and won’t know until I talk to her today.”

  “Today?” There was fear in Cay’s voice.

  Alex stroked her hair as he held her close. “Aye, today. Your brothers have three hired guards surrounding her now.”

  “She knows you’re here?”

  “No. She knows nothing. Since she’s so good at slipping away from people, your brothers thought it would be better not to warn her. They just hired men to follow her and watch everything she did, but not to let her see them. Your brothers want me to ‘surprise’ her.” Alex’s tone told what he thought of that.

  Cay’s face lit up as she remembered something. “The doctor died. Didn’t you tell me that the doctor died of a heart attack?”

  “Aye,” Alex said. “I like to think the man had enough of a conscience that the guilt over what he’d done to me killed him. Nate says he doesn’t think Lilith meant for me to be accused of her murder. He thinks she meant for the doctor to declare her death a suicide.”

  Cay was aghast. “And that would have been better? All your life you would have been haunted by that. A woman killed herself rather than spend the night with you.”

  Alex put his hand under her chin and lifted her face. The kiss he gave her told how grateful he was for her understanding.

  She put her leg back over him—and he pushed it off. She sighed. “So you’re going to go see her today and ask her why she did such a rotten, horrible, devious thing to you and almost got you hanged?”

  Alex chuckled. “I’m glad you’re on my side. But, aye, that’s just what I’m going to do.”

  “If her plan was to fake her suicide, please be sure to ask her why she didn’t come to your rescue when she heard or read that you were about to be hanged for murdering her.”

  “That question is at the top of my list.”

  “Then what? You’ll . . .” She hesitated. “After you settle this, you can go back to Virginia with us.”

  “No,” he said softly, “I can’t. I have to clear my name.”

  “That’s easy. Just get someone to verify that she’s alive, have a lawyer present the paper to a judge in Charleston, and you’re free. My family will help you. My father knows lots of people, so you should have your sentence removed in no time at all. You . . .” She could tell by the way Alex was saying nothing that there was more. “All right, tell me all of it, even the part you’re hiding.” Her voice was heavy, dreading what she was going to hear.

  “I can get the charges dropped, true, but I need for my name to be cleared.”

  “You keep saying that, but exactly what do you mean?”

  “I hope you never know what it’s like to go from thinking that you have many friends to finding out you have none. Before the day of my wedding, I would have sworn that I had some truly good friends. George told you how he and I used to go out drinking. I . . .” He paused for a moment. “The truth is, I thought I’d done some good things. I can’t tell you the number of betting debts that I forgave. If a man couldn’t afford what he’d lost, if he had a wife and children to support, I often said that I didn’t get his bet in time to post it and gave him his money back. There were many times when men slapped me on the back and told me I was a truly good person. It’s the way I conducted my life. And as for the women, I received many offers, but I never took up any of them. I didn’t want a husband chasing me with a gun, or have a father or brother angry at me for what I’d done to an innocent girl.”

  Cay kissed his chest through his clean white shirt.

  “I did what I could to earn friendship and respect,” Alex said. “But after Lilith was found dead in my bed, not one person, not one! stood up for me.”

  “Except Uncle T.C.”

  “Aye, except for him.”

  Cay was trying to put together what he’d told her, and when she understood, she wanted to cry. “You want to go back to Charleston with . . . with her and show all those people that she’s still alive. A piece of paper and a quiet settlement aren’t enough for you.”

  He gave her shoulder a hug. “You understand.”

  “No. I just know you well enough to know that’s what you want to do.” She lifted up to put her head on her hand and looked at him. “I don’t want you to go.”

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