The Scent of Jasmine Read online

  “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