The Scent of Jasmine (Edilean 4)

“Interesting,” Mr. Grady said. “I’ve known T.C. for about ten years, but I’ve never heard him mention any boys who were his godsons.”

“I guess since we lived in Scotland he forgot about us,” Cay said. She was careful not to look at Alex on the other side of Mr. Grady because Alex was giving her looks that said she was to keep her mouth shut. The lies she was concocting were piling up on one another. Cay ignored him. “So you don’t have an artist for the trip?”

“You aren’t going to tell me that you can draw, are you?”

“He can’t!” Alex said loudly. “He hardly knows how to hold a pencil, much less a paintbrush. Isn’t that true, little brother?” He was glaring at her.

“Actually, in school, I was rather good at drawing. Certainly better than some.” She looked across Grady to Alex. “You were away most of the time, so you don’t remember.”

“Well, then, boy, let’s give you a try,” Mr. Grady said. “I always carry a portable writing desk with me, so do you think you can make do with stationery and a pen?”

“I can try,” Cay said with all the modesty she could muster.

“I don’t think—” Alex began, but when both Cay and Mr. Grady turned to look at him, he stopped. “I need to talk to my brother alone.”

“Shall we meet back here when you’re ready?” Mr. Grady said. “I’ll have pen and paper waiting.”

Alex lost no time in grabbing Cay’s arm and pulling her to the side of one of the buildings. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“I want to go with you.”

“We talked about this before. This trip is too dangerous, so you can’t go, and that’s final.”

“Walking into the mouth of Hades would be better than staying here and waiting for Tally to come and make fun of me.”

Alex ran his hand over his bearded face and tried to count to ten, but he knew that if he counted to a hundred it would make no difference. “You canna go with us,” he said as calmly as he could manage. “Even your own brother told you to stay here.”

“Adam doesn’t know that there are extenuating circumstances. If he knew who I was traveling with, he’d tell me to go.”

Alex leaned back against the wall to the building and drew in a deep breath. “All right, out with it. Who is he?”

“Who is who?”

He narrowed his eyes at her.

“I just thought I’d add a little levity into this, but you seem to have lost your sense of humor. All right! Stop looking at me like that. Mr. Grady’s real name is James Armitage and he—”

Alex groaned.

“So you’ve heard of the family?”

“I was told of them as soon as I got off the boat from Scotland. The father wanted to buy my horses.”

“King.”

“What?”

“Jamie’s father is called ‘King’ as in ‘King Armitage.’”

“Jamie?”

“That’s what his family calls him. It’s my guess that his middle name is Grady. Maybe that was his mother’s maiden name. Do you know why Jamie’s father is called King?”

“I think he owns Georgia, doesn’t he?”

“Only a big part of it. It’s South Carolina that he owns most of. Jamie is the third son, and I can see why he’s traveling under a made-up name. It’s the only way he’s going to be treated as a regular person. And he was very nice, wasn’t he?”

Alex put his hand over his eyes for a moment. “Please tell me you’re not back to trying to find yourself a husband.”