The Scent of Jasmine (Edilean 4)

“My what?”

“When you think of her, your eyes scrunch up into lines, and your body seems to droop. If that’s what love does to a person, I don’t want anything to do with it.”

“It’s not love that did this. It was—” He broke off because he knew she was trying to get him to stop feeling sorry for himself. “You mean your Abraham doesn’t make you feel like this?”

“Ephraim. No, but his son does.” With that, she left the clearing and went back toward the settlement.

Alex stayed where he was, but he was smiling. “Be at the boat at five a.m. and have T.C.’s trunk with you,” he called after her. When she nodded but didn’t turn back to look at him, he smiled broader. Yes, the truth was that he wanted her to go with them because he just plain enjoyed her company.

That he also . . . What had she said? Lusted after her? Something like that. Yes, that was a factor, too, but he knew he could control it. Later, once they got through this, and once his name was cleared, maybe they . . . He couldn’t think about the future. Right now, all there was was the present, and he had to live with the here and now.

Seventeen

The next morning, Alex had to work to suppress his amusement when, at 4:30 a.m., before full daylight, he looked up to see Cay sauntering toward them. Behind her came the twin girls carrying T.C.’s heavy trunk full of art supplies, and behind them was Thankfull, holding an old leather satchel and a big basket that he hoped contained food.

Alex looked at Eli and saw that he, too, was about to burst into laughter at the sight of this parade, but Grady was frowning.

“Yates!” Mr. Grady said in the voice of a commander, and Alex didn’t know which “Yates” he meant. “Tell your young brother that from now on, he’s to carry his own gear. We don’t allow parasites on this voyage, and if he can’t follow the rules, he’s to stay here.”

Cay stood by the side of the flatboat and didn’t seem to know what to say. “They wanted to help me,” she mumbled. “So I, uh . . .”

Alex dropped the ropes he’d finished tying and hurried over to her. “Say nothing,” he whispered in his deepest accent. “A boy wouldn’t explain.”

“Right. Never explain. I’ll add that rule to my list.” She lowered her voice. “Along with rating kissing.”

Alex knew she meant it as a joke, but he didn’t s

mile. “Get the trunk and start working.”

“Doing what?”

“Look around. Find what needs to be done, then do it.” If she actually were a sixteen-year-old boy, he would have taken the trunk and dumped it in her arms. That Grady had reacted with shock that a boy was allowing women to carry his gear for him, showed Alex that Cay needed to toughen up—and she needed to do some work if she was going to pull off being a boy.

On second thought, Alex went to the girls, took the metal chest from them, and held it out to Cay. When she didn’t move, he said, “Take the bloody thing!”

She did, but she was unprepared for its weight of about fifty pounds. She staggered backward but managed to hold on to it even though she hit the side of the little building that stood at the far end of the flatboat. Alex knew her side must have hurt, but she did nothing more than wince. At last she managed to get her feet under her and stand upright, the chest still in her hands.

When the kid Tim started laughing, as though he’d never seen a funnier sight in his life, Alex wanted to hit him. Instead, he said to Cay, “You need to get some muscle on you if you want to go on this trip.” He knew she could hardly hear him over the raucous laughter of Tim, but she understood his meaning and nodded. He saw her put the trunk down on the deck, and Eli showed her how to tie it securely.

Alex stayed busy securing their goods on the boat while Cay said good-bye to the three women. He was glad when he saw Tim muttering as Cay exchanged cheek kisses with all three females. As Alex had told her, Tim was one of those males who very much would have loved the attention of the young girls, but they never so much as looked at him.

At five, they were ready to leave. Alex had given Thankfull more instructions about the care of the two horses that they’d had to leave behind. About a hundred miles downriver was another trading post, where they’d leave the boat and get more horses to begin their inland trek. But for now, they’d be traveling by water during the day and spend the nights on land. If it was too dangerous onshore, either from animals or Indians, they’d stay inside the little structure at the end of the boat.

Grady let Tim untie them from the dock, and the four of them stood there for a while as the women waved to them. Cay started to wave back, but Alex poked her in the side and shook his head.

“How boring men’s lives are!” she whispered. “You have to constantly work to keep yourself from doing even simple, pleasant things.

“Nay, lass,” he whispered back. “We don’t want to make fools of ourselves by waving at the girls.”

“You’re not—”

“Young Yates!” Mr. Grady yelled. “What’s that bird?”

“I have no idea, sir,” she said, shading her eyes to look up at a bird with a wingspan that looked wide enough to provide shade to a school yard full of children.

“Well, what do your books say?”

“My books?”