When Adam went down on the ground on one knee, Alex wasn’t sure what was happening, but in the next second Adam opened his arms, and Cay went running. With his kneeling, she was almost the same height as he was. She threw her arms around him and buried her face in his neck. And in the next second, the air was full of the sobs of both of them.
Embarrassed at such a display of raw emotion, Alex turned to look at Nate and Tally. Their eyes were on their siblings, who were locked together, their heads bent in a position of surrender, their quiet sobs coming to them on the hot night air. There were tears running down the cheeks of both Nate and Tally, but they didn’t bother to wipe them away.
Alex stepped away from them and into the shadows. It was as though he’d already lost Cay, as though their time together had never been, and she was now going back to where she belonged. Alex had never felt more superfluous or unneeded in his life than he did at that moment. What was going on was between her and her brothers, and he had no place in it.
Quietly, he turned and started to walk away, but Nate’s hand on his arm stopped him.
“Don’t leave. They’ll calm down in a moment, Adam will start telling her how she scared all of us, and how she’s never going to be allowed out of the house alone again. When it gets back to normal, you and I can go somewhere and talk. You look different than I imagined.”
Alex knew what Nate meant. Both of them had been very modest in their letters about what they looked like. Alex had said he looked like a horse, and Nate had said he was as plain faced as all scientists. But Alex had the dark good looks of a Renaissance angel, and Nate had the chiseled features of a Greek sculpture.
“I’d hoped you were better-looking,” Alex said with a straight face.
“It’s evident that you’ve spent a great deal of time in the company of my sister,” Nate said just as seriously. “There is no situation about which she doesn’t make a jest. Ah! I see that the two of them have stopped crying. Perhaps we can get some dinner out of them. I hav
e a lot to tell you, and I’ll be able to think better if I have some sustenance inside me.”
Alex couldn’t resist a grin. Nate talked as formally as he wrote. And oh! how wonderfully familiar he sounded. After months of everyone and everything being new and different, it was very good to hear something that was known to him.
“Will you need a handkerchief?” Nate asked, one eyebrow raised.
“I leave the crying to your family,” Alex answered, and was glad to see Nate give a small smile.
“You must show me what you do with the horses.”
“And you have to solve the mystery that condemned me to be hanged,” Alex answered.
“Even Tally figured that one out.” Nate sounded as though a trained dog had done an extraordinary trick, and the two of them shared their first laugh, in person, together.
“Who is it that’s made my very serious little brother laugh?” came a deep voice that was unfamiliar to Alex.
Nate and Alex turned to see Adam, his arm around Cay in such a way that if she tried to escape, she wouldn’t be able to. Alex couldn’t keep his hands from clenching. He didn’t care if that was her brother, he didn’t want someone else touching her.
“I think we should all talk,” Adam said and Alex nodded.
Adam had arranged for a restaurant to remain open, and they had it all to themselves. Once they were seated at a round table, Tally and Adam began to speak at once, but Adam let his young brother tell what they’d been through to find Cay. “And Mac’s son,” he added as an afterthought, obviously as yet undecided as to whether Alex was friend or foe.
When the waiters started filling the table with plates of food, Alex had a momentary fear of their being heard. Maybe they’d forgotten that he was a wanted man, but Alex would never forget. It wasn’t until he saw a confused look on the face of a waiter that he realized the entire family had slipped into a Scottish accent so thick they sounded as though they’d left the Highlands just yesterday.
Tally told of going to the trading post and meeting Thankfull and her twin sisters. “I got there two days after you left.” For a moment he stared into space and shook his head. “Those girls! They followed me wherever I went. I’ve never seen anything like them.”
“Then not all girls are as aggressive as they are?” Cay asked. When Tally said no, she looked at Alex with an I-told-you-so expression.
“But I wish they were!” Tally said enthusiastically. “I wouldn’t have to work so hard if all girls were like them.”
Adam gave Tally a look that told him to keep his mouth shut, but Cay and Alex couldn’t suppress their laughter.
“I told you we men liked that,” Alex said.
“And I told you we women weren’t all like them,” Cay responded, laughing.
“Yet again, we’re both right.” Alex was laughing with her.
Adam looked at Tally, and the younger man shrugged. They had no idea what Cay and Alex were talking about.
“Nate stayed in Charleston, while I went to New Orleans,” Adam said over the laughter.
“But you didn’t tell Uncle T.C. where you were going.” Cay’s voice was stern with disapproval.