“First of all, your parents know nothing. On the night of what I can only think of as the Great Error, Hope took a small, fast carriage and Cuddy, your mother’s faithful servant, and drove to Edilean to get Nate and as many of your brothers as they could. They were fortunate that Adam was at home and he arranged everything. He knew that to tell your father would start a war. Angus would be beside himself with fear for your safety—and if he found out that I had caused it, my life would be forfeit, and rightfully so.
“Nate told me that Adam can be an admirable liar when called for, and this time he outdid himself. He gave some outrageous story to your parents to explain their need to leave right away, and he and Nate were here in record time. I think perhaps Adam harnessed an eagle and flew.
“Adam took a day to talk to people here and ask questions, and as soon as I finish this letter, he plans to go away, but he won’t tell me where. Nate will stay in Charleston and work on solving the puzzle of how Alex’s wife was murdered inside a locked room.
“Cay, your name has been cleared. That was easy enough to do, but if you’re reading this letter, then you must be in Florida. I wonder if Alex . . .”
Cay stopped reading aloud as she scanned the rest of the letter. She looked back up at Alex. “You were right when you said that Uncle T.C. would figure out a way to clear my name.”
“Read the rest of it,” Alex said.
“It’s not important. Have you had anything to eat? Thankfull—she owns this place—has cooked some kind of bird that I’ve never seen before. She stuffs it with rice and some spices. It’s really very good, and—”
“Read the letter and don’t skip even a word of it.” Alex’s tone said that he wasn’t going to be disobeyed.
She picked the letter up again.
“I wonder if Alex is still with you? When I visited him in prison, he was a very angry man, and his grief over the loss of his wife nearly broke my heart. Was he any company for you on the long trip down? My heart cries for what you must have gone through with him.
“Adam told me to say that you’re to stay there in Florida and wait for one of your brothers to come and get you. You aren’t to leave that place, but to remain there until someone, probably Tally, comes for you. Adam said this over and over. He doesn’t seem to believe that you are a very obedient young lady. I told him that you were the opposite, that you readily agreed to help poor Alex in his time of need. Cay, dearest, your eldest brother said some curse words to me that in all my travels among sailors and mountain men, I had never heard!
“I beg of you, please stay there. Thankfull will take care of you, and you’re welcome to use my art supplies while you wait. Thankfull will show you where they are. She’s a very kind young woman and she helped me assemble it all. Tell her
“Cay, dear, I wonder if you got Alex to talk? While he was in the jail, he barely spoke. I’m sworn to secrecy, but let me tell you that he knows more than I thought he did. Don’t tell Alex, but the long letter he wrote while in jail never reached the intended recipient. Nate says that if Alex is still there to tell him that he, Nate, has made a sacred oath that he will find who murdered Alex’s wife.
“Now I must go. Adam is giving me looks that frighten me. He is so much like your father!
“I send my love to you and I am sorry for all the pain I’ve caused you and your family. When we’re together again, remember that I owe you chocolate.
“With much love,
“T.C. Connor”
Cay folded the letter back together and looked up at Alex, but he kept his face turned away and concentrated on the horse. But she knew him well enough to know that he was thinking hard about what Uncle T.C. had written. “What did he mean that you know more than he thought you did?”
Alex was silent as he rubbed the mare’s back with the brush. “I’m glad to hear that they cleared your name,” he said at last. “And I agree with your brothers that you must stay here and wait for one of them to come for you. I didn’t like the idea of your traveling back alone.” He glanced at her. “Even if you’re dressed as a boy.” His tone said that he thought that was a joke.
“Tally,” Cay said, making the word sound heavy and forbidding. “He’ll laugh at me.”
Alex made a sound as though he thought her being ridiculed would be an appropriate response. “But think how you can best him with stories of your adventure. You rode through the night with an escaped murderer. You can tell him of your fear and the constant danger you were in.”
Cay arched an eyebrow at him. “Would that be the danger I was in when we were dancing in the store? Or when you had your head on my lap and I was rubbing jasmine oil into your hair?”
Alex turned his face away so she couldn’t see it. “I don’t know, lass,” he said softly. “That first night you were afraid of me.”
“True. I almost cut your throat.”
He chuckled. “Did you know that I still have a sore on my side from where you nicked me?”
“I did not!”
“Aye, you did. It was after we went out the side of the barn and you sliced my breeches half off me.” He looked back at her. “I’ll tell you, lass, that I thought you were going to stab me right then and there, and I didn’t know if I’d be able to move out of your reach.”
“It wasn’t easy for me to choose between you and the man who owned that decrepit old barn.”
“Are you glad you chose me?” Alex asked, laughing, but as he looked at her his face became serious. It was easy to see that she was again letting him know that she didn’t want to be left behind.
“Yes.”
There was an awkward moment as they looked at each other, and the fact that this was their last night together hung in the air.
Alex broke the moment. “So did you kiss them?”
“Who?”
“Did you kiss the girls?”
“You’re sick. You’re worse than a murderer, you’re deranged. You ought to be put away in an asylum.”
“What about young Tim? He was mightily taken with you. Did you sneak back and kiss him?”
“I’m going to tell my brother Adam that you weren’t very nice to me, and he’s going to beat you up.”
Alex laughed. “Oh, how I’m going to miss you, lass. You made me laugh after a time when I thought I’d never so much as smile again.”
“You wouldn’t be alive now if it weren’t for me.” Her voice was completely serious, her eyes burning into his.
Alex turned back to the horses. “No, you’re not going with me, and don’t start on me again. Tell me more about the food in this place. After tonight I might be eating alligators for dinner. I wonder what the meat tastes like?”
“I hope it tastes like festering donkey caresses,” she said, glaring at his back. “And don’t you dare ask me to sleep in the same bed with you tonight, because I won’t do it. You, Alexander . . . Yates, are an ungrateful, mean-spirited, bad-tempered numptie. And I wish I knew some of the words my brother knows so I could call you those things.” With that, she left the barn and slammed the door behind her.
Turning, Alex looked at the door, and sighed. He was going to miss her very, very much.
It was later that night, when Cay was in bed—alone—that she had to struggle to keep from crying. When she’d left Alex, the twins had been waiting for her with more questions and more attempts to touch her. They were so forward in their advances that she was tempted to tell them the truth, that she was female. But she couldn’t do that.
The thought of having to deal with the two of them for even a whole day was enough to make her want to jump in a saddle and head north. She couldn’t even imagine a whole week—or more—near them.
And even worse was that at the end of that horrible time, who was she to see but Tally. Tally! Her brother who liked nothing more than to make her feel as though she were incompetent at everything she tried.
She could hear him now. “So you were in a party dress when you rode out in the middle of the night to re
scue a condemned criminal? Weren’t you worried that your dress might get soiled? Or your hair come down from whatever you do to make it stay up on top of your head?”
He would go on and on at her while she had to stand there and take it.
But then, maybe she could shoot him, she thought. One bullet to his shoulder. Or maybe to a thigh. He’d recover, but in the meantime, it would shut him up.
She was thinking these lovely thoughts, her mind full of satisfying images, when there was a knock on her door. Since she’d heard Thankfull threaten the girls if they bothered Cay again, she felt sure it was Alex come to apologize. She spread what was left of her hair out on the pillow. “Come in.”
When Thankfull put her head inside the door, Cay frantically began to tuck her hair behind her.
“I don’t mean to bother you, but I was wondering if Mr. Connor’s letter contained something bad.”
“No,” Cay said. “Just news from home.”
“I couldn’t help noticing that when you came in from the stables, you were in a bit of an ill temper, so I thought maybe . . .”
Cay reminded herself that in the future, she had to be more careful. She was used to being on the trail with Alex where they never saw the same people twice. “No, it was just my brother being what he is.”
“Oh,” Thankfull said. She was looking down at her hands and seemed to have something else to say but didn’t know how. “That’s good, then. About the letter, I mean. I hope Mr. Connor is well.”
When Cay put aside her own annoyance at Alex, she realized what Thankfull wanted: to hear news of Uncle T.C. “He certainly does think highly of you.”
“Does he?” Thankfull asked as her head came up and she smiled. “I mean, I think quite highly of him, too. Did he ever tell you about the time we made his painting chest float?”
“He mentioned it,” Cay said, telling a polite lie. T.C. had never said a word about women unless they were of some Indian tribe he’d visited. “But what were the details?”
“Do you mind?” Thankfull asked as she motioned to the chair near the bed.
“No, of course not,” Cay said as she sat up straighter in the bed. She’d removed her new vest, but she still had on her big shirt. Her breeches were draped over the end of the bed, and she thought that if she really were a male, this would be a very inappropriate meeting.
“Mr. Connor was here in the spring with Mr. Grady and they made plans for now.”
“And they stayed here with you?”
“They did,” Thankfull said, again looking at her hands. “Mr. Grady was busy all the time, but Mr. Connor . . .” She looked at Cay. “I guess you know that he’s a magnificent artist. Even Mr. Grady said so.”
Cay had to work not to reply to that. In her opinion, Uncle T.C. was a brilliant botanist, but he couldn’t draw or paint worth anything.
Thankfull got up and went to the window, glanced out at the moon, and looked back at Cay sitting on the bed. “Usually, I don’t pay much attention to the men who come through here, but Mr. Connor was different. He was kind and educated, and we had some wonderful conversations.”
“He’s a very nice man.”
“Isn’t he!” Thankfull said enthusiastically as she sat back down on the chair. “He brought boxes of artist’s supplies with him. He had great pads of paper that were made in Italy, and he had French crayons and English watercolors. They were all so very beautiful.”
Cay could only blink at the woman, for it was obvious that she was giddy in love with T.C. Connor. Cay wondered if the love was returned. According to her mother, Uncle T.C. was incapable of loving anyone but the deceased Bathsheba. “Uncle T.C. said in his letter that you know where his art supplies are and that I could use them while I wait for one of my other brothers to come for me.”
“He said that? How kind of him to remember. Yes, I have them in my bedroom.”
Cay wanted to ask her if she slept beside them, but she refrained herself. “You said something about a chest?”
“Yes, he’d had a metal trunk made to hold his supplies and his finished art. It was so well constructed that it was waterproof. Mr. Connor and I went to the river and threw it in to make sure that it would float and not leak. Of course we had a rope tied to the chest so it wouldn’t end up in Cowford, but it all worked perfectly, just as he’d planned. When we pulled it out hours later, the papers we’d put inside it were as dry as they’d been when we put the box in the river.”
“Hours?” Cay asked, and when Thankfull blushed, her face looked years younger. It’s amazing what love can do to a person, she thought.
“It took us most of a day to fully ascertain whether the chest was waterproof or not.”
“That must have been a pleasant diversion for you,” Cay said.
“Very much so.” Thankfull stood up again. “The trunk is locked, but Mr. Connor left the key with me. If his letter says you may use the items, I’ll gladly give them to you. But I will need proof, of course.”
“Yes, proof,” Cay said and she had to work to keep from frowning. It looked like Thankfull had come up with an excuse to get to see the letter from T.C.—but of course Cay could never show it to her, as it held too much information that was private. So that would mean she wouldn’t be allowed to use Uncle T.C.’s supplies while she was left there by Alex the Ungrateful.
“I’ll let you sleep now,” Thankfull said as she got up. “Just let me see Mr. Connor’s verification and I’ll be happy to turn the chest over to you.” Smiling, she went to the door.
On impulse, Cay said, “What’s Mr. Grady like?”
Thankfull’s eyes widened. “I don’t think I can describe him. Tim says he’ll be here tomorrow, so you can see for yourself.”
“Do you think he’s a kind man?”
“He’s . . . James Grady is in a class all of his own. I think I’d better go now or the girls will get the wrong idea about us.” Quickly, she left the room.
It was a full minute before Cay started to bang her fist against the pillow. Worse and worse and worse. Everything was going downhill rapidly. She was facing spending weeks being tortured by three lovesick females. Two of them seemed intent on making Cay their husband, while the third was going to make her show a letter that Cay couldn’t reveal before she was allowed to have even a drawing pencil. What was she supposed to do during these weeks?
If that weren’t bad enough, at the end of the time, Tally was to come and get her.
Yet again, Cay thought about leaping out the window and getting on her horse. Better still, she should dive into the river and swim home. She wondered if the St. Johns joined the James River somewhere. Maybe if she got a boat, she could row herself northward. She couldn’t help smiling as she thought of how Alex would worry when he found her gone. It would serve him right! she thought. He deserved to be scared to death after what he’d condemned her to. And after she’d saved his worthless life!
As she began to fall asleep, she wondered where he was sleeping tonight, and she hoped it was someplace uncomfortable and smelly.
Fifteen
Cay pushed the eggs about on her plate. She was so down spirited that she didn’t even care what kind of bird the eggs came from. She’d already seen so many strange creatures flying and running about that she couldn’t keep track of them. Yesterday she’d tried her best to ask the girls what the huge bird flying overhead was, but they weren’t interested in the birds, only in Cay. All they wanted to do was to touch her, to sit close to her, to make her look at them.
“There’s no way he’s right,” Cay mumbled as she thought about Alex saying that all girls acted like that. Cay could assure him that she’d never come close to behaving that way with any of her many suitors. She’d always conducted herself in the most respectful, ladylike way possible. The few times when she was alone with one of the three men she was considering marrying, she’d never done anything that she couldn’t have done in front of her mother. Maybe not her father, but her mother, yes.
“Did
you say something?” Thankfull asked from the doorway as she put another bowl of food on the table.
Cay was the only guest at the boardinghouse, and if she ate even half of what was served to her, she’d get fat. She wondered if being fat would make the girls leave her alone.
“Your brother hasn’t been by this morning,” Thankfull said. “Do you think he’ll want breakfast?”
“I don’t know where he spent last night and I don’t know if or when he ate.”
“I see,” Thankfull said tentatively.
“I spent last night under the stars,” Alex said from the doorway.
Cay turned to his voice and had to stop herself from running to him. It was wonderful to see someone who wasn’t a stranger. Even though she stopped her smile before it could engulf her face, he saw it.
“Mr. Yates,” Thankfull said, “please sit down and have breakfast. I’ll fix you a plate of eggs.”
She left the room and Alex sat down across from Cay. “Miss me?” He picked up a piece of toast from the plate in the center of the table.
“Not at all. I hope you froze last night.”
“I only wish summers in Scotland were as warm as the winters here. How long do you plan to stay angry at me, lass?”
“Stop calling me that or Thankfull will hear you.”
“What do you think her parents were thankful for when she was born?”
It was nearly the same joke that Cay had thought of when she was introduced, but she wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of hearing her say so. She just glared at him and went back to moving her eggs around on the plate.
“Grady is to arrive today.”
“I hope he doesn’t.” Cay’s voice was angry. “I hope you have to stay here, too.”
“You want me with you that bad, do you?”
“I don’t want you with me at all. I just don’t want to have to stay in this place and wait for my brother to come and ridicule me.”