The Fragrance of Her Name (14 page)

“
Well…lots of men think she is
really
pretty. Beautiful, in fact. She thinks she’s ugly and I just let her go on thinkin’ it.” Brant chuckled as the boy continued. “She’s always in a pickle…but what does she look like? Hmmm? Let’s see…she’s got brown hair, a nice smile, good teeth, small ears and her nose ain’t too big. Does that help at all?”

Smiling, Brant nodded his assurance. “Thank you, Patrick. And I won’t tell Lauryn you said anything nice about her.”

“
Whew!” Patrick exclaimed. “Now…back to the war. Tell me some real messy stuff! Some stuff that will give me bad, bad dreams!”

Brant laughed. The boy was great fun! “All right. But don’t you go waking up in the night with nightmares and get me in trouble with your Mama.”

“
I won’t! I won’t! I swear it!” Patrick promised excitedly.

So Brant granted Patrick’s wishes of curiosity and adventure. But not too graphically. And he was glad for the boy’s company. It brightened his spirit. Still, he kept wishing that Lauryn would return from whatever errand her mother had sent her on so they could continue their conversations.



It was night before Lauryn was able to steal Brant away, trap him in his bedroom and “pick his brain” again. Something delighted in her as she watched him getting ready to retire. She was enchanted by his habitual ritual of unbuttoning his shirt but not removing it right away. She wondered if this had always been his habit. Or did he simply leave it on longer because she was in the room.

“
Why hasn’t your brother ever enlisted in your search?” Brant asked as he ran his fingers through his hair and sat down on his bed. Lauryn was sitting in a chair across from him the way she had the prior two nights.

Sakes alive
! she thought. If Brant Masterson wasn’t the handsomest man ever born on earth, well then, she couldn’t imagine who was.

“
You…you mean, Sean?” she stammered trying to redirect her attention from his attractive form back to his question.

“
Yeah.”

Lauryn sighed heavily. “Sean thinks I’m an idiot,” she stated.

Brant laughed and it was captivating to see him do it. His smile was incredible.

“
He does not,” he chuckled.

“
He does so,” Lauryn assured him. “He’s been tellin’ me that since I was in diapers. He always calls me
“The Mad Ghost Girl”
and shakes his head.”

“
He has to tease you. He’s your brother.” Brant seemed to understand all too well the male need to irritate his female siblings.

“
Isn’t there anythin’ else?” Lauryn pleaded. “Somethin’ else you know?” In her heart she knew she was pleading for information to give herself more time in his presence. But she tried to rationalize it by quietly whispering, in her mind, that the mystery simply needed solving.

Brant frowned. Discouraged as always. “I can’t think of….there’s the smell about her, the little cup, the stains on her dress, the locket, her rings…she taught me to play the piano, she’d hold my head in her lap at night and stroke my hair until I fell asleep. She’d play games with me…games that none of my friends knew. A couple of times Lauralynn even had me playing tea party with a bunch of my sister’s old dolls. If I didn’t catch hell…heck for that…I never caught it for anything.” He cleared his throat and added, “Sorry about the ‘hell’.”

Lauryn bit her lip, barely stifling a delighted giggle. Her mother would be horrified if she knew that her daughter found a man’s habit of swearing attractive in a way.

“
You played tea party?” Lauryn asked. The soft laughter in her voice was not restrainable.

“
Yes, I played tea party.” he grumbled. “Didn’t you ever play tea party?”

He was blushing! She was certain of it. Yes. Brant Masterson was blushing!

“
Well, yes I did play tea party, Mr. Masterson,” Lauryn admitted. “But…but that would be a little more expected. Don’t you think?”

“
Yeah, yeah, yeah.” He shook his head. “Let’s go on to something else.”

But something tickled Lauryn’s brain. “Don’t you find it just the least bit odd that she would want you to play tea party?”

“
I was a little boy. I’m sure she was just finding ways to try to amuse me,” he answered.

“
But you said she played games with you. Other games. Sisters…and Laura was a sister…sisters know how much little boys loathe playin’ things like tea party. Why would she want you to?”

“
Sisters also like to humiliate their brothers,” he growled.

“
Did…did she still have the cup when y’all played tea party?” Lauryn found it completely odd that Laura would nurture such a thing with young Brant. It had to have meaning.

“
At first…” he mumbled. “But…now that I think of it…it was when the tea cup stopped coming with her that she stopped trying to get me to play that.”

Suddenly, Lauryn couldn’t contain herself any longer. As serious as the situation was…as desperate as she was to find Laura for the Captain…the vision in her mind of Brant Masterson playing tea party with a bunch of his sister’s dolls and a ghost woman was too much. She erupted into delighted laughter, unable to stop to even catch a good breath.

“
Laugh it up, sugar,” Brant growled. “Who knows what kind of damage that did to me. I’ll probably turn out to be a lunatic.”

Still Lauryn couldn’t stop laughing. “It’s…it’s just too cute to imagine and not laugh a little!”

“
A little?” But she heard the slight chuckle in his voice. Then he stood up and, shaking his head, began to unfasten his trousers.

“
What are you doin’?” Lauryn nearly gasped.

“
Going to bed,” he stated. “So…unless you’re planning on jumping in with me…”

Lauryn stood up, with indignation. His threatening to undress in front of her was completely improper! Outrageous and intolerable! But his final remark…the implication he made was just plain hedonistic.

“
I’m sorry if my laughin’ offended you…but that gives you no right to…” she began to scold.

“
Your laughing didn’t offend me. And don’t act so shocked.” He chuckled. Looking up into his bandaged eyes, she was mesmerized by the movement of his mouth as he spoke. “And don’t try to tell me that your brothers never dropped their drawers in front of you before.”

“
Patrick is a child,” she reminded him. “And as for Sean…he’s a heathen! AND he’s my brother, anyway.”

“
Well…if it will make you feel better, Miss Kensington…go ahead,” Brant suggested. A deliciously devilish smile spread across his face.

“
Go ahead and what?” Lauryn asked.

“
Go ahead and strip down yourself.”

Lauryn gasped. “Why you…” she began to reprimand. But his smile faded and the corners of his mouth turned down in a frown.

“
What harm would it do? It’s not like I can see
you, now. Is it?” he growled.

There it was. That defiant, defeated, self-loathing that Lauryn had begun to recognize as Brant’s last line of defense. Whenever things got too comfortable, whenever he began to smile or feel better, he called upon it. Her heart ached for him and yet…if he continued to be beaten…his life would never be full.

And so she made her decision.

“
You’re right, of course,” she whispered. Then pulling one of her hands from his grasp, she reached up touching his face tenderly. He turned his face from her, uncomfortable with her touch. “I could strip down buck naked right now and it wouldn’t even be improper, would it?”

“
Don’t be ridiculous,” he growled again. She noticed the heightened red in his face. “Of course it would.”

“
But you’re standin’ here in just your trousers. Aren’t you?” she asked him.

“
I’m wearing my underwear, too” he grumbled.

“
So that means it’s all as proper, as proper can be.”

“
Better not let your mama hear you saying, ‘
ain’t
,’ sugar.” His voice was odd. The intonation of it different than any Lauryn had heard him use before. “And of course it’s not proper. Am I going to spend every minute here apologizing to you for one thing or the other?” he asked angrily.

“
I suppose that’s up to you, isn’t it?” She looked at him. The sad expression on his mouth, the way his broad shoulders slumped in the manner of having been conquered. “Do you know what you need, Mr. Masterson?” she asked.

“
A sound slap across the face again?” he chuckled.

“
Maybe,” she agreed. “But I think…it’s what Sean needed when he came home from the war all broken and sad.”

“
And sighted,” Brant added.

Then, before she could think of the absolute brazenness of what she was doing, Lauryn moved forward and, slipping her arms around and under his own, embraced him warmly. She felt his chest rise as he inhaled deeply, uncomfortable and uncertain how to respond.

“
My mama says, everyone on this green earth, should have at least two hugs a day. It does more than any medicine ever could,” she whispered. At the same time, she wished she hadn’t been so bold, because the feel of his body next to hers, the smoothness and scent of his skin against her cheek was completely appealing to her senses.

It wasn’t like she hadn’t been this close to him before. Why, just two days before on the train, he’d been the one to take her tightly in his arms. Of course, that had been quite different. He’d been fully clothed, for one thing.

“
Your mama’s right,” he mumbled. He patted her rather platonically on the back, did not return her embrace, but did not push her away either. And she knew it was enough. All he could take. But he had received it. He had not erupted in fury. He had needed a hug. It was as simple as that.

“
Now,” he said. “A couple of things have happened here tonight…that need to be addressed.”

Lauryn stepped back from him and waited for his scolding.

“
Those bein’…” she prodded.

“
Well,” he began. “Number one…I’ve acted inappropriately in a house that I’m a guest in. Offended my hostess’ daughter. I’ll apologize to your mother tomorrow if you think I should.”

Lauryn smiled. “I’ve had one or two of your apologies, sir. I think it’s best we just keep that one to ourselves.” He smiled.

“
All right. Now, number two…I’ve confessed my having played tea party…with dolls, mind you…as a boy. I’d appreciate it if that, too, never left this room.”

Lauryn smiled. “All right. I agree.”

“
Now, third,” he began. “I’m going to bed.” He began to fiddle with his trousers button again. “So, just in case you don’t want anything else going on in here that needs to be a secret…”

Lauryn didn’t allow him to finish. She simply turned and fled the room. His warm chuckled followed and she smiled, pleased that she could lighten his heavy burdens, at least for a moment.

“
He’s fabulous, you know,” Lauryn sighed as she entered her room and saw the Captain standing in the corner waiting for her.

“
I know,” the Captain agreed. “It’s in the blood line.”

Lauryn forced a smile. “He’ll be here only a week, Captain. And when he leaves…”

“
He’ll have broken your heart already,” the Captain finished.

Lauryn tried to stop the tears that were pooling in her eyes. She nodded.

“
It will be all right, peach,” the Captain told her as he walked to her and took her in his protective embrace. “You’ll see. You’ll solve this confounded mystery and…and everything will be all right.”

“
It will. It will,” Lauryn whispered, trying to convince herself. She fanned her emotionally heated face with one dainty hand and sniffled, trying to regain her composure. “It’s just the drama of it all, right? Just the fact that he’s a soldier and you know how I hurt for all of them. Don’t you?”

“
Yes, Lauryn. I do know,” was all the comfort the Captain would give her.

“
And…and he called me,
‘sugar’
,” she confided. “And…and I adored it!” She again fanned her blushing face and tried to regulate her breathing. “He’ll be the end of me, Captain. The very end.”

The Captain only smiled. “Oh, I very much doubt that, sweetheart.”

The remaining days Brant would be at Connemara began slipping by faster than Lauryn wanted to acknowledge. Each day for the few moments she could steal him away to herself, Lauryn talked with Brant about Lauralynn. They reviewed the elements they had a sure knowledge of again and again, going over every detail of her appearance, every fact she had communicated to Brant about the day she disappeared.

Still it was difficult. If it weren’t Patrick wanting Brant’s complete attention, it was Sean or her mother or even Nana. And when she was able to get him away for a short time, Lauryn found her innermost desires were to talk to him of nearly anything
else but the problem binding them together!

As ever, the Captain was the calming force in Lauryn’s life. Ever encouraging, ever sympathetic, he helped her to stay relaxed and hopeful in her moments of near despair. Since meeting Brant, Lauryn felt the pressure to find Laura all the more. Now, there was not only the Captain to save…but Brant. It was often obvious that Brant’s greatest discouragement came from his realization that he would no longer be able to help find Laura. If his knowledge didn’t help Lauryn to find her, he could not see himself being of any worth to his beautiful, lost, spirit friend.