Propriety could hang now and he would catch what he more than deserved. It was one thing to tease her mercilessly in front of her family, but to do it in front of Brant and his family! Sean would pay. And, Lauryn didn’t care about the lecture that would no doubt follow from her mother—the one she’d heard a million times growing up when she and Sean were younger. The one about turning the other cheek. Not letting Sean’s teasing get under her skin. Poppycock! He’d really done it this time and the perfect opportunity at vengeance was presenting itself at that very moment.
“You rat,” Lauryn, mumbled, her smile broadening as she reached down and swiftly unfastened the waist of his trousers. She heard a thud and impishly delighted in realizing that Sean, startled and trying to sit up, had conked his head hard on that blasted machine. Then quick as a mouse, Lauryn stripped his trousers down as he squirmed and hollered. She nimbly yanked them completely from his body and then, trousers in hand, broke into a dead run for the house!
“That’ll teach you, you little weasel!” she shouted over her shoulder as she ran waving the trousers over her head like a victory banner. What a wit she was! And a proud one at that. It had been no easy task to strip Sean of his trousers quickly enough to get away before he could maneuver out from under the auto.
Racing across the front porch and into the entryway she giggled as she saw her mother enter from the parlor.
“What is going on?” her mother demanded.
“Now, Mama,” Lauryn began, knowing that she was about to receive a tongue-lashing. “He deserves it! He always does. You saw what he did to me the other night. Fair is fair, Mama. If Sean is gonna to dish it out… then he’s gonna have to take it!”
“Take what?” Sean asked as he stepped into the entryway from the parlor.
Lauryn’s jaw dropped nearly to the floor. There he stood. Sean! Completely dressed, trousers and all!
“You didn’t mess around with my auto did you?” he asked, looking past his mother and out the window to the street.
“What on earth, Lauryn? And where did you get those trousers?” Georgia asked.
“Well, they’re Sean’s,” Lauryn gasped.
“What’s all the commotion?” Mindy asked as she, too, entered, Junie propped on one hip.
“Well, it looks like Lauryn has stripped someone of his trousers,” Sean chuckled.
“Lauryn! What have you done?” Georgia shrieked.
“It was Sean! Out there workin’ on his danged machine.” She tried to explain. “I…I thought…”
Sean erupted into laughter, and at that very moment, the front door swung open revealing Brant Masterson, trouserless. Already there was a bruise visible on his forehead, and as he tromped in wearing nothing but a scowl and his underwear, Lauryn thought she might indeed drop dead where she stood.
“Oh, Brant!” Georgia exclaimed in a horrified whisper.
Mindy looked the man up and down smiling in delighte and Sean doubled over, clutching his stomach as his body was racked with overwhelming, delirious laughter.
Rubbing the goose egg on his forehead, Brant simply held out his hand to Lauryn and gestured for her to return the stolen trousers. Slowly, since she was greatly distracted by the sight of him in only his underwear, she held the trousers out to him. Everyone stood silent, save Sean who still roared with laughter, enjoying his mirth.
“Lauryn, sugar,” Brant mumbled. “The next time you want to get a good look at my manly shape….” He stepped into his trousers and fastened them up quickly. “Simply ask. It would save us both a great deal of…pain.” He rubbed his forehead again, wincing as he did so.
“I thought…. I thought…” Lauryn stammered.
“Well, now that the entire neighborhood has seen nearly all of me….” He frowned at Lauryn, the bump on his head obviously uncomfortable. “Tell me…is it safe to go back out and finish my work?” Lauryn felt the tears of hurt and humiliation welling up in her eyes. “Or is there something else you wanted?”
Shaking her head, Lauryn cast tear-filled eyes to the floor. Her humiliation was great. And yet, there was some sort of devilish, secret delight in the knowledge of what she had done, and in the vision of Brant Masterson in his underwear. It was, yes…almost funny to her. But, the embarrassment was stronger and won out.
“Wait ‘til I tell the boys this one!” Sean laughed, rising to his feet again. “They won’t believe me!”
Simultaneously Mindy and Lauryn’s mother scolded, “Sean Kensington!”
“You’ll do no such thing!” Georgia added. “Why, if such a thing should get around…”
“You yanked his trousers off, Lauryn! Do you realize that? You stripped a man nearly naked!” Sean teased laughing boisterously again.
The shame was too much. Standing there in front of Brant, whom she’d embarrassed in front of everyone, it was too much. Reaching out, she shoved Sean with all her might, bursting into tears and ran past them all, out the door and around the house to the gardens.
She hated him! That Sean Kensington. Oh! He was so infuriating and heartless! When would he ever grow up? And how could she face Brant again? Pulling off his trousers! What had she been thinking? She’d been thinking that it was her devil of a brother under that confounded contraption, and he certainly would’ve deserved to be found nearly naked out in the middle of the street. But Brant! She wanted to hide forever. How could she ever face him again?
Sitting down hard on the ground near her happy yellow rose bushes, she wiped angrily at the tears on her face. It was too unreal. She’d actually, and publicly, pulled off his pants! Right there in broad daylight! And yet the vision of his standing there, hair tousled, arms, chest and most of his legs undressed for all the world to see…. would not be a vision she could easily vanquish from her mind. Nor did she wish to, in all honesty. Still, how could she have done such a thing?
“It was a good prank,” Brant admitted, chuckling as he sat down beside her. Lauryn looked away quickly. Why did he always have to come after her when she was upset? Brant always sought her out. Always! She looked at him then, her heart swelling with the realization that he owned yet another quality that every woman wished for in a man...the quality of ever seeking her out and tending to her feelings when she was upset.
“It was a great idea. And he more than deserved it after teasing you so mercilessly the other night.”
“But you didn’t,” Lauryn breathed, wiping at her tears again.
“Oh…I don’t know,” he corrected, reaching out and brushing a stray curl of hair from her forehead. “I’ve done enough terrible things to my own sisters over the years that…. well, they’ll be delighted with this I’m sure.” She dropped her gaze to the ground. He put a hand under her chin and forced her to look at him again. “Now, don’t worry on it. It was funny.”
Reaching out in a sort of panic she took his arm. “I’m so sorry, Brant! I should’ve thought before I…. I never think! I always just charge ahead and…”
“It’s fine, Lauryn.” He smiled at her then, an amused rather sly grin. “I’ve never had a woman yank my trousers off before. I kind of liked it.”
She smiled back at him, appreciative of his willingness to forgive her and making it all seem so trivial. He was so handsome! So, considerate, and she reached out and put her hand to his cheek.
“You’re a very forgivin’ man,” she told him, humbly.
He smiled. “Well, you’re very easy to forgive.” He stood and offered his hand to her. “Come on now, let’s go back. Your mother about has lunch ready.”
Lauryn frowned. “Sean will be merciless,” she told him.
Brant nodded and frowned a moment. Then with a mischievous grin, he suggested, “Well, we’ll just have to distract him then, won’t we?” And much to Lauryn’s delight and astonishment, Brant stripped off his pants once more and flung them over his shoulder. “Come along, sugar. I’m starving.” Lauryn giggled. taking his hand she leaped to her feet.
“I ain’t embarrassed about my
body.” Brant boasted, dramatically. “Why, Sean can only wish he had the muscles I do, right?”
“Definitely,” Lauryn confirmed. Though she hadn’t thought it possible, she adored him all the more at that moment. For all the humiliation she’d heaped on him, his concern was for her happiness. His jesting and humor, he knew, were cheering her. Anyhow, he was right! Sean could only wish for such chiseled granite muscle definition as the like borne by Brant.
Lauryn’s mother’s jaw nearly hit the floor when her daughter walked into the kitchen with a pantsless man. But everyone at Connemara had a good sense of humor, including her mother.
Lauryn enjoyed sitting around the table with her family and Brant’s. It was such a delight. The conversation was always interesting and humorous. Aunt Felicity and Uncle Johnny, being the entertaining characters they were, kept everyone amused.
The evening was spent pleasantly as well. Nana and Georgia sat on the front porch talking with Felicity and John while Brant and Lauryn sat in the cool grass below, trying to solve a puzzle that was seeming more and more an impossible challenge.
More often than not that evening, as it was every time Lauryn found herself alone with Brant, the conversation eventually left the subject of poor Laura and turned to other things. It was as if their minds needed escape. As if neither one of them could think clearly about the mystery anymore.
“So, Nana asked me to go to New Orleans with her for a few months…and I went,” Lauryn explained. Brant had asked her how she ended up spending such a long time in New Orleans. “And then the flu got so bad…and we didn’t want to travel…and…” Lauryn paused, watching Patrick chasing fireflies here and there among the bushes.
“It’s almost unendurable to lose a parent,” Brant mumbled, seeming to have read Lauryn’s thoughts. And she had, indeed, been thinking of her father.
“When my mother passed away,” Brant continued. “I…I didn’t think I would ever stop crying.”
“How old were you?” Lauryn asked, carefully.
“Three.”
“Three!” Lauryn gasped. “So young.”
“And yet…Laura was only fourteen the first time she met Brandon,” Brant reminded her. “And so young when she died. It’s not right that such bad things should happen to people when they’re so young.”
“And I’ve decided,” Lauryn began, “that girls must’ve looked older back then. Or been prettier. Or somethin’. So many of them married young. And so many of them married older men. I wonder why older men were attracted to younger girls?” Lauryn mused aloud.
“They still are,” Brant chuckled.
“They are?” Lauryn asked innocently looking over to him. Her heart fluttered at the sight of him stretched out in the grass next to her, smiling devilishly as he chewed on a long foxtail.
“Hell, yes!” he exclaimed. “Sorry,” he apologized then, shaking his head. Lauryn giggled. It was one of his most adorable imperfections, his swearing. And he didn’t swear excessively. Not even often. Just on occasion and mostly just about Hell. In actuality, Lauryn adored the way he swore and then apologized to her afterward. She secretly hoped he’d never really overcome it. “It all works out anyway,” he continued. “I mean, be honest with me sugar…aren’t girls almost always attracted to older men?”
“Well, I suppose you’re right,” she admitted.
“I mean…look at me and you. Perfect example.” Lauryn’s eyes widened. Had he just implied that they were attracted to one another? “Oh, don’t put on that naive expression, Lauryn. I can admit it. I think you’re…”
“I know…I know…” Lauryn whined. “You think I’m cute.” How she hated that he thought of her as merely cute. The word felt like dry straw on her tongue.
“Well, actually,” he corrected her, lowering his voice. “I was thinking more…something like…tempting.” As Lauryn looked at him, delightfully astonished, he winked and her heart soared.
“Y’all come on in,” Georgia called from just inside the entryway. “The skeeters will eat you alive if you don’t.”
Brant stood and offered a hand to Lauryn, helping her to feet.
“We better hit the sack,” he sighed. “Tomorrow I want to start again. I want us to write down absolutely everything this time.”
But the next day was as fruitless as the one before. As fruitless as the two, three and four before that. There was nothing it seemed. Simply nothing that pointed Brant or Lauryn to any kind of knowledge they didn’t already own.
By that evening, Brant’s temper was short and Lauryn’s hopes were nearly exhausted. And that’s what she told the Captain.
“We’ve looked everywhere. Again! We’ve talked to Nana until I know she’s sick to death of us. And I hate burdenin’ her.” Lauryn told the Captain. “We’re missin’ somethin’. I just don’t know what.”
“Read the letters in the trunk, again,” the Captain suggested. “Maybe there’s something in them that you’re missing.”
“But you weren’t even here when…the letters stopped days before she was lost. And they upset Brant so terribly. He doesn’t say it…but the description of war…it distracts him from thinkin’ of clues.” Lauryn shook her head. Ten years of failure was beginning to take its toll on her. Ten years of failure and the fact that her feelings for Brant were becoming more and more intense with each passing moment.
“We’ve missed somethin’,” she mumbled again. “I just…I just can’t…I’m so tired. I can’t think anymore. And when I do think…all I can seem to think about is…” She stopped short, almost having revealed too much.
“Lauryn,” the Captain said, sitting on the bed next to her. “It’s all right to think about him. It’s all right to love him.”
“I don’t love him,” Lauryn nearly shouted. “For Pete’s sake, Captain. I hardly even know him. He’s a stranger, practically.”
The Captain chuckled. “And it’s okay to want to spend time with him, talk to him, be with him, help him…. more than you want to be with me.”
“But I don’t. You’re my dearest friend. I could never…” she began to argue.
“I have been your friend, angel. But you’re all grown up now. You’re ready for a different kind of friend…a best friend the way Laura is mine.” Lauryn was silent for a moment. Thoughtful. And the Captain continued, “Before now, our friendship…your desire to help me, was enough for you, wasn’t it? But now…guilt rises in you every time you’re with Brant. You feel like you’re betraying me and your promise to me. Lauryn…” He took her shoulders and turned her to face him. “I’m dead, Lauryn. Hadn’t you noticed?” He grinned lovingly at her as she smiled back at him. “And I have a best friend of my own. You don’t have to worry about me. Remember the reason I’m here, angel. To find my Laura…through you.” He paused for a moment, and then with tears in his eyes whispered, “I’m strong whenever I’m here with you, Lauryn. But when I’m not…I miss her…I long for her…I ache for her! I miss her so badly…so terribly that my tears could run forever.” He caressed her cheek tenderly. “Now, don’t try to tell me that you’re not akin to me where those feelings are concerned. I know you too well, my peach.”
Suddenly, Lauryn threw herself into the Captain’s embrace, sobbing bitterly.
“You’re right,” she cried. “I…I care for him so much more than I should! More than I have a right to! And I do feel guilty for it. You’ve always, always talked with me and cared for me. Listened to my ridiculous prattle. I owe you so much! I…”
“Lauryn, don’t pass up your dream for want of helping me. You don’t owe me anything. What are you talking about? I owe you everything. You’ve spent a lifetime trying to help me,” he reminded her. “In fact,” he mumbled. And then Lauryn tumbled to her bed as he instantly disappeared.
“What?” she whispered. It was so unlike the Captain to leave her in her moment of need. She was confused. What had she said to upset him so?
“Are you all right?” Brant asked a few moments later as he burst
into the room, a look of deep concern on his face.
Lauryn looked up to him, wiping furiously at her tears. “What do you mean?”
“The Captain,” he began striding quickly to her. “He said you were upset.” He dropped to his knees before her, and reaching up took her face in his hands. The expression on his face was so sincerely one of worry that Lauryn felt her heart leap for a moment. “What’s the matter, Lauryn?” he asked.
Lauryn understood then. Something she never quite had before. And she understood why the Captain, for the first time since her eighth birthday when she’d been in the attic and turned to see him, had disappeared when she needed him most. Because she didn’t need the Captain most, anymore. What she needed most, what she wanted more than anything she’d ever wanted in her life, was hunkered down on the floor before her asking what was wrong.
At that very moment, she felt a hand on her back. Felt it shove her hard enough that she fell forward, throwing her arms around Brant’s neck. When Brant’s strong embrace enveloped her instantly, she wasn’t angry that the Captain had pushed her into Brant’s arms. She was glad. Once again the Captain had not failed her. He’d left her to fetch the one thing she really needed at that moment. She needed Brant. Brant was all she would ever need again.
“What’s wrong, sugar?” Brant asked rising to his feet and pulling Lauryn even more snuggly against him. “You have to tell me.”
“I…I…we’re never gonna find her, Brant,” Lauryn sobbed. It was what she felt to be true. Lauryn wanted to find Laura now more than she ever had before. And she wanted to find her so that Brant would be free. To free herself. She wanted to find her so she could have her own chance of winning the only thing she wanted now. She wanted Brant. Yet, it was impossible. If they hadn’t found her by now, surely they never would.
“We’ll find her,” Brant growled. “We will. Together we’ll find her.” He released his embrace and held her face firmly in his hands as he spoke with determination. “I promise, Lauryn. We’ll find her. We’ll put them to rest…heal their souls. And our own.” He wiped her tears from her cheeks with his thumbs as the corner of his mouth twitched slightly.
The Fragrance of Her Name Page 22
