The Fragrance of Her Name by Marcia Lynn McClure Read Free Book Online

his well bein'.” Lauryn looked to her Nana as the older woman lowered her voice. "It seems…he was somewhat haunted by the past."
    "I am sorry, Miss Kensington,” Dr. Nelson apologized, returning to the two women and offering a hand to Lauryn to help her to stand. “Are you alright? I mean truly?”
    “ Yes. I’m fine,” Lauryn answered, though her attention was completely arrested by the slumped shoulders of the defeated-looking Brant Masterson.
    Following Lauryn’s gaze, Dr Nelson whispered, “He's a very frustrated young man. But strong. Very strong. And I'm encouraged about his sight. I do worry about leavin’ him off at Memphis alone though. I hope he didn’t upset you too much, Miss Kensington."
    "Alone?" Nana and Lauryn asked simultaneously
    "Well…yes,” Dr. Nelson stammered. “Apparently there was some difficulty and his family will be over a week late in gettin' there to meet him. I've arranged for someone to help care for him. This will infuriate him when I tell him. He's an independent little devil."
    "You can't just leave him off in Memphis!" Lauryn exclaimed. "With strangers?"
    "Of course not,” Nana stated. "I'll telephone his family myself and the boy can come home with us to Franklin."
    "Oh, my no, Ma’am," the Doctor protested. "He needs a world of assistance still and…"
    "We're related…by marriage way back," Nana interrupted. "We're nearer to family than some strangers in Memphis."
    "It's highly unheard of to just leave off a man somewhere when prior arrangements have been made and…" the Doctor began to argue.
    Then he looked at the soldier still sitting and looking so very beaten. Returning his attention to Nana, he finished, "Still…it's the most life I've seen in the boy since he staggered off the ship."
    Lauryn looked to where Brant sat. There was an air about him of being utterly conquered. It was heartbreaking. The conversation between her grandmother and the doctor concerning the man's fate faded from her mind. Lauryn found herself being propelled toward the soldier, her feet seemed to suddenly have a will of their own.
    "A woman's step is so much lighter than a man's," Brant muttered. "But I can still hear it.” He rose to his feet and turned toward her. Lauryn's heart ached brutally for the lack of being able to see his eyes. "I'm sorry if I frightened you, Miss Kensington," he spoke. "I…I…"
    "I understand," Lauryn finished. "It was quite a shock to me as well." She noted the way his shoulders sagged. "Please, sit back down. You need your rest, I'm sure."
    He sat, without argument. Lauryn sat next to him and studied him intently. He was far more interesting and attractive, even with his bandaged eyes, than any other man she had ever met. A pang of guilty disloyalty pricked at her heart as she thought of the Captain waiting back home in Franklin…the man she’d thought no other could compare to…until now. Her thoughts of the Captain led her to the reality of the knowledge owned by the man that sat next to her.
    "You know then that I…that I…” she found herself stammering awkwardly in a hushed voice.
    “ That you see him," he stated without pause.
    Lauryn inhaled deeply, afraid to confide her greatest secret to anyone! Let alone a stranger.
    "I do," she whispered. It was inconceivable to her. All these years…all these years that the Captain had been wandering in search of Lauralynn…all the years that she had kept her secret about her spirit friend…someone outside the family had known?
    "What scent does he carry?" the man at her side asked. It seemed a very odd question. In fact, it was so incredibly odd that it threw Lauryn’s thoughts into a jumble.
    "Scent?" she asked.
    "Yes. When he appears to you. How…how do you first know he's there?"
    "He…he appears. I sense him coming…he appears…we talk and…"
    "You mean you talk," he corrected her.
    "No. I mean we talk. Together. Converse. As you and I are now.”
    What ever was the matter with her? She