Alex chuckled, then he full out laughed. “Surely you’re not telling the truth. The boy couldn’t walk like that.”
“He does all the time.”
“Let’s try it again, only this time not as though you’re trying to start a brawl. Shoulders back is good, but less swagger to your walk.”
“Maybe more like Adam.” She walked again, only this time she ate up the ground in just a few long strides, and she had a look that said she was too busy to pay attention to the rest of the world.
Alex cleared his throat to keep from laughing.
“No good? How about Ethan?”
Alex put out his hand to say she could try it.
Cay went back the other way, only this time she went slowly, noticing everything, and when her eyes lit on Alex, she gave him a long look, as though she’d never seen him before but would very much like to get to know him.
“Lord in Heaven!” Alex said. “Surely the boy doesn’t do that.”
Cay shrugged. “Girls follow him down the street.”
“Well, uh, I don’t think that you need to do that. We don’t want people following us. What about the other brother? What was his name?”
“Nathaniel. Nate.”
Cay looked about for something, then picked up a leather satchel lying by her saddle. “Pretend this is a book.” She held it close to her face and walked slowly across the space, oblivious to everything but the book. When she came to the end, she kept her head down but walked around a tree.
She returned to the fire and looked at Alex. “Well?”
He couldn’t keep from laughing. “I don’t think any of them are right. Could you not . . ?”
“Not what?”
“Well, lass . . . Cay, could you not walk like me?”
“Oh? You mean like this?” She puffed out her chest, put on a frown, and glared down at an imaginary person. “Can’t you come on, lass? I haven’t got all day. You’re more trouble than you’re worth.” She hurried off into the darkness, leaving herself behind.
“I don’t. . . ,” Alex began, then shook his head. “Maybe I do. But if you kept the walk and said nothing, you might do all right.”
“Was there a compliment in there?”
“Not from me,” he said, but he was smiling under all the hair on his face. “I think we should sleep now. We’ll work on your walk some more tomorrow.”
“You aren’t going to tell me I have to sit with my legs apart, are you?”
“Aye, I am,” he said solemnly.
“Maybe that’s good. If I committed that big of a sin my mother will find me wherever I am.” She picked up Hope’s big cloak off the ground and wrapped it around her. She planned to use it as a cover and as protection from the earth, but as she looked down at her breeches, she thought about the reality of their situation. If someone guessed that she was female, and if they saw that she was with Alex, it wouldn’t be difficult to figure out who they were. They could both be put in prison.
“I want you to cut my hair now,” she said softly, and she didn’t dare touch her hair or she’d start crying again.
She saw that he was about to apologize, or maybe make an excuse about why they should leave it until the morning, but he didn’t. He nodded toward a piece of log nearby, and she sat down on it, her back rigidly straight.
Alex took the scissors he’d taken from the store out of the satchel on the ground and went behind her. Her hair was still damp from her swim, but as it was drying, it was fluffing out into fat curls. To cut such hair was a great waste of beauty.
Cay glanced up at him, saw his hesitation, and wanted to tell him not to make this harder for her. Instead, she decided to goad him on. “Did I tell you about Benjamin?”
“And who is that?” Alex asked as he picked up a strand of her hair and held it. He wanted to put it to his face and feel it on his skin. Between the time in jail and the weeks of the trial, it had been months since he’d felt the softness of a woman. “You have a fifth brother?”
“Benjamin is the youngest of my suitors. He’s just twenty-two and very handsome. Not as handsome as Ethan, of course, but very nice to look at. His family is quite wealthy, and he loves to gamble and play games and bet on horses.”