The Rejected Mate novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: The Cellar

Caelen Braithwaite had smelled cedar smoke on Dinah Ashdown all evening.

It was only when Willa put her hand on the girl's belly that he understood what it was.

He sat on the dais at the blessing with his fever gone for the first time in ten days.

Willa took her hand away without a word, and across the hall her eyes found his for one second.

He knew exactly what she had caught.

It was a smell he had known all his life.

It was the smell of his father's study at night, of the pipe his father smoked and the old cedar chest he kept his maps in.

It was in the folds of Dinah's gown, in her hair, and in the warm swell of her.

It was not on the surface of her, as a scent is when you have only stood near a person.

It was in her.

He waited until the hall had emptied and the lilies had begun to droop.

Then he went to his father's study, shut the door, and said it plainly.

"Whose is it?"

His father stood at the window with his back turned and a glass of whisky in his hand.

"What a question, son."

"I'm not asking about the weekend. I'm asking about the pup."

"You'd better lower your voice."

"I smelled you on her."

Rufus Braithwaite turned around slowly.

He was a big man, and his face, under the beard, was calm.

"You smelled the house on her," he said. "She's lived under my roof since the funeral. Sit down."

"I'll stand."

"Sit."

The word hit Caelen like a wall.

It came down on the back of his neck and his knees.

He had felt that weight every day of his childhood.

He had always called it respect.

He locked his knees and stayed on his feet.

It was the first time in his life he'd done it, and the air in the room went tight as a drum.

"I won't," Caelen said, through his teeth.

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