I have a fair number of headscratchers about this game..

[rji]

What Hunter said, Alexander most likely concealed them under clothes so as not to frighten Danie along with making them carry around clove and sage too (to cover the smell of walking corpses and what not. Would explain why they avoided him.

I've smelt enough roadkill to know that clove and sage wouldn't mask the scent of rotting flesh. Even when burnt as incense they don't have a strong enough scent to mask that very distinctive odor.
It would be more likely that Alexander had some sort of alchemical Febreeze like substance.