Days of Gold (11 page)

“He’s all right,” Angus said as he sat down on a chair. “This night has been hell.”

Edilean got a cloth from the basin on the table, and sat on the floor to wipe the blood from James’s head. “Did you do this out of jealousy? Is it that you cannot stand to see me marry another man?
Any
man? Even one who loves me? Or is this about the gold? James, darling James, please wake up.”

Angus shook his head at the ridiculous things she was saying
and pulled the portfolio from inside his shirt. “Look in there. I think that should explain my actions well enough.”

“What is this?” She picked it up and opened the buckle, and went through the papers inside. “It’s our passage to America. Everything that James and I need to get on the ship is in here. Even the captain’s name. And here’s our marriage certificate. It’s...” She looked at him. “I don’t understand. This isn’t my name on the certificate and it says James was married last week.”

“Harcourt’s wife’s name is on there because he married her.”

“No,” Edilean said impatiently. “That’s not possible.
I
am to be his wife.”

Angus put his head back against the chair. Maybe he’d go to sleep right there and then. “He already has a wife.”

Edilean got up off the floor to stand before him. “Angus McTern, so help me, if you go to sleep now, I’ll hit
you
with the candlestick.”

“Please do,” he mumbled. “Then I could sleep for sure.”

She pulled back her foot and kicked his shin, just as she’d done twice before. But she forgot that she had on her nightgown, and her feet were bare.

The next moment she was hobbling about the room in tears of pain. “I think my toes are broken. Your shin is as hard as stone.” She sat down on the end of the bed to examine her foot.

Angus couldn’t help smiling. She looked sweet in her white nightgown, holding her foot and looking at it. He pushed himself out of the chair, sat down beside her, lifted her foot, and pulled each of her toes. “None of them is broken.”

She looked at him, his eyes red from weariness, holding her small foot in his big hand, and said, “Could you please tell me what is going on? Why did you hit James and who is the woman on the marriage certificate?”

He put her foot down, but stayed seated beside her. In her nightclothes
she looked, if possible, even more beautiful. “I didn’t trust him so I followed him, and I heard him talking about his wife who is the daughter of an earl.”

“But my father wasn’t an earl.”

“I know,” Angus said. “That’s the point.”

Edilean was at last beginning to understand. She looked at James lying on the floor, still unconscious. “My friend, his cousin, told me that James was holding out for a woman with a title.”

“But he agreed to marry you for the money,” Angus said softly, looking at her hair in the candlelight. He raised his hand to touch it but dropped it when she turned back to him.

“I heard James tell the men to put the gold on the ship. Was he planning to sail off with his
wife
and
my
gold?”

“He was,” Angus said softly.

“But he can’t do that,” she said. “That gold belongs to me, not to him.”

“It’s called thievery and it’s been done for a while now.”

“Will you please stop treating me as though I’m a silly child? What am I supposed to do now?”

“I think you should go to America on your own. Your dowry is already on the ship, and the passage is booked.”

“Alone? I’m to go to a new country by myself?”

He looked at her beautiful face and thought how every fast-talking, dishonest cad in the country would go after her, and she’d fall for the first pair of blue eyes she saw. “Just be careful about the men who will flock around you,” Angus said.

“What does that mean? You make me sound like a pile of oats.”

“Rich oats.”

Edilean leaned back on her arm to look at him. “Why are your clothes torn, and what’s that mark on your cheek?”

“I, uh...” Angus began, trying to come up with a lie.

“You got those papers from his wife, didn’t you?”

“I did.”

Edilean got off the bed and put her hands on her hips. “What enchantment does this woman have that she’s taken the man I love and... and
you
?”

“Me?” he asked, astonished, but then his eyes began to twinkle. “It’s not so much her virtues as it is... well, lass...” He made a movement with his hands to show a huge bosom.

“That’s it?” Edilean said. “You and James fell for a woman with great—”

When she realized Angus was again teasing her, she shook her head in disgust, then looked at James on the floor. “I can’t go to America alone. I can’t do it. I’ve never done anything alone before.” She looked back at him. “You’ll have to go to the ship’s captain and tell him that I want my gold back.”

“And who should I tell him says that? Mrs. Harcourt? That gold on the ship is under
his
name, not yours. If you or I tried to take it off, they’d shoot us.”

“But how will I live here without money? I can’t very well go back to my uncle’s house, now can I?”

“No, you canna. You have to do what I tell you and that’s to get on that ship by yourself. Tell them you’re Mrs. Harcourt and that you’re a widow.”

“But what if the captain knows her or James?”

“Wear a veil. And add some padding to make yourself look bigger. Better yet, tell the captain that you’re leaving because Harcourt got married.”

“I don’t understand,” she said, then her eyes widened. “Oh, no, you don’t. I’m not getting on that ship as James’s... as his mistress.”

“It’s only for a few weeks. When you get to America you can be
whoever you want to be. Change your name. You’ll have the gold and you’ll be well set up.”

“Then what do I do? Marry one of those men in the New World? Savages is what my uncle says they are.”

“Then why did you want to go in the first place?” Angus half yelled. He was still sitting on the end of the bed and all he had to do was fall back into its softness and close his eyes.

Reluctantly, he made himself get off the bed. “I think—” he began, but stopped because out of his shirt had fallen one of the handbills he’d torn off a wall.

Edilean picked it up and looked at it. “This is the picture I drew of you from memory. I think it’s a good likeness, don’t you?” When he just stood there staring at her, she looked back at the handbill and realized what it was. “This is serious,” she whispered. “You have to get out of here. You
have
to leave Scotland.”

“I can go to Edinburgh or to the Highlands. I can—”

“No you can’t,” she said as she stood close in front of him, her eyes big. “You don’t know my uncle as I do.”

“I’ve known him a great deal longer than you have.”

“This isn’t a matter of time, this is a matter of knowing him
well
,” she almost shouted. “You can’t stay here. My uncle will hunt you down.”

“I’ll be all right, lass,” he said, smiling and wanting to touch her so badly that it was like a pain in his chest.

Behind them, James groaned and Angus reached for the candlestick.

D
ON’T YOU DARE
!” she said, then went to the bedside table, got the bottle of laudanum, and poured it into a glass of water. “Hold him up while I get this down him.”

Angus did what she said. “So you didn’t drink this as he told you to?”

“No. I don’t like that concoction. It makes me dizzy. Here, James, darling, drink the wine. That’s a good boy.”

“You’ve forgiven him?” Angus asked incredulously.

“Ha!” Edilean pinched James’s arm hard. “That will cause him a bruise tomorrow.”

“Oh, aye, it will,” Angus said.

“If you start laughing at me again I’ll not help you get away.”

“You help me?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said as she stood up. James’s arm had been across her but she let it fall to the floor. “Hope his wrist breaks,” she muttered. “While you’ve been lolling about in the chair and lusting over my foot, I’ve been making a plan.”

“Lolling?” he said as he put James’s head on the floor. “Lusting? You are
not
talking as a lady should.”

“In the last few months I’ve had too many horrible things happen to me to be ladylike. If I were a lady I’d not let you stay in my room while I’m in my night wear.”

“That you wouldn’t, but I like that thing you have on.”

“You liked his wife too and if you step closer to me I’ll scream.”

“That’s the second time tonight a woman’s said that to me.”

At that, Edilean turned her back on him and folded her arms across her chest.

“All right,” Angus said, but he couldn’t keep the laughter out of his voice. “I apologize. Please forgive me. Now what is it that you have to say? What is this plan of yours?”

Turning, Edilean looked at James, then at Angus. “I know what we’re going to do.”

“
We
are not going to do anything.
You
are going to get on that ship and sail to America, then you’re going to—”

“You’re going to be my husband.”

“What?”

“We’ll say that you’re James’s brother. If the captain has met James, we’ll just say that there was a misunderstanding and that his brother Angus is the one who is going across the ocean.”

“Me be your husband?” Angus said. “Have you lost your mind? How can I be your husband? Look at me.”

“You’ll wear James’s clothes. If he put my gold on the ship, he’s probably put his clothes on board too. You’ll wear what he has on now, then later you’ll have his wardrobe.” She walked around him. “We have to clean you up. A bath, a shave; we’ll wash that hair of yours.”

“A bath? Are you mad, woman? I’ll catch my death.”

“You’re going to die a worse death if my uncle finds you.”

“I don’t like this.”

“You think I do? The man I loved...” She kicked at James’s foot, but he just smiled and curled up on the floor. He looked quite happy. She looked back at Angus. “You’re right. We don’t want people to see you. My likeness of you is much too good. We’ll need help for a bath, so we’ll have to forgo it.”

Angus’s look let her know he thought her idea was preposterous. “How am I to shave? I brought no razor with me.”

“Obviously, you wouldn’t know how to use it if you had one.”

Angus backed toward the door. “Somehow, I’m going to return to my own people. They need me.”

“Balderdash!” Edilean said. “They’ll be quite fine without you.”

Angus backed away from her, but he put his hand up to his beard. Considering that half of Scotland was looking for a man with a full beard and wild hair, it might not be a bad idea if he shaved.

As for the clothes, he looked at James curled on the floor and was sure that his waistcoat was silk. What would a man like Angus be doing wearing silk?

“Well,” she said, “I’m waiting. What do you have to say for yourself? Are you a coward or do you have the courage to go to a country where you know no one?”

“I canna do that,” he said, “but perhaps to shave and look different from the picture you drew of me would be good. Tell me, lass, what possessed you to draw a likeness of me? Did you plan to put it under your pillow so you’d dream of me?”

“I don’t have time to deal with your vanity. You have to make a decision now. And, no, I won’t help you shave and cut your hair if you aren’t going to America with me.”

“You’re going to shave me?” he asked, his eyes teasing. “Perhaps I should take a bath after all. I’d like your help with that.”

“You are trying my patience. You’re allowed no more jokes; you have to decide. If you don’t, you’re going out that door and I’ll never see you again.”

“Not even one?” he asked. “Every Scotsman needs—”

Edilean went to the door, threw it open, and stood there, waiting for him to leave.

Angus didn’t move. He knew he should. If he had any sense he would leave the room and never look back, but there was a big part of him that knew this was an opportunity that he’d have only once in his life. No matter what he did now, he knew he couldn’t go back home. He couldn’t go to his sister, and he’d never again toss her children aloft. He’d never again see his uncle Malcolm or any of the rest of the McTern clan.

“Well?” Edilean asked. “Are you going or staying?”

“I guess I’ll stay,” he said softly.

“You’ll go to America with me?”

“Aye, lass, I will.”

Edilean turned her back to him as she closed the door and tried to compose her face so he’d not see her joy. She knew she couldn’t stay in England or Scotland, but the thought of going to a new country by herself was almost more than she could bear. When she turned back to him, she had her emotions under control. She looked at him in speculation as she thought how she was going to transform him into looking as though James’s fine clothes weren’t alien to him. But Edilean had nothing with her. She’d worn her nightgown under her dress, and she had a tortoiseshell comb that she’d put into her pocket, but she had no scissors or razor.

As she looked at him she saw his eyes beginning to close. Heaven help her but he was falling asleep standing on his feet! “How did you get the papers from James’s”—she nearly choked on the word—“from his wife?”

“Laudanum,” he mumbled. “Harcourt passes it out to all his women. He must grow the poppies in his back garden.”

“If James could afford a garden, I wouldn’t be in this mess,” Edilean said. “Are you telling me that she’s still asleep?”

“I hope so.”

She put her hand on the small of his back and pushed him toward the door. “I want you to go back into her room and get what I can use. I need scissors and a comb and a good, sturdy brush, as well as shaving gear.”

“How am
I
to find these things?” he asked, waking up a bit. “I don’t know lady’s things.”

“If you ever cut your hair, you’d know that men also use a comb. And a razor.” As she looked at him she knew that he’d never get all the things they’d need. “How did you get into the bedroom?”

“Through the window. But I went out the door. If she’s still asleep, the door is unlocked.”

“Then I’ll go with you. Here, help me get James’s jacket off.”

“You want to undress the man?”