Days of Gold

by Jude Deveraux

  “I didn’t plan to,” Edilean said. “I plan to sneak in and put this to Tabitha’s throat.” She pulled a long, thin-bladed knife out of a leather holder at her waist, hidden under her jacket.

  “But that isn’t the plan you told me. You can’t—” Cuddy began, but cut himself off. All he could do was look at her with wide eyes. “You’re going to get yourself killed,” he said.

  “Maybe,” Edilean answered. “But I owe someone something and I’d like to pay it back.” She looked at him. “What I really plan to do is create a diversion, a loud one that will distract everyone in the camp. And while they’re looking at something other than Tabitha’s tent, I want you to go inside and get the jewels.”

  “Jewels?”

  “Necklace, earrings, all of it. They may be in a box, but they may be in a bag. Whatever they’re in, I want you to get them, then get out.”

  “And what do you plan to do to distract them?” he asked suspiciously.

  “I have some things in mind. Just follow my lead and I’ll try to keep people from seeing you. Are you clear on this? Any questions?”

  “No, Miss,” he said, still wide-eyed, and thinking that maybe she’d planted a barrel of gunpowder somewhere and it would be set off. That would send everyone running.

  It wasn’t long afterward that Cuddy rode beside her and whispered, “Here. This is where we go in. Miss, I was thinkin’ about it and I don’t think you oughta do this. It’s dangerous. You only know one of the women, and she’s a thief. There are men in there and there’s no tellin’ what they’ve done. I think they’d as soon slit your throat as let you take anything away from them.”

  “Then I’ll have to risk it,” Edilean said. “I told you that I owe someone and I mean to repay the debt.”

  “Is it worth your life?” Cuddy asked, and his tone wasn’t respectful.

  “It is,” she said, looking hard at him.

  “Well, then, I guess we better go.”

  “No, Cuddy, you stay back. I’m going to go in there alone, and when you hear a commotion, you’re to come, and you know what you’re to do.”

  “Wouldn’t be much of a man if I followed your plan exactly, now would I?”

  She smiled at him. “If you see me draw my knife, get out of the way. I may do some of my own throat slitting.”

  “I’ll do that,” he said as he smiled back at her.

  They tied their horses firmly to trees, and began the long walk into the forest. The moonlight was bright, but the overhead branches blocked off much of the light.

  Edilean, walking behind Cuddy, had difficulty keeping up with him. His stride was much longer than hers and she was trying not to trip on fallen branches and stones.

  “There!” Cuddy said at last.

  Through the trees she could barely see what seemed to be a fire, but it was a small one.

  “It looks like they’re all asleep,” Cuddy whispered, “but they probably have a lookout posted somewhere. Miss, I really think we should go back. This isn’t for us to do.”

  Edilean just shook her head no, and silently motioned for him to follow her. They were very quiet and got within sight of the camp within minutes, with no alert being sounded. Near the fire were half a dozen or so tents that consisted mostly of blankets draped over a rope, but they’d keep the rain off. Inside each one, Edilean could see the dark forms of what had to be people.

  “Which one is hers?” she whispered to Cuddy.

  He pointed to the one on the far end.

  “Stay here and I’ll go to it,” Edilean whispered, but Cuddy shook his head no.

  She nodded back in return, letting him know that he couldn’t keep her from doing this.

  Reluctantly, Cuddy obeyed her—or seemed to. Ten seconds after she disappeared into the forest, he went after her.

  Edilean silently made her way through the woods to the tent that Cuddy had pointed out. Her plan was to sneak inside, put her knife to Tabitha’s throat, and tell her it was either her life or the diamonds.

  Edilean put the hilt of the knife in her mouth, and went to her hands and knees to crawl into the tent. Her heart was racing and her breath was coming fast, but she had no doubt whatever that this was what she had to do.

  She lifted one side of the blanket tent and looked inside. There Tabitha was, lying on her back, one arm outstretched, and looking as innocent as she told people she was. Just two more feet and she’d be there. When she was at Tabitha’s head, Edilean sat back on her legs, lifted the knife and—

  The next second, she was grabbed from behind by the waist and swung out of the tent and into the cold air. For a moment she thought it was Cuddy who’d grabbed her, but she saw it was a man she’d never seen before. He had black whiskers and his breath was foul.

  “Let me go!” She fought against him.

  “You expectin’ him to come save you?” the man asked, his big arm tightening around her waist.

  She looked to one side and saw Cuddy lying on the ground in a heap. He didn’t seem to be breathing.

  “You’ve killed him!”

  “Naw, he’s all right.”

  Edilean saw Cuddy move, but she couldn’t tell how badly he was injured.

  “What the hell are you doin’ here?” Tabitha asked as she crawled out of the tent and saw the man holding a squirming, fighting Edilean.

  “Came to kill you,” the man said, his voice highly amused. “Woulda too, if I hadn’t caught her.”

  Tabitha looked genuinely surprised. “You wanted to kill me? Why?”

  “You have something of mine,” Edilean said.

  “Angus ain’t here.”

  “I’m not—” Edilean gave a double backward hit with her sharp elbows to the man, and he released her.

  “I oughta—”

  “Go away,” Tabitha said to the man, dismissing him as though he weren’t of any worth. She looked back at Edilean. “I didn’t take your man.”

  “He’s a bit big even for you to slip into your pocket,” Edilean said, and she heard someone suppress a giggle. She didn’t look around her, but she could hear sounds of people moving about as they got up to watch the drama.

  Tabitha picked up Edilean’s knife off the ground and looked at it in shock. “Why would you come out here to do this? My life ain’t bad enough for you?”

  “Bad life?” Edilean said in anger. “You told Angus a lie about why you’d been transported and you ran away from the man who paid your bond. It seems to me that you have caused the bad, not them.”

  Tabitha glared at Edilean, her eyes flashing in the moonlight, then she pulled down the side of her blouse to reveal her shoulder. Even in the moonlight Edilean could see the red scars. “He branded me! Put his initials on my shoulder with a red-hot branding iron. He did it because I told him that I’d work for him but not sleep with him. Yes, I’m a thief but I’m not a whore.”

  Edilean refused to be swayed by the thick, raw mark on Tabitha’s shoulder because she saw a flash in the moonlight. Tabitha was wearing all three of the bracelets from the parure that Edilean had given Angus.

  “Those are mine,” Edilean said, nodding toward the bracelets.

  Frowning in puzzlement, Tabitha touched the diamonds, then she looked at Edilean in disbelief. “These are real?”

  When Edilean said nothing, Tabitha said, “Lord a’ mercy,” and took a few steps backward.

  “You stole them from Angus and I want all of it back,” Edilean said.

  Tabitha was looking at the bracelets in wonder. “I thought they were pretty but I never thought they were... What? Diamonds?”

  Edilean said nothing, just glared at Tabitha.

  “You were going to kill me to get them?” Tabitha asked, her eyes wide. “You were gonna sneak up behind me and...” She put her hand up to her throat and looked at the man standing behind her.

  “I’ll take her into the woods and I’ll make her sorry she bothered you,” the man said.

  Tabitha looked at Edilean. “All I have to do is say
yes and you’ll be dead—or wish you were—in about ten minutes.” She looked at the man. “Take her and that one out to the road but don’t hurt them. You understand me?”

  The man grabbed Edilean’s arm, but she wrenched it away. “I’m not leaving here until you give me back the parure.”

  “The what?” Tabitha asked.

  “The set of jewels,” Edilean said. “They belong to Angus.”

  “So why didn’t he come and get them? Why’d he send you to do his dirty work for him?”

  “He has no idea I’m here or that I know you stole the jewels.”

  “He doesn’t know I took them,” Tabitha said.

  “How could he not?”

  Tabitha gave a little smile. “He likes me. I saw it in his eyes that first day on that rotten old ship. If you hadn’t been around...” She gave a shrug. “They’re mine now.”

  “No they’re not!” Edilean yelled, as she launched herself onto Tabitha and knocked her to the ground.

  “It’s a girl fight,” the man said under his breath, and the next minute he was yelling, “Fight! Fight!” and the few people who were still asleep came running.

  “Get off of me!” Tabitha yelled as she tried to roll away from Edilean.

  “If you don’t give me those jewels back, I’ll tear your hair out.”

  “Will you?” Tabitha said. “I’d like to see you try.”

  In the next second, Edilean gave such a fierce pull on Tabitha’s hair that her head jerked back so hard her eyes watered.

  Tabitha kicked out at Edilean’s shin, but she missed when Edilean adroitly twisted her body to one side.

  “She’s got you now, Tabby,” came a woman’s voice.

  Still looking as though she couldn’t believe any of this was happening, Tabitha said, “If you don’t stop this, I’m going to have to hurt you.”

  “You may try,” Edilean said, “but I’m not leaving here until you give me the jewels. And if you won’t give them to me then I’m going to take them.”

  “You can’t—” Tabitha began but stopped when Edilean’s fist hit her in the jaw. Stepping back, she put her hand to her face and moved her chin about, as though feeling if it was broken. In the next second, she jumped in the air and went after Edilean, who moved, so Tabitha landed on the ground. Everyone around the two women started laughing.

  Edilean had known this was going to happen. She’d lived with women all her life, and she knew that no matter what class they were, when it came down to it, girls could fight as hard as males. She’d told Cuddy that what she wanted him to do was search wherever Tabitha was sleeping and get the jewels. She didn’t think that winning a fight would make these outlaws turn over thousands of pounds’ worth of diamonds to her. Her only hope was to create enough of a diversion so no one saw what Cuddy was doing.

  Edilean glanced in Cuddy’s direction, and when she saw that he was stirring, was sitting up and rubbing his sore head, she sighed in relief. Obviously, he hadn’t been hurt too badly. All Edilean had to do was keep the entire crowd so occupied by her and Tabitha that they didn’t notice what else was going on.

  When she saw the man who’d grabbed her from behind glance in Cuddy’s direction, she doubled up her fist and again hit Tabitha on the jaw. The man looked away from Cuddy.

  Tabitha struck out at Edilean, but she moved to the left, then the right, and her fists missed.

  “Where you’d learn to fight like this?” Tabitha asked, her fists up and moving from one side to the other.

  “Girls’ boarding school,” Edilean said. “And so many men have been in love with me that they’ve taught me boxing and a bit of wrestling.”

  “In love with you?” Tabitha said. “Ha! They love your riches, that’s all. Angus told me so.”

  “I don’t believe you!” Edilean said as she struck out at Tabitha but missed the punch.

  “You know where he told me? In bed. Nice big man, he is. I knew he wasn’t married to you. He stood too far away from you. Ice Lady. That’s what he calls you. And he gave me that jewelry.”

  Edilean didn’t think—and that was her mistake. Tabitha’s taunts made her so angry that when she leaped, she missed and hit the ground, her mouth filling with dirt. Before she could roll over, Tabitha was on top of her, and she outweighed Edilean by at least half a hundred pounds.

  Tabitha grabbed Edilean’s hair and pulled back hard, then dropped her so her face hit the ground again, but this time a stone hit her chin and she could taste blood in her mouth.

  When Edilean turned over and the crowd saw the blood on her face, they started cheering, and money was exchanged as bets were placed.

  Edilean was so dazed that when she got to her feet, she didn’t see Tabitha’s fist until it hit her in the jaw just below her left ear. Edilean moved backward, and as she did so she could see Cuddy searching through the belongings inside Tabitha’s makeshift tent.

  Edilean began to walk in a circle, each time moving farther away from Tabitha so she got her and the crowd away from the tent and Cuddy.

  “Had enough?” Tabitha asked.

  Tabitha was bigger, but Edilean was more agile. Edilean stuck out her booted foot, hooked it behind Tabitha’s bare leg, and pulled. Tabitha hit the ground hard, jarring her teeth, and when she looked up at Edilean, she spit out blood.

  “Have you had enough?” Edilean asked.

  “Not nearly enough. Not from you or from Angus.”

  At the mention of the name, Edilean rammed her shoulder into Tabitha’s midsection.

  17

  ANGUS WAS AWAKENED by the sound of someone trying to kick the door to the barn down. “Always in a hurry,” he muttered as he pulled on his trousers. He’d been up late the night before, getting two drunks up to their beds. Every time he’d close the doors to their rooms, they’d come out again and start punching each other. In the end he’d told them that if they did it again, he would start throwing punches. That had calmed them down enough that they went to their rooms and stayed there.

  So now it was not quite dawn and someone was wanting in the barn. Angus’s room was in the back, next to the tack room, away from the main tavern where the guests slept, and he liked that. It gave him some time off from the eternal demands of taking care of people and animals.

  The pounding continued as he was buttoning his trousers. He was cursing under his breath when he heard the man outside say something that sounded like “Edilean.” Angus paused for a moment, not believing his hearing, and told himself that was absurd. He’d told Edilean he was going to Williamsburg and that’s where she thought he was.

  There was another spate of pounding, and he heard a man’s voice saying the word again. “Edilean! Edilean!”

  Angus covered the floor in three steps as he reached the door and lifted the bar. In front of him was a young man in workmen’s clothes—and in his arms was Edilean. She was asleep—or unconscious—and her beautiful face was bruised and swollen, her clothes torn and blood-spattered.

  Angus slipped his arms under the man’s and took Edilean from him. “What happened?” he asked as he carried her back to his small room.

  “She fought a woman named Tabitha for this,” Cuddy said as he pulled a great wad of diamond jewelry out of his pocket. “I hope it was worth it to you. It may have cost her her life.” His voice was angry.

  Angus glanced at the diamonds, not sure he understood anything as he bent down to put Edilean on the bed. “Get some hot water,” he said. “And leave those here!”

  “I don’t have to—” Cuddy began, but with a look at Angus’s face, he dropped the diamonds into his outstretched hand. “She said an earring and some bracelets are missing,” he mumbled, then turned and ran out of the barn.

  “Edilean,” Angus said as he gently moved the hair off her face and tried to assess the damage. When she moaned, he saw that she was asleep. He smelled her breath and it looked as though she’d had some whiskey. Good!

  Quickly, before the young man returned, Angus undressed her. H
e needed to see the extent of her injuries. Were any bones broken? If possible, he didn’t want to have to call a doctor. He’d repaired many injuries in his lifetime and knew what to do.

  Once she was nude, he couldn’t help looking at her beautiful, perfect body, at the way her hips curved, her breasts rose. He remembered that she’d offered herself to him and that he’d turned her down. It was the most difficult thing he’d ever done in his life. Since that night, he’d thought of little else but her, and there wasn’t a day that went by when he didn’t think of going back to her and sweeping her into his arms.

  He had to shake his head to clear it of those thoughts as he ran his hands over her smooth, perfect skin, trying to see if bones were broken. He could find none that were. She winced several times when his hands touched a sore place, but when he pressed harder, the bones didn’t give.

  She had bruises over most of her lovely body. They were just now turning blue, so it hadn’t been long since she’d been injured. Her beautiful face, neck, and shoulders had the worst of the bruising. There was a small cut on her chin and a larger one on her shoulder, and both her forearms were scraped raw, but he didn’t see anything that would need stitching or that would cause a scar.

  “Edilean,” he whispered. “What in the world happened to you?”

  He glanced at the pieces of diamond jewelry on the table by the bed and wondered where they had come from. He knew they’d been in his pocket on the day he left the ship, and it wasn’t until three days after they had all parted company that Angus realized the set was missing. He’d cursed his carelessness, but his mind had been on other things... meaning on Edilean. He’d been so despondent after they’d separated that he’d thought of nothing else. He missed her terribly. Several times he found himself turning to say something to her, or smiling at the thought of what she’d say if she were with him. Every time she wasn’t there, he was freshly wounded.

  He’d spent whole afternoons outside her town house, watching. He told himself he was protecting her, but every man who entered was like a stake through his heart. He knew she hosted endless tea parties for the young students who came down from Harvard College. He’d even seen her outside with them, laughing on the steps with four or five young men at a time.