Days of Gold

by Jude Deveraux

  She resisted the urge to turn around and leave the room, but Tam was waiting outside the barn, and she figured he’d send her back in. Malcolm had been shocked when Edilean said she’d go to Angus alone.

  “Brigands!” he said under his breath.

  “We don’t have them in America,” Edilean said, her eyes wide in innocence.

  Malcolm had looked at her in shock, but Tam laughed. “She has no intention of going to Angus.”

  Edilean gave him a sharp look because that was exactly her plan.

  “I’ll go with you and protect you,” Tam said, “even though this new country has no idea what crime is.”

  When he said he’d meet her in back of the house with the horses saddled, she’d reluctantly agreed. She went upstairs to dress, and on impulse, she went into Tam’s room and opened the chest at the foot of his bed. At nineteen, he was a foot taller than she was, but he was very slim, so his clothes might come close to fitting her. If she was going to have to sneak through the night, she couldn’t do it wearing thirty-five yards of silk.

  Everyone was in the bedroom with Prudence and Harriet, so no one saw Edilean hurry past wearing a large white shirt, a vest that was big enough to hide her breasts, knee britches, and white stockings. She had on her own work shoes, which were plain black leather with big silver buckles. She’d tied her hair at the nape of her neck and let it hang down her back.

  When she got outside where Tam was impatiently waiting for her, his eyes widened at the sight of her, but she gave him a look that dared him to say anything. But when she swung up into the saddle by herself, he said, “Good boy!” and rode out of the courtyard ahead of her.

  It took them over an hour to get to the tavern where Angus lived, and they found that the barn that held his room was bolted from the inside. It was Edilean who told Tam that he had to hoist her up to the second floor so she could climb into the loft. He managed to stand on his horse and lift Edilean up until she caught the rope that hung down from the pulley over the loft door. She was sure there was a great deal more touching of her backside than was quite necessary, but she said nothing to Tam.

  She grabbed the rope, and managed to shinny up it to reach the bottom of the open door. She had to swing forward on the rope, and below her, she heard Tam’s quick intake of breath, but she made it inside, landing on the wooden floor and rolling almost to the ladder down to the floor below. “You’re not worth this,” she muttered as she dusted herself off.

  When she stuck her leg out to shake off the hay, she rather liked not having on a corset and not being encumbered with a full, long skirt. With a glance about to make sure no one was looking, she did a bit of a dance on the wooden floor, lifting her knees up to almost her waist.

  “Edilean!” came Tam’s loud whisper from outside. “Whatever are you doing? I can hear you jumping!”

  With a grimace, she stopped dancing and thought about the days when Tam was so enamored of her that he’d stared at her in fascination. Now he told her to hurry up.

  Sighing, she turned and went down the ladder to the ground floor and tiptoed to Angus’s door. When all the horses moved to the front of their stalls to look at her, she was tempted to stay with them, and she’d tell Tam that Angus wasn’t there. She’d say that he was probably with another woman. Maybe she’d tell him that—

  The memory of James Harcourt lying on her parlor floor brought her back to reality. Angus’s door was closed and she thought about knocking, but she was afraid someone might hear. They hadn’t heard the many noises she and Angus had made on the night they’d made love in that room, but maybe he’d arranged that.

  She tried the latch, it opened, she went inside, and a moment later she was looking down at his sleeping face. Quickly, she lit a candle, and the fact that she knew where it and the flint were made her more angry.

  “Angus!” she said. “You have to wake up!” When he didn’t stir, she went closer to him—and he reached out one of his long arms and pulled her on top of him. Before she could stop him, he tried to kiss her, but she pushed away. “I don’t have time for this!” she said into his ear. “There’s a dead body in my front parlor.”

  “It’s probably mine,” he said, his eyes closed, “because I’m in Heaven now.”

  She pushed at him harder, but his arms still held her on top of him. “Will you stop it! I’m serious. James Harcourt is in my house and he’s dead.”

  Angus opened his eyes and looked at her. “Harcourt?”

  “Oh, so you can hear me.”

  “I heard you leaping about upstairs. Edilean, it’s one thing to shoot at me while, of course, being careful to miss, but it’s something altogether different to actually kill someone.”

  “You idiot!” she said as she gave a major push that got her off of him so she was standing by the bed. “I didn’t kill him.”

  He rose up on his elbows. “But you seem to enjoy shooting at people. All right,” he said at her look. “Who did kill him?”

  Edilean put her hands on her hips. “What do you mean, that I was careful to miss you? I tried to hit you but you kept leaping around. You’re worse than our goats!”

  “Goats?” Angus ran his hand over his face. “Edilean, what in the world are you talking about?”

  “I’m trying to make you listen to me. It’s never happened before, but I’m still trying. James Harcourt is dead, and he’s bleeding on my parlor floor. We have to get rid of the body and Malcolm sent me to get you. He said that you know how to do every underhanded, lying, sneaking, illegal thing there is, so you’d know what to do to keep Prudence from being hanged.”

  After staring at her in silence for a few seconds, Angus threw back the blanket, got out of bed, and began to dress. “Prudence? Is she one of your slave girls?”

  “They’re bound girls, not slaves. But no, she’s not in my employment. You should know who she is, as you tussled with her in bed.”

  Angus groaned as he pulled on his breeches. “Not your jealousy again!”

  “Jealousy?!” Edilean’s fists clenched at her sides. “I have never been jealous of you, no matter how many women you’ve had.”

  “Oh? Then why did you hire Tabitha if not to keep her away from me?”

  “Why you vain, arrogant—” She started to kick his shin, but he moved back.

  Angus smiled. “You won’t catch me like that again.”

  Edilean put her hands over her face as though she were crying. “Oh, Angus, I’m so very frightened. James was... It was awful.” The minute Angus stepped near her, she kicked him in the shin, and he yelped in pain.

  “I’m tempted to turn you over my knee for that.”

  “Try it,” she said.

  “It would be too easy.” For a moment they glared at each other. “Who is Prudence?!” he said at last.

  “James’s wife.”

  “His wife?” Angus looked puzzled for a moment, then understood. “Oh, yes, his wife.”

  Edilean gave him a cold little smile. “So you do remember her. I remember that you wouldn’t let me see her, but you let me believe she was so beautiful that you envied James.”

  “I did not!”

  She glared at him.

  Angus tried to suppress a smile. “Perhaps I did. Would you like to kick my other shin? It’s not bleeding.”

  “You’re not going to get ’round me, Angus... What is your name now?”

  “Harcourt.” He shrugged. “It was easier than thinking up a new name. Shall we go? Or do you want to stay here and argue some more?”

  “I don’t want to do anything with you.”

  Angus opened the door to his room and let Edilean leave ahead of him. In the close quarters of the room he’d not been able to see her clearly. “What in the world are you wearing?” he asked, his voice showing his shock.

  “Tam’s clothes.”

  “Ah,” Angus said coldly. “Tam. Is he still staying with you?”

  “As if you don’t know everything there is to know about my life,” Edilean
said as Angus lifted the latch on the barn door. Tam was just outside, mounted, and holding the reins to Edilean’s horse.

  Angus looked at Tam. “If I do this, I want to be told everything.”

  “We made a vow to Miss Prudence, but I think it’s gone past that now.”

  Edilean put her foot up to the stirrup of her horse, but Angus picked her up by the waist and set her aside. “What do you—?” she began but cut off when Angus swung up into the saddle, and offered his hand down to her. “I’d rather ride with Tam,” she said.

  Angus started to get off the horse.

  Edilean muttered a curse word under her breath, and put her hand up to his, and he pulled her onto the saddle in front of him. It wasn’t two seconds after they started moving that he began talking to her, his mouth close to her ear.

  “I left you that morning because James showed up at the tavern. He hung up handbills of me. I didn’t want you to love a man who was to be executed.”

  “Is that supposed to make me forgive you?” Edilean was trying to sit up straight and stay away from his big, warm body. She had on only a cotton shirt and a vest, and it was cold out.

  “I did think that if you knew my reason for leaving you that night you might feel more kindly toward me.”

  His breath was warm against her face, and she well remembered the sweet smell of it. “I’m to feel good that you decided my entire future in a second? Without asking me what I wanted to do? You had your way with me, then you left me there to rot! Tabitha walked the streets, and she was never treated so badly.”

  Angus leaned away from her, his back stiff. “You told her about me?”

  “Oh, yes.”

  “You told Tabitha, one of your bound girls, about you and me?” His voice showed his disbelief.

  Smiling, Edilean said, “Every word. And for your information, Tabitha and I have become good friends. I have to bail her out of jail now and then, and I’ve had to dock her more than a year’s wages to repay the people she steals from, but when you overlook that quirk about her, she can be pleasurable company. She knows everything about snaky men.”

  “Snaky? Oh. As in snakes.”

  “Lying, cheating—”

  Angus sighed. “I get the idea. So tell me what happened about James—if you can drag yourself away from reciting all my faults, that is.”

  “It will be difficult, but then I’ve had years and years and years to think on your faults.”

  “That would be six, but I was away only four.”

  “Six what?” she asked.

  “Years. One ‘years’ plus another ‘years’ plus—” He stopped when she twisted in the saddle to look at him. “Sorry. You were about to tell me about Harcourt and his wife. I don’t know anything about them together.”

  “Except that she killed him.”

  “Yes, I do know that, but why did she kill him?”

  Edilean turned to give him a look.

  “Oh, right. I see your point. He deserved it. I’m afraid I have to agree with her. Where is she now?”

  “With Shamus.”

  “With... ?” Angus’s face showed his horror. “You left that frightened woman with Shamus?”

  “After Prudence shot James she began to kick him, and Shamus was the only one big enough to hold her. But then I guess you know all about the size and shape of her, being as you spent so much time in bed with her.”

  “And lived to tell of it,” Angus said under his breath.

  “What?”

  “Nothing. I’m just trying to think how I’m going to dispose of a body in a town the size of Boston. Where did she shoot him?”

  “I told you. In my parlor.”

  “No! Where on his body?”

  “In his head. Dead center. A perfect shot.”

  “I’m glad she wasn’t shooting at me,” Angus mumbled.

  “Does that mean you think she’s a better shot than I am?”

  “No, dear, I’d never think that. Edilean, why did you leave that poor, distraught woman with a ruffian like Shamus?”

  “You know, as far as I can tell, you’re the only person who thinks Shamus is bad. So what happened? Did he thrash you when you were children?”

  She was too close to the truth, and as they were approaching the house, he didn’t answer her.

  25

  THE FIRST THING they heard when they opened the door was laughter. Under the circumstances, it was an incongruous sound, and Angus looked at Edilean in question.

  She shrugged. “I think it’s love. It seems to be everywhere around me, not for me, but around me. Surrounding me. Like a disease that I can’t catch.”

  Angus rolled his eyes, and went to the room where just three weeks before Edilean had come close to shooting him. When she started toward the kitchen where the laughter was coming from, he grabbed her hand.

  “I don’t want to see... him again.”

  “If you want my help, you have to stay with me.”

  “And why is that?”

  “Because if James Harcourt is dead, then I plan to do my best to get you to forgive me for every bad thing I’ve ever done to you.”

  His words nearly took her breath away, but she would have died before she told him that. “I’ll never forgive you,” she said.

  Angus smiled. “Funny how your words say one thing but your eyes another.” He pulled her into the sitting room.

  Lying on the floor was indeed James Harcourt, and he had a bullet wound in his forehead. Under his head was a big, green wax-covered canvas.

  “Harriet must have done that,” Edilean said, smiling fondly. “I complained about my floor, so she protected it.”

  “I think you should have a little respect for the dead,” Angus said, looking down at the man.

  “Not for him. I guess you knew that James was blackmailing Harriet.”

  “I was told only recently, and I can assure you that I wasn’t told much.” Angus bent down to look at the body. “I tried to find out—” He was interrupted by a loud burst of laughter from the kitchen. “Who’s in there?”

  “I’m not sure, but I assume it’s Malcolm and Harriet, and Shamus and Prudence.”

  For a moment, Angus’s mouth opened and closed. “They’ve paired off like that?”

  “Why not?” Edilean said. “It’s a normal thing to do. In fact, I just met a young widow who I think would be a perfect match for Tam. She’s a few years older than he is, but I think they’ll like each other. I’m going to invite her here. I know Tam’s going back to Scotland to be the laird, but maybe she’ll want to go with him.”

  “And live in that old keep? Without glass windows? Will she want to have to look after over two hundred people who are of the McTern clan?”

  “I don’t know,” Edilean said. “That sounds more like something Harriet would like to do. She mothers all the bound girls. She—” Her eyes widened.

  Angus gave a smile, for he’d read her mind. “You say that Malcolm likes Harriet?”

  “You were there when they met, so you saw how they looked at each other.”

  “You mean the day you were shooting at me? I beg your pardon for being otherwise occupied and not realizing Harriet’s glares at my uncle were a love interest.”

  She ignored his complaint. “Harriet and Malcolm are inseparable. She’d follow him if he said he was going to set up house on the moon.”

  “I think that describes the McTern keep rather well.”

  He stood up again and looked down at James. “First, we have to get rid of this body and make sure that Mrs. Harcourt isn’t charged with murder. After that’s done, we can plan other things.”

  “Like sending Malcolm and Harriet back to Scotland and keeping Tam here?”

  “Our minds work exactly alike,” Angus said, smiling at her, love in his eyes.

  “Our minds are nothing alike,” she said. “And now that I think about it, it’s a very bad idea. Malcolm and Harriet are too old to have children, so who would inherit?”

  They l
ooked at each other and said, “Kenna,” in unison.

  “It’s good to see that the two of you have made up,” Malcolm said from the door.

  Edilean glanced at Angus as though to ask how much Malcolm had heard.

  “We can make up anything,” Angus said, “but I can’t forgive you. This has come about because you didn’t tell me the whole of why the lot of you were in this country. If you’d told me, I could have stopped this before it happened.”

  “And how would you have done that?” Malcolm asked, unperturbed. He had a large pewter mug of beer in his hand, and he looked as though he’d drunk several of them.

  “By getting Mrs. Harcourt out of the country, that’s how,” Angus said.

  “But she didn’t want to leave until she’d done what she came here to do.”

  “Are you saying that you helped her kill him?”

  Malcolm shrugged. “She didn’t plan on doing that, but if she had, I could see why. You should get her to tell you the whole story. You and Miss Edilean left Scotland and had a laugh at having stopped Harcourt’s treachery, but you left poor Miss Prudence to bear the brunt of his rage. He didn’t like being crossed. Now, lad, what are you going to do with that body to get rid of it?”

  “Hack it into pieces and take it out bit by bit.”

  Edilean gasped, her hands to her throat, but Malcolm laughed. “I’ll get my saw.”

  “Tell Tam to get the large carriage ready.” He looked at Edilean. “Do you still have the heavy trunks that the gold was transported in?”

  She nodded. “They’re in the attic.”

  “Then have Shamus get one of them down here.” He looked at Malcolm. “Is Prudence fit to travel and to talk? Or have you made her so drunk that she’s incoherent?”

  Glancing toward the kitchen, Malcolm lowered his voice. “You don’t know her, do you, lad? She can outdrink Shamus.”

  Angus lifted his eyebrows so high they nearly disappeared in his hair.

  “I guess now you wish you’d married her,” Edilean muttered as she started to follow Malcolm out of the room.

  But Angus caught her arm and pulled her close to him as his mouth came down on hers and he kissed her with all the pent-up emotion and longing that he’d felt for the last four years. When he stopped, her feet were off the floor and she was completely in his arms.