Days of Gold Read online

“Angus!” she said sharply. “Wake up!”

  Slowly, he opened his eyes, and looked at her with a smile. When he turned his head he felt the lightness, and ran his hand over his bare face. “What have you done to me?”

  “What should have been done long ago,” she said. “You have to stop sleeping now and get ready to go. We have to get James’s clothes off of him and I have to get dressed. I apologize but you’re going to have to help me with the strings to my corset.”

  “To your... ?”

  When she looked at him she could see that his face had pinkened. “My goodness, McTern of McTern, are you blushing?”

  “Nay,” he said, but he turned away as he stood up. “You’ll have to show me how to... to do what you need to have done.”

  “I will,” she said, hiding her smile.

  She got the clothes she’d worn the day before out of the wardrobe and laid them out on the bed, watching Angus as she did so. She would have thought he’d want to see himself in a mirror. It must have been a long time since he’d seen himself without that beard, but as far as she could tell, he showed no evidence that he was even curious.

  She watched as he bent and grabbed James under the arms, then hauled him onto the bed. For a moment Angus just stood there, looking at the man lying on the bed, happily asleep.

  “I don’t like this,” Angus said. “To steal a man’s clothes like this is not right.”

  Edilean rolled her eyes, and went to James and loosened his cravat. “Then I’ll undress him.”

  “You’ll not,” Angus said, sounding shocked by the idea. “I’ll tend to him. You go and do what you need to.”

  Edilean glanced out the window. The pink of dawn was approaching. “I think we should go down to the wife’s room as soon as we’re dressed. I’m sure James will have someone coming to rouse him to get him to the ship on time. He likes to stay up late and hates to wake up in the morning.”

  “Good idea,” Angus said.

  He was on the other side of the bed, and the hangings kept her from seeing what he was doing, but she could hear the movement of cloth as he took off his own clothes and put on James’s. An unusual feeling was running through Edilean. Just a few feet from her was a man in his undergarments. And not just any man, but one who had been kind to her. Well, not always, but in the end he’d taken care of her. If it hadn’t been for him, she’d now be asleep in the inn and James and his wife would soon sail off with her dowry.

  “I need help with the laces,” she said softly. She’d put the corset on over her nightgown, but the laces were in the back. “Should I come ’round there?”

  Angus took the few steps to get to the foot of the bed and Edilean could only stare at him. He had on James’s tight tan breeches and his big-sleeved shirt and nothing else. A lifetime of being outside, of riding horses and climbing, had given him thighs that were heavy with muscle.

  Angus was smiling at her in a way that let her know he knew what she thought of him.

  She wasn’t about to tell him that he looked so good he took her breath away. She turned her back to him, presenting the laces for him to fasten. “When we get to the ship it will be better if you don’t speak,” she said.

  “Not a word?” he asked as he grabbed the sturdy laces and pulled the stiff corset together.

  “Your accent and the way you say things will give you away. No, it’s better that you let me do all the talking.”

  Angus gave a jerk on the corset laces that nearly broke her ribs.

  “Do you mean to cut me in half?”

  “I thought you’d want a waist as small as that of other women. I do apologize. I’ll loosen the strings.”

  Edilean grit her teeth. “You can tighten them more than that.”

  “Ah, a medium waist is what you want.”

  “I—” she began, but knew this was her own fault. She held on to the bedpost as he pulled. “All right! You look good. And you can talk all you want. What do I care? Do a dance on crossed swords for all it matters to me.”

  When he tied the strings at the bottom, she looked at him and his eyes had that look of teasing that she was beginning to know well. “You’re a dreadful man, you know that?”

  He went back to the other side of the bed, picked up the waistcoat, and put it on while Edilean stepped into her dress. Yesterday she’d done her best to clean it of the sawdust, but she could still see that it wasn’t at its best. She hoped that there was a wardrobe full of clothes on board the ship. She knew she’d have to take the dresses in, at least in the bustline, but she could do it.

  When she was dressed and her hair smoothed back, she went to Angus. He was leaning against the bedpost, his eyes closed, and his vest buttoned crookedly.

  “Come on now, wake up,” she said as she unfastened his vest, and buttoned it straight.

  “I had a dream about you,” he said softly, looking at her in the candlelight and the pink dawn that was coming through the window.

  “Was it a good dream?” she asked as she held up James’s coat for him to put on.

  “The best. You and I were together in a field. I could see it all clearly. It wasn’t Scotland, but a place that I’d never seen before.”

  “Maybe it was America.”

  “Aye,” he said gently, and reached out to touch her hair. They stood there for a moment looking into each other’s eyes and she swayed toward him. “When we get to America I’ll give you some of my gold and you can—” She broke off at the look he gave her.

  “Ever even mention such a thing to me again, lass, and I’ll have no more to do with ye.”

  She could tell by the anger in his eyes how much he meant his words. She started to apologize, but in the next moment a ray of sunlight came into the room and her opportunity was gone.

  “We must go!” Angus said.

  He grabbed James’s boots in one hand, and her hand with his other, while she snatched the bundle of shaving and sewing gear.

  They ran down the stairs, Edilean trailing behind him, never letting go of his hand. When they got to the room, they had just shut the door behind them and were standing there breathless when the landlord pounded on the door. “Your carriage is here!” he shouted, seeming not to be concerned that he might wake his other guests.

  Angus left the room, Edilean behind him, but when she saw the coachman standing in the doorway, she ran back into the room, closed the bed curtains, then told the coachman to get the trunk in the corner, and not to wake her sleeping sister. Edilean made sure Angus didn’t hear her do this, as she knew he wouldn’t like it. She was taking the woman’s clothes. But Edilean didn’t know what had been put on the ship. She didn’t want to spend the several weeks of the voyage in only one gown.

  Outside the inn a beautiful hired carriage with four prancing horses was waiting for them. “James spares no expense for himself, does he?” Edilean said in sarcasm.

  “Do you think we might get something to eat before we go?” Angus asked as he tried to move his arms in the tight jacket.

  “Do you ever think of anything besides food and sleep?” Edilean snapped at him.

  “Aye, I do,” Angus said slowly, “but not when I’m with a woman who’s as ill tempered as you are. Did I tie your laces too tight?”

  She leaned back against the seat and closed her eyes for a moment. “I’m just nervous, is all. I know my uncle knows who James is from the letter he stole from me and he—”

  “Did you tell Harcourt this?”

  “Yes,” Edilean said. “When I wrote James the second time I told him everything, but my uncle could have made some inquiries to find out about James having booked passage on the ship. He could—”

  She didn’t say any more because the coach suddenly came to a stop and she heard men shouting.

  “Say nothing,” Angus said. “I will deal with this.”

  “You? But—” She broke off at a look from him.

  The door to the carriage was thrown open and two rough-looking men peered inside. Angus didn’t mo