Days of Gold Read online

“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.

  9

  DON’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 s