Jude Deveraux - Days of Gold

For a moment all Edilean could do was open and close her mouth a few times. At last she said, “You have a ring?”

“Solid gold.” Reaching out, he touched her blonde hair. “Not that I need any gold, for this is worth more than all the gold in the world.”

She leaned her cheek against his hand for a moment, then she grabbed her skirt, lifted it, and began to run up the gangplank. “Come on!” she called to him. “Do you think I have all day?”

Chuckling, Angus ran up the gangplank after her.

THEY WERE IN bed in the captain’s cabin, nude beneath the sheet, and Edilean was still staring at her left hand.

“You’re going to wear it out just from looking at it,” Angus said, yawning.

“You’re the one who’s worn out.”

“I’ll show you who’s tired,” he said, but then he gave another jaw-cracking yawn and lay back down, with Edilean’s head on his shoulder. Moonlight shone into the cabin, and the water was lulling him to sleep.

“Why this?” Edilean asked. “Why not stay in Boston and be married there?”

“And share you with all the others?” he said.

“Are you saying that I’ve been… That I have…?”

He kissed her bare shoulder. “Been unfaithful to me? Nay, lass, I’m not. I talked to people in Boston and there’s been no hint of any man with you.”

“What does that mean, that you ‘talked’ to people? Did you ask about me?”

“I dinna have to, did I? All of Boston talks of the beautiful Miss Edilean who runs a business with all those women. You’ve done something that no one believed could be done.”

“I did, didn’t I?” she said, snuggling against him. “But what does that have to do with this?” She waved her hand at the ship.

“With the way you take care of people, I figured you’d want to get married in the biggest church and you’d want to walk down the aisle with Harriet and Prudence beside you. Then I’d have to share my wedding day with Shamus.”

“You did all this just to get away from Shamus?”

“Nay,” Angus said tiredly. “I did it all to get you to myself. I don’t want to share you at the wedding or afterward or ever again. I’ve had all I can take of being separated from you.”

For a while, Edilean was content to lie against him, and she could feel him drifting off to sleep. She hadn’t heard the full story of what he’d done after the night James had been killed, but she would. She thought how they’d have a lifetime together to tell each other everything. For now they were going to have at least three weeks, and if the weather was bad they could be on the ship for longer. When they arrived in Glasgow, they’d go back to the old keep where she’d first met him and… She smiled as she thought of the Scots laughing and saying that they’d known on that first day that their beloved Angus had fallen in love and how they’d been glad of it.

Edilean glanced at Angus, asleep now, and she ran her hand over his bare chest. Hers and hers alone. Forever, she thought.

And it’s a good thing they were married, because she had yet to tell him that she’d received a letter from Abigail Prentiss saying that Tam wanted to stay in Williamsburg and not return to Scotland. When Angus made over the lairdship to someone, it would be to Malcolm, not young Tam.

“Stop thinking so much and go to sleep,” Angus said.

“I can’t help it,” Edilean said. “So much has happened, so much has-” She could feel Angus’s body move, as though he were laughing. “What?”

“James,” he said.

“All of you thought it was very funny, but I didn’t.”

Angus looked at her.

“Well, after the first few minutes, I didn’t.”

Angus kept looking at her.

“All right, I laughed harder than anyone else did, but I shouldn’t have. I wonder what happened to him?”

“Matt said his body would probably be sold to the college to use for dissection.”

“How awful!” Edilean said as she thought back to that night. Angus hadn’t liked it very much when all three women rushed into Matthew Aldredge’s little house right behind him.

When the eyes of all the women widened at the sight of the beautiful Matt, Angus glanced down at Edilean and said with his mouth half closed, “Don’t even think of marrying him off to someone.”

“I have no idea what you mean,” she said haughtily, and shook hands with Matt.

Malcolm and Tam came inside a few minutes later and greeted Matt, and the men started talking in quiet tones about what to do with the body of James Harcourt. Their voices were so low that the women had to strain to hear them. Edilean was the only one who noticed that Shamus slipped into the room. Once again, as big as he was, he was able to move about unnoticed. He went to the window so he could watch the carriage. Matt was just a poor student, and his little house wasn’t in the best of neighborhoods.

She didn’t want to join the crowd that was discussing the gruesome task of disposing of James’s body, so she went to stand by Shamus.

For a few moments they stood there in silence, then quietly, Shamus said, “It was me that cut the cinch.”

“I know,” Edilean said without looking at him.

“And I wouldn’t have brought back your money.”

She knew that it was difficult for him to make this apology and she wanted to make it easy for him. “Prudence won’t let you get out of line again.”

“Aye, that she won’t,” he said, laughter in his voice. “She’s like you and thinks I’m…”

“An honorable man.”

“She does and I will be, but…”

When he trailed off, she looked at him.

“But not to Angus,” he said softly.

Edilean almost giggled. “But not to Angus.” She started to say more, but when she saw a shock of surprise on his face, she looked out the window.

Beside the expensive green carriage was an old wagon with three men on it. They were moving slowly so they made no sound, and they motioned to each other in gestures.

“We-” Edilean said, meaning to go get Angus, but Shamus quickly put his finger to his lips for her to be silent.

She was puzzled, but when he pointed out the window, she looked. The men on the wagon were thieves, and they were stealing the big trunk from the back of the carriage.

Standing beside Shamus, Edilean watched in fascination as the men labored with the big trunk as they slid it onto the wagon bed. When it was securely on the wagon, two men jumped onto the seat and took off, while the third one started for the carriage, meaning to steal it and the horses. But Shamus moved with snakelike speed and was out the door in seconds.

The thief was alone, and when he saw the bulk of Shamus, he ran into the darkness.

Edilean was behind Shamus, and for a moment they just stood there in silence. The street was dark, with no one around. It hit them both at the same time that their huge problem of what to do with James’s body was now solved.

Shamus looked down at Edilean, gave a little smile, and she smiled back at him, and in the next minute they were laughing. Edilean started laughing so hard that she couldn’t stand up and would have fallen if Shamus hadn’t caught her. She held on to him and he held on to her and they supported each other as they howled with laughter.

The others came rushing outside, fighting to wedge through the doorway.

“What in the world-?” Angus began as he snatched Edilean away from Shamus.

“Honey bear?” Prudence said sweetly but with an undertone of anger. “What have you been doing out here with Edilean?”

Shamus was laughing too hard to answer. He pointed at Edilean, grabbed his legs just above his knees, and kept on laughing-as did she.