Jude Deveraux - Days of Gold

“Shamus!” Prudence said in a voice that caused sleeping birds to fly off the roof. Four dogs began howling and a rooster thought it was dawn breaking and began to crow. “I demand that you tell me what’s going on.”

“I think we’ve been robbed,” Malcolm said from the back of the carriage.

Matt said, “We’ve had a lot of robberies around here. Nasty place. What did they steal?”

Harriet put her hand to her mouth. “They didn’t take the… The…?”

Edilean started laughing harder. “They did. They took James.”

“Oh,” Prudence said, eyes wide. “They took the trunk?”

“Bloody hell,” Tam said, speaking for the first time. “Where do you think they took it?”

“To the devil,” Malcolm said, looked at Harriet, and they began laughing too. Harriet kept her handkerchief over her mouth and pretended that she wasn’t happily relieved-after all, he had been her brother-but it was so good to know that no one was going to prison and no one would be hanged that she couldn’t control herself. They weren’t going to be caught disposing of the body or in having anything to do with the dead man.

They all looked at one another, and the words in their eyes was that it was really and truly over.

But after that night, Angus disappeared without a word to anyone, and for the first week afterward, they all feared that someone would come to question them about James. At the very least, they expected someone to tell them that Harriet’s brother’s body had been found. But as the days passed and nothing happened, they stopped worrying about it.

And now, Edilean and Angus were married, they were in each other’s arms, and they were on their way back to Scotland to take care of the legal matters of giving the clan’s lands back to the McTerns.

“I’m glad it all happened,” Edilean said sleepily. “If I hadn’t had such a greedy uncle I would have married James and-”

“And been broke within a year,” Angus said. “He would have spent you dry.”

“When we get back to America, what are we going to do?”

“Run your Bound Girls,” Angus said. “I look forward to telling all those women what to do every day.”

“You?” she asked, rising up on her elbow. “Since when do you run my company?”

“If you don’t want me to, we could always go to Williamsburg and build a town.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I traded Captain Austin my land for his.”

“I don’t understand.”

Angus pushed a strand of hair behind her ear. “You’re looking at the owner of a thousand acres of land just outside Williamsburg. I’m going to build us a house, and lay out some streets. I thought maybe some of the clan might like to return to Edilean with us.”

“Edilean?”

“That’s what I’ve named the town.”

She lay back against his arm. “A town named for me. Do you think I might plant an oak tree in the center of it?”

“Do what you want with it. It’s your town.” He moved to put a bare leg over hers.

“I thought you were exhausted.”

“I was, but I’m not anymore.”

Smiling, Edilean put her lips up to be kissed.