Days of Gold (Edilean 2)

“What would I do in a new country?”

“What will you do in this one?”

“I don’t know, lass, but that’s a big decision. To leave my homeland? I don’t know if I can do that. But it is kind of you to worry so about me.”

For a moment, with the moonlight on her beautiful face, he found himself leaning toward her.

But she moved away and said quickly, “James will take care of you.”

Angus’s shoulders stiffened at her comment. Her words hurt more than that little whip on his neck had. She’d reminded him of the class difference between them. She could play the lady and talk of “helping” him, but when he got too close, she pulled away, and spoke of how a higher-class man would “take care of” him.

Unaware of his thoughts, Edilean sat in silence for a moment, looking at the dark around them. There was a lantern on the wagon, and they could see the road, but the darkness surrounded them.

Angus didn’t know what he was going to do with his life, what his future would be. The only thing he was certain of was that he’d never put himself in a position where “James” would have to take care of him.

6

EDILEAN KNEW SHE was talking too much, but she was trying to cover her nervousness. She felt bad that her problems had changed this man’s life. The reason she’d asked Shamus to drive her to the port near Glasgow was because she’d sensed that he was like her and an outcast. But this man wasn’t.

After her first encounter with him, people had gone out of their way to tell her that it wasn’t possible that Angus McTern had loosened her saddle. “He takes care of us all,” she was told.

In the week between when she’d struck him and when he’d dropped her into the horse trough, she’d heard nothing but good about him. Wherever she went, someone told her about Angus. Often, she wasn’t told directly. She’d visit Marmy in the stables and people would suddenly appear outside the stall and they’d put on a “conversation” about Angus.

According to them, he was the epitome of every virtue known to mankind. After four days of these staged talks she’d wanted to shout, “Do you expect me to marry him? Is that what you’re after?”

During the last of that week, as Edilean went over every point in her life, she thought that she shouldn’t have been so awful to the man. She should have worked harder to make him like her. If she had, then maybe he would have helped her when she’d asked him to. She even thought that maybe she could have offered the current laird to her uncle as an alternate husband. If Angus McTern was half as honorable as she’d been told, he might have been persuaded to relinquish the gold to her uncle.

But then what? she thought. Was she to go live with him in one of those two-room stone cottages and make a baby every year?

Now, she could feel the warmth of him at her side. It was cold, and she wished she could move closer to him, but things had changed when he’d leaned toward her and she’d acted as though she found him repulsive. But she didn’t. It was the way she’d survived years of aggression from too-friendly men.

She brushed at her hair with her hands. “Am I still covered in sawdust?”

“A bit, but I’m sure he’ll like you.”

She rubbed her hands to warm them, glancing up at him, but he said nothing. “Maybe by this time tomorrow I’ll be married.”

He hadn’t been fooled by her attempt to cover her nervousness. “You’ll do fine, lass.”

“Do you think my uncle will be searching for us soon?”

“In a day or two,” Angus said softly. “Malcolm will figure out what’s going on and he’ll give us some time.”

“By then I’ll be gone,” she said.

Angus saw her scratching at the sawdust on her neck and decided to let up on her. He halted the horses, and immediately she was scared. But he nodded at her and said he just needed a bit of... privacy. He took a big bag from under the wagon seat, tossed it to the ground, got down, and lifted his arms up to her. “Like to stretch your legs?”

She nodded and put her hands on his shoulders as his big hands encircled her waist and lifted her down. For a second, they stood together. They were strangers but they were both facing whole new lives. It created a bond between them—a bond that she knew would end when they got to the city.

She didn’t go far from the wagon to take care of her private needs, but he still beat her back. He’d changed clothes, removing the tartan and exchanging it for trousers, a shirt, and a big jacket. He’d gone from looking like the hero of a romantic novel to looking like a man who worked on the docks.

She smiled at him, but she knew he could feel the difference. Yet again, she felt that he thought she was lacking in some way.

“Shall we take you to your future husband?” he asked as he lifted her onto the wagon.

They drove all that night and through the next day. When they reached the city, Angus skirted the center the best he could as he went toward the dock and the Red Lion Inn, which were both south of the hustle and bustle that he hated so much.

Edilean yawned. She’d slept half the way, her small body leaning against Angus. Twice, he’d fallen asleep, but she’d woken him up. One time, she said, “I could drive the team.”