Days of Gold (Edilean 2)

When the men left Harcourt, Angus slipped up behind him.

“What do you want?” Harcourt yelled in fear.

“Quiet! I’m the driver, remember?”

“Oh, you. Yes, I remember you. What do you want? I believe you were paid for your trouble, so go away.”

“She wants you.”

Harcourt shivered. “She always does. Morning, noon, and night, she wants more.”

“More than you have?” Angus said under his breath.

“What?”

“Do you want more than you have?” he asked louder.

“What are you blathering on about, man? Out with it!”

“Edilean Talbot wants to see you,” Angus said.

“Tell her I’ll see her tomorrow,” Harcourt said and started into the inn.

He isn’t so drunk that he forgets his lies, Angus thought. “No, sir.” He nearly choked on the “sir.” “She wants to see you now.”

“Oh, I see,” Harcourt said, and he had a look on his face that Angus wanted to knock off with his fist. “Now. Tonight. Yes, I can see that. My last hooray, so to speak. The last time—” He looked at Angus in speculation. “And she sent you to tell me this?”

“She did.”

“And I guess she paid you to do it?”

“Not a cent.” Angus again wanted to hit the man.

“I think I will go to her. You stay here.” He gave Angus a look up and down, then straightened his clothes and went inside.

Angus slipped in behind him, and when Harcourt reached the top floor, Angus was hiding at the end of the hall.

Harcourt used his nails to scratch at the door. “Edilean?” he whispered, glancing at the other doors down the hallway. “Edilean? It’s me, James.”

If she’s taken that drug she’ll never hear him, Angus thought, and tried to come up with another plan to get to her.

But he’d underestimated Edilean. She opened the door a crack and looked out. “James? Is that you?”

“Yes, darling,” he said as he tried not to slur his words. “I couldn’t stay away from you. I want to see you one last—I mean before I sleep. May I come in?”

“Of course,” she said. “You’re very nearly my husband.” She opened the door wide, and Harcourt, after a stumble, went into her room.

Before she could get the door closed, Angus slipped inside. In one swift motion, he grabbed a candlestick off the table by the wall, and whacked Harcourt hard on the head with it. He went down in an instant.

When Edilean opened her mouth to scream, Angus looked at her and said, “Don’t.”

She closed her mouth but went on her knees to James. “What have you done? Are you insane? Get me that cloth! He’s bleeding.”

“He’s all right,” Angus said as he sat down on a chair. “This night has been hell.”

Edilean got a cloth from the basin on the table, and sat on the floor to wipe the blood from James’s head. “Did you do this out of jealousy? Is it that you cannot stand to see me marry another man? Any man? Even one who loves me? Or is this about the gold? James, darling James, please wake up.”

Angus shook his head at the ridiculous things she was saying and pulled the portfolio from inside his shirt. “Look in there. I think that should explain my actions well enough.”