Days of Gold (Edilean 2)

He looked at her for a moment before returning to the paper. “Have you considered that Harcourt will have made arrangements for him and his wife in America?”

“No,” she said slowly. “I haven’t.” The thought lifted her spirits a bit. “You mean maybe he’s arranged accommodations?” The idea of a place to go to made her feel better. She’d never lived in a hotel before and didn’t want to, and she dreaded having to.

“I think that everything he did was a long time in the planning. Did you know that he booked passage on this ship seven months ago?”

“But how could he? He didn’t know what my uncle was going to do.”

“Are you sure? Lawler was closemouthed, but those two men who nearly lived with him weren’t. I think Harcourt planned everything for around your eighteenth birthday. I doubt if he eloped with the earl’s daughter, so he must have been courting her while telling you he was going to be with you. My guess is that Harcourt meant to go through a false marriage ceremony with you. Then, when he had your gold...” Angus shrugged.

Edilean sat there blinking at him, thinking about what he’d said. She didn’t want to think about James’s betrayal, but having a home was a different matter. “So you think that maybe in America there’s a house or at least somewhere for me to live? Not that I can go there, but...”

“Why not? It’ll be a month before Harcourt can get a letter here, and everyone will know you as Mrs. James Harcourt.”

“And you as my husband,” Edilean shot back.

Angus smiled. “I will quietly disappear the minute we’re there, so you’ll be free to be whoever you want to be. A widow perhaps.”

“And what do I do when James shows up?”

“Show him the marriage certificate saying he’s married to the earl’s daughter, not to you. If there is a house, I doubt if it’s been paid for, since he was waiting for your gold.”

“But—” Edilean began, then broke off. “I think you have the mind of a criminal.”

“Thank you,” he said as he handed her what he’d been drawing. “Is this what you meant?” He showed her a floor plan that was perfectly proportioned. Downstairs was a wide hallway with a big stairway in it. The hall was flanked by four rooms, each looking large and airy. The second floor was nearly the same, but on one side the two rooms weren’t equal size, with one half again as large as the other.

“The big room is for your books,” he said. “You can put shelves floor to ceiling on three sides and fill them with books.”

That he’d thought of her while drawing almost made tears come to her eyes. “Where did you learn to draw like this?”

He shrugged. “Not all the men who’ve visited your uncle have been like the two you met. When I was a boy, younger even than Tam, a rich young man came to stay, and he wanted to draw the old castles of Scotland. He paid me to travel with him up into the Highlands while he drew. I watched and I learned.”

When Edilean said nothing, he glanced at her. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“It’s just that you always surprise me.”

“Because I’m not the ignorant Scot you think I am?”

She didn’t smile. “I’ve thought a lot of things about you, but never that you were... ‘ignorant.’ ”

Angus frowned as he began sketching on another piece of paper. “Have you done what you said you would and fallen in love with me?”

“When did I ever say such a thing?”

“In those first days when you looked at me with eyes full of adoration.”

“Of what? I can assure you that I have never ‘adored’ you.”

“After I saved you from Harcourt—”

“After I saved you from the gallows.”

“Caused by your hiding in a coffin,” he said.

She couldn’t help smiling. “I will always remember your face. It was w

hiter than mine, and I was covered with sawdust.”

“But you were still the most beautiful—” He cut himself off and put down the quill. “I need to go out,” he said abruptly, and in a few steps he was out the door, leaving Edilean gaping.