Tabitha struck out at Edilean, but she moved to the left, then the right, and her fists missed.
“Where you’d learn to fight like this?” Tabitha asked, her fists up and moving from one side to the other.
“Girls’ boarding school,” Edilean said. “And so many men have been in love with me that they’ve taught me boxing and a bit of wrestling.”
“In love with you?” Tabitha said. “Ha! They love your riches, that’s all. Angus told me so.”
“I don’t believe you!” Edilean said as she struck out at Tabitha but missed the punch.
“You know where he told me? In bed. Nice big man, he is. I knew he wasn’t married to you. He stood too far away from you. Ice Lady. That’s what he calls you. And he gave me that jewelry.”
Edilean didn’t think—and that was her mistake. Tabitha’s taunts made her so angry that when she leaped, she missed and hit the ground, her mouth filling with dirt. Before she could roll over, Tabitha was on top of her, and she outweighed Edilean by at least half a hundred pounds.
Tabitha grabbed Edilean’s hair and pulled back hard, then dropped her so her face hit the ground again, but this time a stone hit her chin and she could taste blood in her mouth.
When Edilean turned over and the crowd saw the blood on her face, they started cheering, and money was exchanged as bets were placed.
Edilean was so dazed that when she got to her feet, she didn’t see Tabitha’s fist until it hit her in the jaw just below her left ear. Edilean moved backward, and as she did so she could see Cuddy searching through the belongings inside Tabitha’s makeshift tent.
Edilean began to walk in a circle, each time moving farther away from Tabitha so she got her and the crowd away from the tent and Cuddy.
“Had enough?” Tabitha asked.
Tabitha was bigger, but Edilean was more agile. Edilean stuck out her booted foot, hooked it behind Tabitha’s bare leg, and pulled. Tabitha hit the ground hard, jarring her teeth, and when she looked up at Edilean, she spit out blood.
“Have you had enough?” Edilean asked.
“Not nearly enough. Not from you or from Angus.”
At the mention of the name, Edilean rammed her shoulder into Tabitha’s midsection.
17
ANGUS WAS AWAKENED by the sound of someone trying to kick the door to the barn down. “Always in a hurry,” he muttered as he pulled on his trousers. He’d been up late the night before, getting two drunks up to their beds. Every time he’d close the doors to their rooms, they’d come out again and start punching each other. In the end he’d told them that if they did it again, he would start throwing punches. That had calmed them down enough that they went to their rooms and stayed there.
So now it was not quite dawn and someone was wanting in the barn. Angus’s room was in the back, next to the tack room, away from the main tavern where the guests slept, and he liked that. It gave him some time off from the eternal demands of taking care of people and animals.
The pounding continued as he was buttoning his trousers. He was cursing under his breath when he heard the man outside say something that sounded like “Edilean.” Angus paused for a moment, not believing his hearing, and told himself that was absurd. He’d told Edilean he was going to Williamsburg and that’s where she thought he was.
There was another spate of pounding, and he heard a man’s voice saying the word again. “Edilean! Edilean!”
Angus covered the floor in three steps as he reached the door and lifted the bar. In front of him was a young man in workmen’s clothes—and in his arms was Edilean. She was asleep—or unconscious—and her beautiful face was bruised and swollen, her clothes torn and blood-spattered.
Angus slipped his arms under the man’s and took Edilean from him. “What happened?” he asked as he carried her back to his small room.
“She fought a woman named Tabitha for this,” Cuddy said as he pulled a great wad of diamond jewelry out of his pocket. “I hope it was worth it to you. It may have cost her her life.” His voice was angry.
Angus glanced at the diamonds, not sure he understood anything as he bent down to put Edilean on the bed. “Get some hot water,” he said. “And leave those here!”
“I don’t have to—” Cuddy began, but with a look at Angus’s face, he dropped the diamonds into his outstretched hand. “She said an earring and some bracelets are missing,” he mumbled, then turned and ran out of the barn.
“Edilean,” Angus said as he gently moved the hair off her face and tried to assess the damage. When she moaned, he saw that she was asleep. He smelled her breath and it looked as though she’d had some whiskey. Good!
Quickly, before the young man returned, Angus undressed her. H
e needed to see the extent of her injuries. Were any bones broken? If possible, he didn’t want to have to call a doctor. He’d repaired many injuries in his lifetime and knew what to do.
Once she was nude, he couldn’t help looking at her beautiful, perfect body, at the way her hips curved, her breasts rose. He remembered that she’d offered herself to him and that he’d turned her down. It was the most difficult thing he’d ever done in his life. Since that night, he’d thought of little else but her, and there wasn’t a day that went by when he didn’t think of going back to her and sweeping her into his arms.