Days of Gold (Edilean 2)

He had to shake his head to clear it of those thoughts as he ran his hands over her smooth, perfect skin, trying to see if bones were broken. He could find none that were. She winced several times when his hands touched a sore place, but when he pressed harder, the bones didn’t give.

She had bruises over most of her lovely body. They were just now turning blue, so it hadn’t been long since she’d been injured. Her beautiful face, neck, and shoulders had the worst of the bruising. There was a small cut on her chin and a larger one on her shoulder, and both her forearms were scraped raw, but he didn’t see anything that would need stitching or that would cause a scar.

“Edilean,” he whispered. “What in the world happened to you?”

He glanced at the pieces of diamond jewelry on the table by the bed and wondered where they had come from. He knew they’d been in his pocket on the day he left the ship, and it wasn’t until three days after they had all parted company that Angus realized the set was missing. He’d cursed his carelessness, but his mind had been on other things... meaning on Edilean. He’d been so despondent after they’d separated that he’d thought of nothing else. He missed her terribly. Several times he found himself turning to say something to her, or smiling at the thought of what she’d say if she were with him. Every time she wasn’t there, he was freshly wounded.

He’d spent whole afternoons outside her town house, watching. He told himself he was protecting her, but every man who entered was like a stake through his heart. He knew she hosted endless tea parties for the young students who came down from Harvard College. He’d even seen her outside with them, laughing on the steps with four or five young men at a time.

Every day he had one of the waitresses in the bar check the newspaper; he expected to hear that Edilean had announced her engagement to one of them. He figured she’d marry some man who owned so much land that it was going to be named a state. And her husband-to-be would probably be so besotted with her that he’d name the state “Edilean.” Or maybe that was just Angus’s wish. If he started a town, if she was with him, he’d name the place Edilean.

When Angus realized that the jewels had been stolen, he knew there was nothing he could do about it. For all he knew, Edilean had taken them back. He didn’t think she would, but maybe she’d so much wanted him to stay in Boston with her that she’d made it impossible for Angus to leave.

Or maybe that was something he wanted to believe.

She stirred on the bed, groaning in pain.

“Ssssh, lass,” he said. “I’m here now and I’ll take care of you.”

When he heard a man’s footsteps coming toward the door, he covered Edilean’s nude body with a blanket.

“I had to wait until the water got hot,” Cuddy said from the doorway, and when he glanced at Edilean on the bed, his eyes widened. “You took her clothes off?” His anger at Angus and his concern for Edilean were evident in his tone.

“If I hear one more disrespectful word out of you, you will live to regret it,” Angus said, his eyes flashing in threat.

“All right,” Cuddy said as he plopped down heavily on a chair on the far side of the room. “It ain’t none of my business, even if I did nearly get killed while helpin’ her.”

Angus dipped a cloth in the hot water and began to gently wash Edilean’s face. “I want to hear every word of what happened. Don’t leave anything out.”

Cuddy didn’t like the way Angus was treating him, and he didn’t like the way Miss Edilean had told him to take her to the Scotsman. Cuddy told her that Miss Harriet would do a far better job of patching her up than any man would, but Edilean had insisted. She’d said she’d walk if he wouldn’t take her. Cuddy gave in when Edilean nearly fell from her horse. He got off his and got on behind her and five minutes later she’d fallen asleep against him. He’d been tempted to take her to Miss Harriet, but he didn’t. He went miles out of the way to deliver her to some man who’d stripped her naked on a bed.

Cuddy didn’t like the man, and his tone let him know it. Reluctantly, he told the story about Tabitha, but he didn’t tell Angus how Edilean had sent him, Cuddy, out to look for Angus weeks before.

“So how did she know I was here?”

When Cuddy said nothing, Angus turned to look at him. “Did she send you to look for me?”

Cuddy nodded.

“And you told her in detail about where I was working and how I was living in the barn, didn’t you?”

Cuddy gave a curt nod, and Angus relented. “Don’t worry yourself, lad, she has a way of making men do things that they wouldn’t normally do.”

“She does that to me!” Cuddy said, and some of his anger left him. “I’ve run after her like I was her maid.”

“So have I,” Angus said as he stood up. “I don’t think she’s badly injured, just worn out. What did Tabitha look like after the fight?”

“Worse than Miss Edilean.”

“Did she now?” Angus said, and there was pride in his voice. “She fought a big girl like Tabitha and won?”

“Yeah,” Cuddy said, smiling. “I was in the tent most of the time, on my hands and knees searching through the woman’s frillies, but I saw enough of the fight to know it was bloody. I can’t believe the women didn’t lose teeth and eyes.”

Angus frowned. “That bad, was it?”

“Worse than you can imagine.” Cuddy looked at Angus in question. “So why was she fighting for you? Your name’s Harcourt, so are you related to her?”

“Her husband,” Angus said without a thought. “More or less. You’ve had a rough night, so why don’t you go inside and get some breakfast? If you want to sleep, tell Dolly I said to give you the best room.”