Days of Gold (Edilean 2)

“There’s more?”

Angus wanted to ask her if the bigmouthed young man had told who Edilean was, if he’d told where she lived.

Dolly stepped closer to him. “He hasn’t told who your little lady is, if that’s what you’re worried about. In fact, the boy’s made it seem that she’s one of those transported criminals.”

He looked at her sharply.

“I saw the two of you,” she said, her eyes crinkling as she smiled. “I was young once. She’s no criminal, and he’s a good boy, that one.” Turning away, she went out from behind the bar to serve breakfast to the men.

Angus drew a tankard of beer for himself and drank it in one gulp. He hadn’t had any sleep during the night as Edilean had been... Smiling, he remembered the night, the kisses, the sounds, the positions. She had embarrassed and surprised him when she’d studied the back of him, but he’d loved it. It looked like her curiosity about the world extended to more than countries and manners. All in all, it had been a night of such pure joy that he thought that if he were to die now, he would regret nothing.

It was when he put his tankard down that he saw the handbill on the wall. It was the same one that had been posted in Scotland, and it was the picture that Edilean had drawn of him when his hair was wild and his face covered with whiskers.

For a moment Angus stood still, paralyzed, unable to move as he stared at the picture hung on a nail in the wall. The handbill hadn’t been there yesterday.

When Dolly came back to the bar, he was still standing there. She got drinks and put them on a tray, but Angus still didn’t move. When Dolly started out with her full tray, he caught her arm.

“Where did this come from?” he whispered, unable to make his voice work properly.

“A man brought it here last night. I thought it looked a bit like you.” She was teasing him.

“Did you tell him that?” Angus asked.

Dolly took only a second to see what was on his face. “No. I told him nothing. I didn’t like him. He’s a beautiful man, but he knows it. He treated me like I was his slave.”

“Where is he now?” Angus asked, swallowing hard.

“Asleep, I reckon. Go,” she said in the next breath. “Do what you need to do. I’ll hold him off as long as I can. A man like him won’t like soup poured on his clothes, but I’ll do it.”

“Is he alone?”

“No. He has two thugs with him. Frightening-looking men. Angus...” Her face was full of fear and concern for him. “You can’t stand up to all of them. You must go!”

For the second time in two days, Angus kissed Dolly’s cheek, then he swiftly left the tavern. When he got to his room, he stopped outside the door. His instinct was to wake Edilean and tell her that James was there, that he’d come to America with his handbill and the warrant for Angus’s arrest, and that he hadn’t come alone.

Angus had always known it was a possibility that James would come to America to seek him out. You couldn’t humiliate a man like James Harcourt and not expect retribution. But still, seeing the handbill had shocked him. If James had only come the day before! If he’d only come before Edilean and Angus had spent the night together, things would now be different. Angus could slip away, and no one would be hurt.

But now he was going to have to leave, and there would be a great deal of pain. Angus knew that he couldn’t stay with Edilean. He couldn’t even tell her that he was leaving. She would never agree that Angus had to get away and leave her behind. She’d want to go with him.

For a moment he rubbed his eyes to clear them. Above all else, he couldn’t let Edilean know the truth. He couldn’t go to her and say, “I love you but I have to leave you behind to protect you.” She’d never agree to their parting, but that’s what was going to have to happen. They’d have to separate forever.

It was as though he could see in a crystal ball and he knew the future. James would hunt Angus down wherever he went—and if Angus had a wife and children, he’d still find him. And then what? If James didn’t have Angus killed outright, he would enjoy seeing Angus taken to jail. Imprisoned. If he couldn’t be prosecuted in America, it was for sure that James Harcourt would find a time when Angus wasn’t alert and he’d kidnap him and take him back to Scotland. There he’d be tried, convicted, and sentenced to death or maybe he’d receive “just” a lifetime to rot away in a stinking prison.

Then what would happen to Edilean? To their children? To the home they’d wanted to build?

Angus knew what Edilean would do. She’d fight for him. Just as she’d fought for him with the jewels, she’d fight in the courts. She’d fight James Harcourt; she’d fight the world to keep Angus out of prison. But she’d not win. Angus had run away with a girl who was still under the supervision of her guardian. The fact that he’d later married her would make him look worse rather than better. It would see

m that he’d used her when she was but a girl and against her guardian’s wishes.

And of course there was the gold. When Angus and Edilean ran off, legally, that gold was under the care of her uncle. Angus had “stolen” it from him.

No, there was no way that a court would listen to his side or understand the truth. They’d never believe Angus’s preposterous story, and he’d be condemned for life.

Could he take Edilean with him? Is that what he wanted for her? To spend her life in hiding so he wouldn’t be captured? Then if he were taken, would she be condemned to daily trips to prison to see him? Or would she have to stand by and see him hanged?

He stood outside his bedroom, knowing that Edilean was in there, still asleep, and he was going to have to leave her. Again. Yet again, he was going to have to slip away from her and let her think that he... What? Didn’t love her? Is it possible that she could believe that of him?

He had to make her believe that he cared nothing for her, he thought. He had to do all that he could to make her believe that he was the biggest cad in the world. The worst villain. That he’d had what he wanted from her and that was the end of it.