Days of Gold (Edilean 2)

“Tam’s clothes.”

“Ah,” Angus said coldly. “Tam. Is he still staying with you?”

“As if you don’t know everything there is to know about my life,” Edilean

said as Angus lifted the latch on the barn door. Tam was just outside, mounted, and holding the reins to Edilean’s horse.

Angus looked at Tam. “If I do this, I want to be told everything.”

“We made a vow to Miss Prudence, but I think it’s gone past that now.”

Edilean put her foot up to the stirrup of her horse, but Angus picked her up by the waist and set her aside. “What do you—?” she began but cut off when Angus swung up into the saddle, and offered his hand down to her. “I’d rather ride with Tam,” she said.

Angus started to get off the horse.

Edilean muttered a curse word under her breath, and put her hand up to his, and he pulled her onto the saddle in front of him. It wasn’t two seconds after they started moving that he began talking to her, his mouth close to her ear.

“I left you that morning because James showed up at the tavern. He hung up handbills of me. I didn’t want you to love a man who was to be executed.”

“Is that supposed to make me forgive you?” Edilean was trying to sit up straight and stay away from his big, warm body. She had on only a cotton shirt and a vest, and it was cold out.

“I did think that if you knew my reason for leaving you that night you might feel more kindly toward me.”

His breath was warm against her face, and she well remembered the sweet smell of it. “I’m to feel good that you decided my entire future in a second? Without asking me what I wanted to do? You had your way with me, then you left me there to rot! Tabitha walked the streets, and she was never treated so badly.”

Angus leaned away from her, his back stiff. “You told her about me?”

“Oh, yes.”

“You told Tabitha, one of your bound girls, about you and me?” His voice showed his disbelief.

Smiling, Edilean said, “Every word. And for your information, Tabitha and I have become good friends. I have to bail her out of jail now and then, and I’ve had to dock her more than a year’s wages to repay the people she steals from, but when you overlook that quirk about her, she can be pleasurable company. She knows everything about snaky men.”

“Snaky? Oh. As in snakes.”

“Lying, cheating—”

Angus sighed. “I get the idea. So tell me what happened about James—if you can drag yourself away from reciting all my faults, that is.”

“It will be difficult, but then I’ve had years and years and years to think on your faults.”

“That would be six, but I was away only four.”

“Six what?” she asked.

“Years. One ‘years’ plus another ‘years’ plus—” He stopped when she twisted in the saddle to look at him. “Sorry. You were about to tell me about Harcourt and his wife. I don’t know anything about them together.”

“Except that she killed him.”

“Yes, I do know that, but why did she kill him?”

Edilean turned to give him a look.

“Oh, right. I see your point. He deserved it. I’m afraid I have to agree with her. Where is she now?”

“With Shamus.”

“With... ?” Angus’s face showed his horror. “You left that frightened woman with Shamus?”