Days of Gold (Edilean 2)

“And live in that old keep? Without glass windows? Will she want to have to look after over two hundred people who are of the McTern clan?”

“I don’t know,” Edilean said. “That sounds more like something Harriet would like to do. She mothers all the bound girls. She—” Her eyes widened.

Angus gave a smile, for he’d read her mind. “You say that Malcolm likes Harriet?”

“You were there when they met, so you saw how they looked at each other.”

“You mean the day you were shooting at me? I beg your pardon for being otherwise occupied and not realizing Harriet’s glares at my uncle were a love interest.”

She ignored his complaint. “Harriet and Malcolm are inseparable. She’d follow him if he said he was going to set up house on the moon.”

“I think that describes the McTern keep rather well.”

He stood up again and looked down at James. “First, we have to get rid of this body and make sure that Mrs. Harcourt isn’t charged with murder. After that’s done, we can plan other things.”

“Like sending Malcolm and Harriet back to Scotland and keeping Tam here?”

“Our minds work exactly alike,” Angus said, smiling at her, love in his eyes.

“Our minds are nothing alike,” she said. “And now that I think about it, it’s a very bad idea. Malcolm and Harriet are too old to have children, so who would inherit?”

They l

ooked at each other and said, “Kenna,” in unison.

“It’s good to see that the two of you have made up,” Malcolm said from the door.

Edilean glanced at Angus as though to ask how much Malcolm had heard.

“We can make up anything,” Angus said, “but I can’t forgive you. This has come about because you didn’t tell me the whole of why the lot of you were in this country. If you’d told me, I could have stopped this before it happened.”

“And how would you have done that?” Malcolm asked, unperturbed. He had a large pewter mug of beer in his hand, and he looked as though he’d drunk several of them.

“By getting Mrs. Harcourt out of the country, that’s how,” Angus said.

“But she didn’t want to leave until she’d done what she came here to do.”

“Are you saying that you helped her kill him?”

Malcolm shrugged. “She didn’t plan on doing that, but if she had, I could see why. You should get her to tell you the whole story. You and Miss Edilean left Scotland and had a laugh at having stopped Harcourt’s treachery, but you left poor Miss Prudence to bear the brunt of his rage. He didn’t like being crossed. Now, lad, what are you going to do with that body to get rid of it?”

“Hack it into pieces and take it out bit by bit.”

Edilean gasped, her hands to her throat, but Malcolm laughed. “I’ll get my saw.”

“Tell Tam to get the large carriage ready.” He looked at Edilean. “Do you still have the heavy trunks that the gold was transported in?”

She nodded. “They’re in the attic.”

“Then have Shamus get one of them down here.” He looked at Malcolm. “Is Prudence fit to travel and to talk? Or have you made her so drunk that she’s incoherent?”

Glancing toward the kitchen, Malcolm lowered his voice. “You don’t know her, do you, lad? She can outdrink Shamus.”

Angus lifted his eyebrows so high they nearly disappeared in his hair.

“I guess now you wish you’d married her,” Edilean muttered as she started to follow Malcolm out of the room.

But Angus caught her arm and pulled her close to him as his mouth came down on hers and he kissed her with all the pent-up emotion and longing that he’d felt for the last four years. When he stopped, her feet were off the floor and she was completely in his arms.