Angus halted. “If by ‘them’ you mean Malcolm and Tam and—”
“And Harriet and Prudence and Shamus.”
“Yes, the entire lot of them. Might as well have the whole clan here. The answer is no, I didn’t tell any of them anything. They know nothing.”
“Which is exactly as much as I know.” Edilean put her heels down firmly on the ground and looked at him. “I want to know what’s going on. Where have you been?”
Angus looked as though he was contemplating picking her up and carrying her up the gangplank to the ship, but then seemed to think better of it. “If you must know—not that I wasn’t going to tell you, just not here in public—I went back to the fort.”
“But that’s—”
“A long way away,” Angus said. “I gave up sleep and food, but I did it. I sold my shares in the Ohio Company to Captain Austin.”
“Oh, yes, the man who’s in love with a girl you wanted.”
Angus gave her a look.
“Sorry,” she said. “I’m only repeating what I was told.”
“I do wish you’d stop listening to gossip.”
“When you stop running off and leaving me to deal with it alone, I will.”
Angus gave a smile, took her by the shoulders, and looked as though he was going to kiss her, but then he glanced at the people around them and didn’t. “I promise that I’ll tell you everything when we’re on board, but in private.”
“Angus,” Edilean said, “you really can’t expect me to board a ship sailing for Scotland without any preparation. I need clothes and books and gifts. I can’t visit your family empty-handed. And did you forget about my business? Who can run it without me? I know you think I’m worthless, but I have many people to look after, and they—”
“Captain Inges said that this time we couldn’t travel with him unless we were properly married, so he’s waiting with his Bible to perform the ceremony.”
She blinked at him.
“At last I’ve said something that you can make no reply to,” Angus said in wonder. “Now, do you want to go on board and get married, or do you want to go back to that house of yours and gloat to those people who think I’ve abandoned you and sign papers for that business of yours?”
For a moment all Edilean could do was open and close her mouth a few times. At last she said, “You have a ring?”
“Solid gold.” Reaching out, he touched her blonde hair. “Not that I need any gold, for this is worth more than all the gold in the world.”
She leaned her cheek against his hand for a moment, then she grabbed her skirt, lifted it, and began to run up the gangplank. “Come on!” she called to him. “Do you think I have all day?”
Chuckling, Angus ran up the gangplank after her.
Epilogue
THEY WERE IN bed in the captain’s cabin, nude beneath the sheet, and Edilean was still staring at her left hand.
“You’re going to wear it out just from looking at it,” Angus said, yawning.
“You’re the one who’s worn out.”
“I’ll show you who’s tired,” he said, but then he gave another jaw-cracking yawn and lay back down, with Edilean’s head on his shoulder. Moonlight shone into the cabin, and the water was lulling him to sleep.
“Why this?” Edilean asked. “Why not stay in Boston and be married there?”
“And share you with all the others?” he said.
“Are you saying that I’ve been... That I have... ?”
He kissed her bare shoulder. “Been unfaithful to me? Nay, lass, I’m not. I talked to people in Boston and there’s been no hint of any man with you.”