“No,” Angus said. “I’m not telling anyone anything. You’re going to have to figure out a different way to get what you want. I’ll sign whatever you need, but I am not going to confront Edilean and ask her to do this.”
That was last night, and this morning they were still after him. At least Tam and Malcolm were. Shamus stood in the background, looking at Angus with an expression that said he thought Angus was a coward who couldn’t even stand up to a girl.
“No,” Angus repeated. “I will not do this and you can stop asking me.”
After the sun had been up for a couple of hours, Mac returned with a wagon and half a dozen soldiers. Angus stepped away from the Scotsmen to tal
k to him.
“I didn’t tell them anything at the fort,” Mac said. “I didn’t figure anyone would believe me if I said we thought Austin had done all this. The colonel was angry that Aldredge was still alive. When I told him that the boy was coming here to break up with Betsy, the old man got even more angry. It’s my advice that Aldredge go back east.”
“I agree,” Angus said.
Mac was looking at the Scotsmen who were standing at the mouth of the cave and watching the soldiers carry Naps down to the wagon. Thanks to Matt and T.C., Naps was much better this morning.
Mac lowered his voice. “If I were you, I wouldn’t return to the fort either. Austin didn’t say much but his face was beet red. He’s very angry that you didn’t let us get killed.”
Angus’s heart plummeted. If he left the employ of the army, when Mercer returned from England with his petition signed by the king, Angus would no longer be on the list to get a thousand acres of land.
“Where’d they come from?” Mac asked, nodding toward the three Scotsmen standing apart from the others.
“Home,” Angus said. “Scotland.”
Mac raised an eyebrow. “As if I didn’t know that. Mind if I talk to them? I’d like to be around someone who can understand me.”
Angus shrugged, glad to have some time alone to think. For a moment he considered cursing all the women of the world. His life had been fine until women entered it. First there was Edilean, who he’d tried to help and ended by getting himself wanted for kidnapping and theft. Then there’d been Tabitha, who’d made Edilean so jealous that it caused a rift between them. And now, here was little Betsy Wellman, who might cause him to lose his future.
Angus was allowed about five minutes’ peace before Malcolm came to him.
“Good lad, that one,” he said, nodding toward Mac. “He talks like an American, but I can’t hold that against him. He told me that if you go back to the fort some man might see to it that you get killed.”
“I can take care of myself,” Angus snapped.
“Seems to me that the only thing that interests you is yourself,” Malcolm said, and went back to the others.
For a moment Angus thought about grabbing his rifle and heading out. He’d become a trader who lived on what he took from the woodlands. He’d sleep on the ground. He’d spend his time alone, never seeing anyone but the animals. He’d—
He knew what he was going to do. He was going to go to Edilean and get that straightened out. Maybe by now, after four long years, she had forgiven him at least somewhat. Maybe she’d found out, or figured out, why he’d done what he had. It was possible that she’d seen that the handbills were again being distributed, so she’d know why Angus had had to leave her.
And maybe if he sent word back to Colonel Wellman that he was going into the wilderness to look for the killer of the soldiers that would hold his place open so he’d still get his land. Maybe—
He looked across the opening of the cave and Malcolm was watching him, a question on his face. Angus gave a small, quick nod, and Malcolm’s eyes softened.
Angus thought of Edilean’s wrath when she saw him again, and murmured, “May the Lord have mercy on me.”
22
ANGUS KNEW HE’D never been so nervous in his life. He fidgeted at the cravat around his neck and wondered if he’d tied it properly. Maybe he’d ask Edilean for her help with the neckcloth. But then, maybe she’d tighten it and strangle him.
Beside him in the coach sat Tam, with Shamus and Malcolm across from them. They all seemed to be a bit in awe of Angus in his gentleman’s clothes. They were from James Harcourt and had been stored in a trunk in the back of the tavern where Angus used to work.
Dolly was glad to see him and wanted him to stay. “It’s been horrible since you left. We can’t keep the place goin’.”
“I can’t stay,” Angus said in the English accent he used with her. Behind him, Malcolm, Tam, and Shamus stood back and watched.
When Angus emerged from the back room wearing Harcourt’s clothes, they’d stood there and stared at him.
“You look English,” Malcolm said, shock in his voice.