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“Me?” he asked, astonished, but then his eyes began to twinkle. “It’s not so much her virtues as it is... well, lass...” He made a movement with his hands to show a huge bosom.
“That’s it?” Edilean said. “You and James fell for a woman with great—”
When she realized Angus was again teasing her, she shook her head in disgust, then looked at James on the floor. “I can’t go to America alone. I can’t do it. I’ve never done anything alone before.” She looked back at him. “You’ll have to go to the ship’s captain and tell him that I want my gold back.”
“And who should I tell him says that? Mrs. Harcourt? That gold on the ship is under his name, not yours. If you or I tried to take it off, they’d shoot us.”
“But how will I live here without money? I can’t very well go back to my uncle’s house, now can I?”
“No, you canna. You have to do what I tell you and that’s to get on that ship by yourself. Tell them you’re Mrs. Harcourt and that you’re a widow.”
“But what if the captain knows her or James?”
“Wear a veil. And add some padding to make yourself look bigger. Better yet, tell the captain that you’re leaving because Harcourt got married.”
“I don’t understand,” she said, then her eyes widened. “Oh, no, you don’t. I’m not getting on that ship as James’s... as his mistress.”
“It’s only for a few weeks. When you get to America you can be whoever you want to be. Change your name. You’ll have the gold and you’ll be well set up.”
“Then what do I do? Marry one of those men in the New World? Savages is what my uncle says they are.”
“Then why did you want to go in the first place?” Angus half yelled. He was still sitting on the end of the bed and all he had to do was fall back into its softness and close his eyes.
Reluctantly, he made himself get off the bed. “I think—” he began, but stopped because out of his shirt had fallen one of the handbills he’d torn off a wall.
Edilean picked it up and looked at it. “This is the picture I drew of you from memory. I think it’s a good likeness, don’t you?” When he just stood there staring at her, she looked back at the handbill and realized what it was. “This is serious,” she whispered. “You have to get out of here. You have to leave Scotland.”
“I can go to Edinburgh or to the Highlands. I can—”
“No you can’t,” she said as she stood close in front of him, her eyes big. “You don’t know my uncle as I do.”
“I’ve known him a great deal longer than you have.”
“This isn’t a matter of time, this is a matter of knowing him well,” she almost shouted. “You can’t stay here. My uncle will hunt you down.”
“I’ll be all right, lass,” he said, smiling and wanting to touch her so badly that it was like a pain in his chest.
Behind them, James groaned and Angus reached for the candlestick.
9
DON’T YOU DARE!” she said, then went to the bedside table, got the bottle of laudanum, and poured it into a glass of water. “Hold him up while I get this down him.”
Angus did what she said. “So you didn’t drink this as he told you to?”
“No. I don’t like that concoction. It makes me dizzy. Here, James, darling, drink the wine. That’s a good boy.”
“You’ve forgiven him?” Angus asked incredulously.
“Ha!” Edilean pinched James’s arm hard. “That will cause him a bruise tomorrow.”
“Oh, aye, it will,” Angus said.
“If you start laughing at me again I’ll not help you get away.”
“You help me?” he asked.
“Yes,” she said as she stood up. James’s arm had been across her but she let it fall to the floor. “Hope his wrist breaks,” she muttered. “While you’ve been lolling about in the chair and lusting over my foot, I’ve been making a plan.”
