Days of Gold

“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.”

  “Lolling?” he said as he put James’s head on the floor. “Lusting? You are not talking as a lady should.”

  “In the last few months I’ve had too many horrible things happen to me to be ladylike. If I were a lady I’d not let you stay in my room while I’m in my night wear.”

  “That you wouldn’t, but I like that thing you have on.”

  “You liked his wife too and if you step closer to me I’ll scream.”

  “That’s the second time tonight a woman’s said that to me.”

  At that, Edilean turned her back on him and folded her arms across her chest.

  “All right,” Angus said, but he couldn’t keep the laughter out of his voice. “I apologize. Please forgive me. Now what is it that you have to say? What is this plan of yours?”

  Turning, Edilean looked at James, then at Angus. “I know what we’re going to do.”

  “We are not going to do anything. You are going to get on that ship and sail to America, then you’re going to—”

  “You’re going to be my husband.”

  “What?”

  “We’ll say that you’re James’s brother. If the captain has met James, we’ll just say that there was a misunderstanding and that his brother Angus is the one who is going across the ocean.”

  “Me be your husband?” Angus said. “Have you lost your mind? How can I be your husband? Look at me.”

  “You’ll wear James’s clothes. If he put my gold on the ship, he’s probably put his clothes on board too. You’ll wear what he has on now, then later you’ll have his wardrobe.” She walked around him. “We have to clean you up. A bath, a shave; we’ll wash that hair of yours.”

  “A bath? Are you mad, woman? I’ll catch my death.”

  “You’re going to die a worse death if my uncle finds you.”

  “I don’t like this.”

  “You think I do? The man I loved...” She kicked at James’s foot, but he just smiled and curled up on the floor. He looked quite happy. She looked back at Angus. “You’re right. We don’t want people to see you. My likeness of you is much too good. We’ll need help for a bath, so we’ll have to forgo it.”

  Angus’s look let her know he thought her idea was preposterous. “How am I to shave? I brought no razor with me.”

  “Obviously, you wouldn’t know how to use it if you had one.”

  Angus backed toward the door. “Somehow, I’m going to return to my own people. They need me.”

  “Balderdash!” Edilean said. “They’ll be quite fine without you.”

  Angus backed away from her, but he put his hand up to his beard. Considering that half of Scotland was looking for a man with a full beard and wild hair, it might not be a bad idea if he shaved.

  As for the clothes, he looked at James curled on the floor and was sure that his waistcoat was silk. What would a man like Angus be doing wearing silk?

  “Well,” she said, “I’m waiting. What do you have to say for yourself? Are you a coward or do you have the courage to go to a country where you know no one?”

  “I canna do that,” he said, “but perhaps to shave and look different from the picture you drew of me would be good. Tell me, lass, what possessed you to draw a likeness of me? Did you plan to put it under your pillow so you’d dream of me?”

  “I don’t have time to deal with your vanity. You have to make a decision now. And, no, I won’t help you shave and cut your hair if you aren’t going to America with me.”

  “You’re going to shave me?” he asked, his eyes teasing. “Perhaps I should take a bath after all. I’d like your help with that.”

  “You are trying my patience. You’re allowed no more jokes; you have to decide. If you don’t, you’re going out that door and I’ll never see you again.”

  “Not even one?” he asked. “Every Scotsman needs—”

  Edilean went to the door, threw it open, and stood there, waiting for him to leave.

  Angus didn’t move. He knew he should. If he had any sense he would leave the room and never look back, but there was a big part of him that knew this was an opportunity that he’d have only once in his life. No matter what he did now, he knew he couldn’t go back home. He couldn’t go to his sister, and he’d never again toss her children aloft. He’d never again see his uncle Malcolm or any of the rest of the McTern clan.

  “Well?” Edilean asked. “Are you going or staying?”

  “I guess I’ll stay,” he said softly.

  “You’ll go to America with me?”

  “Aye, lass, I will.”

  Edilean turned her back to him as she closed the door and tried to compose her face so he’d not see her joy. She knew she couldn’t stay in England or Scotland, but the thought of going to a new country by herself was almost more than she could bear. When she turned back to him, she had her emotions under control. She looked at him in speculation as she thought how she was going to transform him into looking as though James’s fine clothes weren’t alien to him. But Edilean had nothing with her. She’d worn her nightgown under her dress, and she had a tortoiseshell comb that she’d put into her pocket, but s
he had no scissors or razor.

  As she looked at him she saw his eyes beginning to close. Heaven help her but he was falling asleep standing on his feet! “How did you get the papers from James’s”—she nearly choked on the word—“from his wife?”

  “Laudanum,” he mumbled. “Harcourt passes it out to all his women. He must grow the poppies in his back garden.”

  “If James could afford a garden, I wouldn’t be in this mess,” Edilean said. “Are you telling me that she’s still asleep?”

  “I hope so.”

  She put her hand on the small of his back and pushed him toward the door. “I want you to go back into her room and get what I can use. I need scissors and a comb and a good, sturdy brush, as well as shaving gear.”

  “How am I to find these things?” he asked, waking up a bit. “I don’t know lady’s things.”

  “If you ever cut your hair, you’d know that men also use a comb. And a razor.” As she looked at him she knew that he’d never get all the things they’d need. “How did you get into the bedroom?”

  “Through the window. But I went out the door. If she’s still asleep, the door is unlocked.”

  “Then I’ll go with you. Here, help me get James’s jacket off.”

  “You want to undress the man?”

  “Please don’t start your prudery on me. I’m going to put the jacket on over my nightdress and we’re going down to raid that woman’s room.”

  “You should put on your clothes,” he said rather stiffly.

  “I don’t have time to lace myself into a corset, and I’d never fit into my dress if I don’t put it on. Hurry up! It’s only a few hours ’til dawn, then we must get on the ship.”

  Angus shook his head a few times to clear it of sleep, then helped her get the jacket off of James. Edilean gave him another pinch on his arm when he had only the shirt on. “Dishonorable man!” she said.

  “You fell out of love with him soon enough,” he said.

  “He married someone else and stole my dowry. Those are two things a woman cannot abide.”

  “I’ll remember that the next time a woman loves me.”

  “You should,” she said as she slipped her arms into the heavy coat, and ran her hands down the sleeves. Whatever else was said about James, he had taste. “Are you ready?”

  He was smiling at her. She looked good in her long white gown with the man’s jacket over it. The coat was dark red, with a lining of burgundy silk, and the colors suited her. He picked up the candle and went out the door, Edilean behind him.

  She had no shoes on, and the minute her feet touched the dirty hall floor, she let out a cry, but Angus gave her a hard look and she quit complaining. They went down three flights of stairs in order to reach the ground floor, and Angus went to the door at the far end. He put his fingers to his lips, motioning her to be quiet as he slowly opened the door. He listened for a moment, heard Harcourt’s wife’s slight snore, then waved at Edilean that it was all right to go inside.

  When they were inside and the door closed behind them, the first thing she did was walk to the bed to see the woman. Angus couldn’t help himself, but he stopped her. He knew there was no reason for her not to take a peek at James’s wife, but he didn’t want her to. He knew she’d laugh and be relieved that James was now stuck with an ugly wife, but Angus didn’t want Edilean to see the truth.

  He caught her arm and motioned her to the trunk in the corner of the room. It was small, with a dome-shaped lid, and he had an idea that all their possessions that weren’t already on the ship were in it and it was ready to be taken when they left in the morning.

  When Angus nodded toward the trunk, she went to it and opened it. On the top was a leather case containing shaving gear, and under it looked to be folded-up dresses. When Edilean reached for one of them, Angus shook his head that there wasn’t time to go through the garments. He well knew that she had only the clothes she’d been wearing when she ran away, but he also knew the dresses in the trunk would be much too big for her.

  Reluctantly, Edilean left the dress where it was and took a small sewing kit that was tucked into a tray on the side. It would have scissors in it.

  When Angus started out the door, he thought Edilean was right behind him, but when he looked back, she was at the bed, moving the blanket back to get a look at the sleeping woman. Angus caught her hand just as she was about to see the woman’s face.

  He held her hand until they were outside the door in the hallway.

  “I just wanted to see her!” she said in a loud whisper. “What’s so wrong with that? Both you and James have raved about her beauty and how you want to spend your lives with her, so it was only natural that I’d want to have a look at her.”

  “Spend my life with her?” Angus whispered as they started up the stairs. “Are you truly mad? Were you bitten by a rabid dog?”

  “Yes, one named James Harcourt,” Edilean muttered angrily.

  Angus paused on the stairs, held the candle aloft, and said, “I do believe, lass, that you made a joke.”

  “So I did. Maybe it’s a disease and I’m catching it from you,” she said as she went up the stairs past him, but she was smiling.

  Once they were back in the room, Edilean took off the coat, told Angus to sit down, then walked around him, looking at his head and trying to figure out how to go about it.

  “This is more than you can do,” he said. “I think we should forget this and I should head out to the Highlands tonight.”

  She put her hand on his chest to push him back in the chair. “The best thing would be to shave your head and get a wig.”

  Angus put his hand up to his head in protest.

  “But we don’t have time for that. First, I must comb it, then I’ll cut it. Once it’s tied back, I’ll start on your face. This is going to take hours.”

  Angus wasn’t sure if he’d like someone fiddling with his hair, but the moment she touched him, he relaxed.

  “Go on, go to sleep,” she said. “I don’t need you to make fun of me while I do this job.”

  “Go to sleep with a woman with scissors so near my face? I couldn’t trust you so,” he said, half teasing, half serious. But in the next minute his head nodded forward, and he began to doze.

  Edilean was glad he’d gone to sleep because she could at last relax. It took a lot of energy to pretend to be strong and know what she should do with her life—and what another person should do. In one night she’d gone from being in love with James Harcourt—she glanced at him, still on the floor—to being alone in the world. All she seemed to have now was this man, who’d made it clear many times that he thought she was useless in the world, someone he had to look after night and day.

  When Angus’s head tipped forward on his chest, she got the pitcher of water, filled a glass, and began to slowly comb the thousands of knots out of Angus’s long, thick hair. She hadn’t told him, but she’d never been this close to a man before. Oh, she’d had a few moments with men who stole kisses when no one was looking, James included, but she’d certainly never been in a room alone with a man and touching his hair.

  It took over an hour to get the tangles out. Twice she’d had to use the scissors and snip away a knot that she couldn’t loosen. And several times, he’d nearly awakened when she pulled too hard. But she’d been able to at last get the comb through it, then she trimmed it so it was just shoulder length. She snatched the black silk ribbon off James and put it on Angus’s hair.

  When she finished, she stepped to the front of him to have a look. She could see his forehead now and saw how well shaped it was. She ran her fingers over his cheek, then drew back when he stirred in his sleep and almost woke.

  Next, she had to tackle that hideous beard of his. She was sure that he’d wake up as she began to use the scissors on it, but he didn’t. Yet somehow she knew that if she were to do something like, say, cock a gun, he’d wake in a second. It made her feel good that he trusted her so much that he allowed her to use scissors near
his face.

  It took a while to cut the whiskers down to a length where she could shave them. She had amassed a great pile of hair by then and she gathered it up and tossed it out the window. As she did, she looked at the sky. Morning was coming and with it the sun. It wouldn’t be long before they would be on the ship.

  When Edilean turned back, she drew in her breath. Angus was still asleep, his head against the back of the chair. His hair was no longer standing out around his head but was tied back neatly at the nape of his neck. His beard didn’t spread out until it covered even his neck but was now just a thick stubble of black whiskers.

  She blinked a few times, looking at him hard. She wasn’t sure, but she thought maybe he was handsome. No, not just handsome, but beautiful. Perhaps even better-looking than James, but dark, with black hair and dark lashes.

  She’d often seen her father shave when she was a girl, and she hoped she remembered how to do it. She had no hot water, so she’d have to make do with cold water and James’s scented lather.

  She put the cold lather on his face and he didn’t so much as stir, but when she held the long straight razor to him, he grabbed her wrist, his eyes open and staring. “If I’m to cut your throat, you must release me,” she said calmly.

  “Aye,” he murmured, “murder me in my sleep. I nearly forgot the plan.” He dropped her wrist and went back to sleep.

  She marveled at how he could sleep—and joke—through all this, but he did. He was perfectly still as she shaved him, removing every trace of the hair on his face and neck. When she finished, she stood back and looked at him in disbelief. Angus had heavy black brows, thick lashes, a perfectly formed nose and lips... . She didn’t think she’d ever seen such beautiful lips on a man. They were full and soft, and as sculpted as those on a statue. Beside him, James was ordinary-looking.

  He must be aware of this, she thought. No one could look as he did and not be aware of it. Had he grown that enormous beard to hide his face?

  “Mr. McTern,” she said softly, “it’s time to get up now. You have to get dressed. We’ll get on the ship soon.”

  He didn’t move.