21

NO, NO, NO, no!” Angus said, his words echoing off the cave walls. “I will not do it. I refuse. And that’s the last time I’m saying it.”

Last night, a fire had made the cave almost homelike. Mac had taken Angus’s horse and was on his way back to the fort to get help, while T.C., Matt, and Naps had stayed with Angus. Thanks to Matt’s surgery and the plants that T.C. had found, Naps was resting comfortably, passing drowsily in and out of consciousness from the brew that T.C. had given him.

Tam, Shamus, Malcolm, and Angus sat around the fire and talked in the Scottish burr that the other men couldn’t quite make out.

They’d spent hours exchanging stories. Angus made them all laugh uproariously with his account of how he got rooked into helping Edilean escape her uncle’s treacherous plan. The first time he said her name, his breath caught and he didn’t know if he could go on, but the second time was easier. By the time he was well into his story, he was smiling and remembering it all fondly.

He started telling the men about James Harcourt’s wife’s ugliness and how she’d tried to get him to stay in bed with her, but Malcolm cut him off by sending a burning branch flying. When they got it cleaned up, Malcolm asked about James, so Angus told of hitting James on the head with a candlestick. “And Edilean shaved me,” he said in an almost dreamy voice.

“She shaved your beard off?” Shamus said. “I knew there was something different about you.”

Throughout the story, Shamus kept shaking his head and muttering, “A wagonload of gold. The trunks were full of gold.” He sounded as though he couldn’t believe what he was hearing—and what he’d lost.

Angus told of dressing in James’s clothes and boarding the ship. For a few moments he was silent as he let himself remember the time with Edilean on the ship. He thought of tying her corset, of teasing her, of making her laugh. He could see it all so clearly that it was almost as though he could touch her.

“Angus!” Tam said, bringing him back to where he was.

Angus smiled, even though he hardly recognized him. Tam had grown until he was as tall as Angus. He was no longer the boy who trailed after his bigger, older cousin. In the four years that they’d been separated, Tam had become a man, and Angus regretted that he’d not been there to see him grow and change. But then, Angus wondered if his going was the reason that Tam had grown up so quickly. With Angus gone, Tam was now the one to inherit... What? Angus thought. There was nothing left of the McTern clan to inherit but the responsibility.

“I’ve entertained you enough,” Angus said at last. “You didn’t come all the way across the ocean just to hear my stories. What have you come for?”

“We—” Shamus began, but when Malcolm gave him a hard look he closed his mouth.

“Kenna thanks you for the silk dress you sent her,” Tam said.

“And how is she?” Angus tried to keep his voice steady as he thought about the sister who’d once been so close to him. “How many children does she have now?”

“Six,” Malcolm said. “She liked that the dress you sent her had...” He didn’t quite know what to say.

“An expandable front,” Angus said.

“Ah, so that’s what she meant,” Malcolm said, then sipped his coffee and was silent.

“What are the lot of you up to?” Angus asked suspiciously. “How did you even find me?”

“That was easy enough,” Shamus said. “What with your picture everywhere, there were a lot of people with information about you.”

Angus grimaced.

“That’s true,” Malcolm said slowly. “But it’s also true that we wanted to see you.” He glanced at the leather clothes Angus had on. “This country suits you.”

“When you can stay alive,” Shamus said.

“Out with it!” Angus said loudly, making the men on the far side of the cave jump. Even Naps stirred in his sleep.

“Miss Edilean’s uncle died,” Tam said.

“Did he?” Angus said and couldn’t help a bit of a smile. It was one less person who was after him.

“And he left all his property to Miss Edilean.”

“Good,” Angus said, looking from one to the other of them, but they were silent. “You want to buy the place from her, don’t you?”

“For a peppercorn a year,” Malcolm said quickly.

“I think she’d agree to that.”

“She don’t need the money,” Shamus said, “not with all those slave girls of hers.”

“Slaves?” Angus said. “I can’t imagine that Edilean would own a slave.”

“That’s not what he meant,” Malcolm said, glaring at Shamus to keep his mouth shut. “Miss Edilean has... Well, it’s...” He looked at Tam for help.

“She started a business in Boston called ‘Bound Girl.’ ”

Angus looked at him in astonishment. “Are you saying that she opened a... a house of... ?”

“Did this new country put your mind in the gutter?” Malcolm snapped. “Miss Edilean is a lady. Mind what you say about her, boy!”

“Or you’ll turn me over your knee?” Angus asked, smiling at the familiarity of it all.

Tam leaned forward. “She sells the best and the most vegetables and fruit in Boston. She has a company that she owns and runs with the help of women who used to be indentured servants.”

“I like her handbill,” Shamus said, grinning.

“What’s he talking about?” Angus asked.

“Well,” Tam said slowly, “Miss Edilean does have a rather, uh, enticing sign for her business.”

“A girl,” Shamus said, “big and healthy, with her sleeves rolled up. Good muscles on her, and she’s got—” He made a gesture to show a large bosom. “Damn handsome woman!”

They all looked at Shamus for a moment, then turned back to Angus. “Is this true? Edilean runs a business?”

“From what we were told, she has over a hundred employees, all women, and she owns half a dozen farms,” Malcolm said. “How long has it been since you’ve seen her?”

“Four years, three months, and twenty-two days,” Angus said quickly, then looked embarrassed. “I think. It’s just a guess.”

“You always were good at guessing,” Malcolm said but lowered his head to hide his smile.

“So Edilean started a business,” Angus said in wonder. “And it’s doing well?”

“Very well,” Malcolm said. “She earns a lot of money, and she’s used it to set up a couple of houses for women without husbands, widows and such. She helps a lot of women.”

“There were nine bound women on the ship when we came over,” Angus said, staring at the fire, remembering. “But Edilean didn’t like them. She hired one of them to do some sewing for her, but I could tell that she had no intention of keeping her on after the voyage. Funny how you think you know someone but don’t. I can’t imagine Edilean running a business and certainly not hiring women like them.”

When his head came up, he was smiling. “She got into a fight—a bloody fistfight—with one of the prisoners named Tabitha. Edilean—”

“Big girl? Pretty?” Tam asked.

“Yes,” Angus said. “You didn’t meet her, did you?”

“If she’s the Tabitha we heard about, she’s Miss Edilean’s farm manager,” Tam said. “She runs all the farms and she doesn’t take any guff off anyone.”

Angus’s mouth dropped open. “Edilean and Tabitha work together?”

“What did they fight about?” Shamus asked, his eyes alight at the thought.

“Diamonds,” Angus said, and looked back at Malcolm and Tam. “Edilean and Tabitha together. What a world this is! Tell me, is Edilean still living with Harriet Harcourt?”

“Oh, yes,” Tam said. “Harriet takes care of the money for all of the business.”

Angus narrowed his eyes at them. “How long have you three been in this country?”

“A while,” Malcolm said.

“Over three months,” Shamus said. “It took some time to find you. It wasn’t hard, mind you, but it took time. Did you know that we could turn you in for a thousand pounds?”

When Angus started to say something, Tam interrupted. “Don’t worry, James Harcourt is taken care of. His sister Harriet pays him to stay away from Miss Edilean.”

“She does what?”

“Pays him to stay away,” Shamus said loudly, as though Angus were deaf. “Gives him a remittance. It’s common enough.”

“Are you telling me that the lot of you have spent three months snooping into Edilean’s private affairs?”

Malcolm looked at Tam who looked at Shamus, then they all looked back at Angus. “Yes,” Malcolm said. “That’s just what we’ve been doing.”

“And what does Edilean know of this?”

“Nothing,” Tam said. “We were careful to stay out of her sight. And that wasn’t easy, as she runs around in her little carriage constantly. I remember one morning I was walking down the street and there she was. I was sure she’d recognize me, but she was having it out with some man about some fruit—she doesn’t like for it to be bruised—so she didn’t see me.”

The story was so like Edilean that it caused a pain in Angus’s chest. “Has she—? I mean, are there... ?”

“Men?” Shamus asked, then when the others glared at him, he threw up his hands. “What’s the problem with all of you? I think you should get on with it and tell him.”

“Tell me what?” Angus asked.

“We worked with a lawyer,” Malcolm said, and turned to Tam. “You tell him.”

“We thought that since Miss Edilean is so rich, what with the gold and the business, we might persuade her to give the McTern estate back to us. We don’t think she wants it. It means nothing to her.”

“You told me that, and I said that you won’t have any trouble. Edilean has a very generous nature. I’m sure she’ll give you the rotting old place even without the peppercorn. Don’t tell me you’re afraid to ask her.”

“It’s not that...” Tam said, looking at Malcolm.

Angus turned to Shamus. “Would you tell me what they can’t seem to get out?”

Shamus opened his mouth to speak, but Malcolm blurted out the truth. “You’re wanted for kidnapping her, so she has to swear before a judge that she ran off with you of her own free will. Once you’re cleared, she can give the place to you because you’re the laird, then you can give it to Tam, as he’s next in line.”

“I see,” Angus said. He sat still for a moment, then got up and walked to the back of the cave. Naps was asleep, but T.C. and Matt looked wide awake as they listened to what the Scotsmen were saying. Angus didn’t know how much they could understand, but from the looks on their faces, they were getting the gist of what was going on. Angus thought of the words kidnapping and wanted that were being bandied about.

He looked back at Malcolm. “You’re saying that you want me to go to Edilean and ask her to tell a judge that I didn’t kidnap her, and that she went with me of her own free will.”

“Exactly,” Malcolm said brightly. “She could give the place directly to Tam, but he’s not the laird. It has to go down the line, all in proper order.”

“And the problem with that is that I’m thought to be a criminal.”

“Lawler was the only one who had any right to want you dead,” Tam said.

“That’s because it was his niece and his gold that you stole,” Shamus said.

“I didn’t—” Angus began, but then stopped. “I’m sorry, but I can’t do what you want.”

“Why not?” Tam asked, his face showing his anger. “You want to keep being the laird even though you live here?”

“Of course not!” Angus said, but he thought about Tam’s words. To give up his birthright? Could he do that? He’d spent most of his life trying to give honor back to the name that his grandfather had almost destroyed, so could he just walk away from it?

“He won’t do it,” Tam said to Malcolm. “I told you he wouldn’t.”

“Do you want to go back to Scotland?” Malcolm asked softly, looking at Angus. “Is that what you want, lad?”

Angus glanced at them and knew he couldn’t say what was in his mind. They were so fresh off the boat from the old country that they still smelled of heather, but Angus had been in America for years, and he liked the feeling that a man could do or be anything. Right now, if he waited long enough, he’d get a thousand acres. The land would be his own, and he could do with it whatever he wanted. In Scotland, nothing had belonged to him, and what he did was always overseen by others. Even now, if he were given charge of the McTern lands, he’d still be expected to look out for hundreds of people. No, he didn’t want to go back. “No,” he said at last. “I want to stay here.”

Tam’s face lost its angry look and he seemed a bit ashamed of the way he’d nearly attacked his cousin.

“So then you will go back with us to see Miss Edilean,” Malcolm said, smiling in relief.

“Sorry,” Angus said, “but I can’t do that.”

“Why not?” Tam asked. “You don’t like her?”

Angus gave a little guffaw at that absurdity. “She doesn’t like me,” he said.

“You had a spat,” Malcolm said. “That’s understandable. Is that why you’re here and she’s there?”

“Are you two married or not?” Shamus asked. “And why are you called Harcourt?”

“It’s a long story,” Angus said.

“I got time,” Shamus said, “and I like a good lie if it’s well told.”

“It’s all true and I’m telling you that I cannot go to Edilean and ask anything of her. She... Well, the truth is that she hates me.”

“From what the captain of the Mary Elizabeth told us, that’s not true,” Tam said.

“He said you two were together every minute.” The familiar smirk was back on Shamus’s face. “Did you—” He made a vulgar gesture.

Angus got to his feet, his fists clenched, but before Shamus could get up, Malcolm called them down. “Sit!” he ordered Angus. “And you stay where you are.” He ran his hand over his face. “You two have been fighting since you were born.”

“You jealous, old man?” Shamus said, still with his fists clenched and ready to take on Angus.

“Old man,” Malcolm said under his breath, then raised his head. “I’m young enough to deal with you two.” He looked at Angus. “You have to go to Miss Edilean and ask her to do this.”

“You’re not understanding the problem,” Angus said. “I’m more than willing to ask her, but if I went to her, she’d say no just to get me back.”

“For what?” Tam and Shamus said in unison.

“Nothing that I plan to talk about.”

Malcolm took a deep breath. “We all have our problems with women, but they can be made up.”

“Have the papers drawn up and I’ll sign whatever you want,” Angus said.

“No. We were told that a judge must see you with Miss Edilean to make sure that you’re both telling the truth.”

“That won’t work,” Angus said firmly. “Edilean will tell them to arrest me.”

“Maybe if you tell us what happened, we can do something about it,” Malcolm said, his voice full of exaggerated patience. All of them, even the two men sitting against the far wall, looked at Angus.

Angus thought about how he’d made love to Edilean, then left her there. He remembered the horrible things he’d said to her servant—which, no doubt, he’d told Edilean. Yes, Angus had had a reason for everything he did, but still, the result was not something that a woman would forgive.

“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 talk 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.”