She gave him a look of astonishment. “Don’t you know that wearing diamond earrings is the latest fashion for men in London? I’m sure the captain will have on his tonight.”

Angus blinked a couple of times, then smiled. “Oh, lass, you almost had me that time. These things are for a woman and you should wear them.”

Edilean sat back on the floor. “But I won’t wear them. They belong to another woman and I won’t have them on me.”

He picked up the jewel case and started to put it back into her trunk. “Then we’ll send them back to her.”

“They don’t belong to her that much!” Edilean said. “For all I know, she and James were working together. I want you to take those jewels. If you won’t take gold from me, then take those. Do what you want with them. Sell them and buy some land, some cows, pigs, whatever you want.”

“Or give them to my wife?” he asked softly.

“It’s my observation that your taste in women runs to ones who are too fat to get them around their necks,” Edilean said, giving him a false smile.

He laughed. “I don’t think-”

“Don’t you dare tell me you can’t keep them! You’ve done a lot and risked a great deal. You can’t be so proud as to make yourself end up in a new country without a penny to your name. What will you do? Sell yourself as a bound man? It would be seven years before you’re free. But then, perhaps your employer will be kind and not beat you too often, and maybe he’ll give you a pound or two when you leave his employment.”

“You have a sharp tongue on you.”

“It’s been sharpened by men who look at me and see only gold.”

Angus didn’t say anything for a moment but looked at her with soft eyes. Her hair was falling down about her face and he couldn’t resist pushing it back behind her ear. “I see gold but not what you find in a bank. This is worth more than gold.”

“Dignitas praeter aurum,” Edilean said, translating what he’d said into Latin. For a moment they looked at each other in silence, then Edilean remembered all that he’d said to her just minutes ago about keeping her distance. She broke eye contact, looked at the dress on her lap, and held it up between them. “This woman is as big as you are. How will I ever make the dresses fit me?”

Angus put his hand on hers and made her lower the dress. “Thank you,” he said. “I’ll take the jewelry. It is more than generous of you to give me this.”

To hide her blushes, she leaned over so her face was inside the trunk. “You gave up a great deal more for me than just a pile of ugly old jewelry.”

“So that’s it, is it? The lot of them are out of fashion?”

“Horribly so. My grandmother-if I had one-wouldn’t wear those things.” The lightness was back between them, and she was relieved. As she pulled the last gown out of the trunk, she said, “What will you do when you get to America?”

“I haven’t had time to think about it.” He stood up, stretching, towering over her. “I guess I’d like to buy a piece of land.” He glanced at the jewel case on the floor by his feet. “I’ve thought that I might ask my sister to come to America to be with me.”

“And Tam,” Edilean said.

“Tam?” Angus asked. “The boy who was in love with you?”

“All the Scots were in love with me,” she said. “Except you.”

Angus smiled. “I think they were. Even my uncle Malcolm adored you.”

She raised her hand to him, and as he helped pull her up, for a second they looked into each other’s eyes.

“What do you say that we go to the top and see the wind in the sails?”

“I would love that.”

“But I must keep you safe,” he said, smiling at her. In the next second, he picked up the jewel set and looked about the room. He saw some cabinet doors under the big window, opened one, and put the case inside, standing it on its side so that it couldn’t be seen at first glance.

“And why is my safety so important?” she asked when he joined her at the door.

“To protect my wee bairn,” he said, as he offered her his arm and opened the door. They laughed together as they left the room.

11

AS CAPTAIN INGES watched the young couple walk about the deck, he sighed. He and his wife had been like that once. He saw the way the tall Harcourt hovered over the beautiful young woman, his eyes only on her, listening to every word she said. As for her, she looked at him as though he’d hung the moon.

“Nice couple.”

The captain turned to his first mate, Mr. Jones, and nodded. This was their third voyage together and he liked the young man. “Yes, they are. Reminds me of my wife and me when we were that age.”

“I would like to find a woman who looked at me like that,” Mr. Jones said.

“That, or would you like a woman who looks like her?”

“Both,” Mr. Jones said, smiling. “Do you think they’ve been married long?”

“My guess is that it’s been hours, but maybe it’s been years. Who knows?”

He and Mr. Jones stood by the rail and watched the young couple as they walked about the deck, looking at the sea that was rushing past them. The wind was good and they were moving quickly. At this rate they’d be in Boston in just three weeks.

When Mrs. Harcourt stood on tiptoes to look over the side of the ship, both the captain and Mr. Jones held their breaths. She looked so small and she was leaning over quite far. She must have worried Mr. Harcourt too because he put his hands on her waist and held her so she wouldn’t fall. When she turned and said something to him, he shook his head no. She spoke again and he shook his head more vigorously. When she frowned at him, Mr. Harcourt’s shoulders slumped for a moment, but then he lifted her up so she could see farther over the side. She held her arms straight out for a moment and let the wind hit her in the face.

When Mr. Harcourt put her down on deck again, the captain and Mr. Jones let out their pent-up breaths.

“She does get her way, doesn’t she?” Mr. Jones said.

“I think perhaps that young man would do anything in the world for her. Walk into fire, throw himself in front of a cannon. Whatever she needed, he might do it.”

“So would I,” Mr. Jones said. “If I had a wife who looked like her I’d-”

“Mr. Jones,” Captain Inges said, “I’m not talking about looks, I’m talking about love.”

“Yes, sir,” Mr. Jones said. “Excuse me, sir.”

The captain left the deck and went below.

“My wife told me that she can sing but I’ve never heard her,” Angus said to the captain as they sat at the dining table with him and Mr. Jones.

“Haven’t heard your own wife sing?” Mr. Jones asked in astonishment, and looked at the captain.

“We married quickly,” Angus said.

“Yes,” Edilean said. “Our first meeting was memorable and our second was explosive. We’ve rarely been apart since then.”

Angus put his napkin to his lips to cover his smile at her words, and his eyes twinkled. In spite of his misgivings and apprehensions-none of which he’d told Edilean-he’d done well at the captain’s dinner. There were just the four of them, the kindly captain, young Mr. Jones, and Edilean and Angus. He had been concerned about holding up his end of the conversation and being able to keep up the English accent he was using. Sometimes he forgot himself and lapsed back into his natural Scottish burr.

But he needn’t have worried, for Edilean kept the talk going. As he watched her, he saw that she was adept at drawing people out. It had been his experience that pretty girls came to think that they didn’t have to do anything but sit still and be seen. And due to some extensive traveling he’d done in his youth, he’d seen several lady hostesses.

He watched her as she got Mr. Jones talking about himself, then pulled the captain into the conversation. Angus was sure that by the end of the meal both men knew more about each other than they had before they sat down.