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.

“Sounds it too,” Shamus said. “If we have a war, which side will you be on?”

“The only war is going to come when Edilean sees me again.”

Tam looked down at his own clothes, which were rough to begin with and were now dusty and frayed. “She won’t like us.”

Angus shook his head. “Her quarrel is with me. You’ll be all right. Shall we go and get this over with?”

“Yes, we shall,” Shamus said in his version of an imitation of Angus’s accent, but it came out sounding like a foreign dialect-and it made the four of them laugh.

“Come on, lad,” Malcolm said. “It can’t be as bad as you think it will be. My guess is that by now she’s forgotten all about whatever it was that made her angry in the first place.”

“Perhaps,” Angus said, but he didn’t think that was true.

They piled into a hired carriage and went to the town house where Edilean lived with Harriet Harcourt. At the last moment, Angus felt his knees weaken, but Shamus delighted in pushing him out of the carriage so hard that Angus almost hit the ground. He recovered himself, but his nerves were such that he didn’t even reprimand Shamus.

The three Scotsmen surrounded Angus so he couldn’t escape, and they moved forward up the steps to the front door. As Malcolm pulled the cord for the bell, he put his hand on the small of Angus’s back to steady him.

A pretty maid answered the door.

“We’re here to see Miss Edilean,” Malcolm said, but she just stared at him in consternation.

“Miss Edilean,” Angus said in his English accent.

“Is she expecting you?” the young woman asked, blocking the double doorway.

“We have some fruit to sell her,” Shamus said, then louder. “Fruit, girl! Apples.”

“Ah, yes, fruit. Won’t you come in and I’ll get her.”

She led them into a large, sunlit room with a marble fireplace in one wall. Before it were two high-backed chairs on one side and a settee covered in yellow silk on the other. On the floor was a large carpet with wildflowers woven into the border. It was a truly beautiful room, and the three Scotsmen stood in the doorway staring at it but not entering.

“Come on,” Angus said impatiently. “She won’t want to meet us in the hallway.”

Shamus and Malcolm sat down on the settee and looked about them nervously, while Tam and Angus took the chairs.

“You’ve changed,” Tam said, looking across a little table at Angus.

“Fancy clothes don’t change who a man is inside,” Angus said.

“Then maybe you were like this before you got the clothes.”

“Like what?” Angus asked, frowning.

“Like this room. Like this house. You fit in here.” Tam raised his hand. “And it isn’t just the clothes and that way you can talk. It’s something else.”

Angus wasn’t sure what Tam meant, but he didn’t think that now was the time to ask him more, for he heard Edilean’s voice in the hallway.

“You didn’t ask them who they were?” they heard Edilean say.

“No, ma’am, I forgot.”

“From now on, Lissie, don’t let people into my house unless you know them. Oh, heavens! Don’t look like I’m going to beat you! Go to the kitchen and let Harriet talk to you.”

As they heard the girl’s footsteps retreat, they looked toward the doorway in expectation.

As for Angus, he sank back against the chair, letting the high sides of it hide him from the doorway. He hadn’t been prepared for what the sound of her voice would do to him. It was all he could do to keep from running to her and gathering her in his arms. He didn’t realize how very much he’d missed her! Just plain, old-fashioned missed her. Her humor, her no-nonsense approach to life, her strong likes and dislikes. He remembered how she’d won the battle that he was going to America with her. And she’d been right. If he’d stayed in Scotland he was sure that by now he’d be in prison.

“And how may I help you on this-?”

He heard Edilean’s voice but couldn’t see her for the wing on the chair, but he knew she’d stopped when she saw Malcolm, Shamus, and Tam.

“Oh!” she said, and there was delight in her voice. “Oh, how lovely! I never thought I’d ever see you again. I-”

She broke off when she saw Angus in the far chair.

Slowly, he bent forward and looked at her. She was as beautiful as ever, maybe more so. She had on a long linen smock over her dress, and her hair was disarranged so that wispy tendrils hung about her face. He wanted to hold her, kiss her.

“You!” Edilean said, then she turned and ran from the room.

With a groan, Angus started to get out of the chair.

“Sit!” Malcolm said. “You said you’d do this and you’re going to.”

“She hates me.”

“I didn’t hear that in her voice,” Malcolm said. “Did you, Tam?”

He was starry-eyed, looking as young as he had when Angus last saw him. “She’s prettier than I remembered. How could you do anything to hurt her?” Tam glared at Angus.

“I didn’t hurt her on purpose!” Angus said. “I hurt her to save her from something worse.”

“And what would that be?” Tam asked, his voice hostile.

Before Angus could answer, they heard the scurry of feet in the hallway.

“She’s coming back,” Tam said and he sat up straighter.

It wasn’t Edilean who entered the room, but three serving girls carrying huge trays. They set one on a table in the center of the room, then pulled two other tables beside it and put the other trays on them. It was a lavish tea, with huge blue and white china pots full of steaming hot tea, and dishes covered with little sandwiches, scones, cookies, and cakes with colored icing.

As soon as the girls had set the trays down, they left the room, shutting the doors behind them.

Malcolm was the first to recover his astonishment. “Don’t look like she’s mad at you at all. Come on, lads, let’s have something to eat.” He picked up a teapot and filled four cups.

Shamus and Tam eagerly took plates and began to fill them, but Angus held back.

Tam ate three little tea sandwiches in rapid succession, then turned to look at Angus in admiration. “Whatever you did to her, it couldn’t have been too bad. Look at this food.”

Angus was still frowning, but part of him was beginning to relax. Maybe Edilean had seen the handbills. Maybe she’d realized why Angus left. Perhaps she even thought more of him for having given up so much to protect her.

Malcolm held out a cup of tea to Angus. “Come on, lad, drink it while it’s hot.”

Angus reached for the cup but halted when he heard a thud outside the parlor door. It sounded as though something heavy had been dropped on the floor.

“Unless I miss my guess,” Malcolm said, “that was a piece of baggage. Looks like this time she doesn’t mean to let you leave alone.”

Angus took the cup of tea and downed it in one gulp as two more thuds came.

“She’s certainly planning something,” Tam said, now looking at Angus as though he were the epitome of manhood. “What did you do to make her… well, to want you.”