It took forty-five minutes to get James into the trunk and the heavy box on the back of the carriage. Malcolm and Shamus rode on the top front, guiding the four horses, with Tam on the back, and Angus inside with Edilean beside him, Harriet and Prudence across from him. When Angus had told Malcolm the name and address of where they were going, Malcolm smiled. “The lad whose life you saved?” he asked.

“Yes,” Angus answered. “Matthew Aldredge. He’s in Boston now and going to school here.”

“To become a doctor?” Malcolm asked.

Angus nodded. “He’ll know what to do with a dead body.” Angus got inside the carriage beside Edilean.

There’d been a brief scrimmage inside the carriage when Harriet said that it was impossible for Edilean to go out in public wearing the clothes of a man. “Your… your limbs are exposed!” she said.

“Yes, they are.” Edilean extended a leg and looked at it in the breeches that were much too big. “But they feel wonderful. I’m thinking of cutting my hair and dressing as a boy all the time.”

“You’re much too pretty,” Prudence said. “It won’t work.” The solemnity of her voice brought them all back to the present.

“Edilean can stay in the carriage so no one will see her,” Angus said as they pulled out of the courtyard between the house and the carriage shed. He settled back against the seat, looked at Prudence in the dim light, and said, “I want to hear every word of your story.”

She began by apologizing to Angus for her behavior on the night she first met him. “I was unhappy about my marriage and I thought you were one of James’s many creditors.”

Angus shrugged in dismissal and ignored the look Edilean was giving him. This would be something else he’d have to explain, he thought with a grimace.

He still wasn’t used to the look of Prudence. She was a large, mannish-looking woman, with big hands and wide shoulders. The only thing feminine about her was her thick auburn hair.

Harriet reached out and squeezed Prudence’s big hand, and Angus realized that they were sisters-in-law, and it looked as though they were friends as well. “I think I should start,” Harriet said as she looked at Edilean. “Remember about four years ago when you returned from your meeting with Tabitha?”

“Meeting?” Edilean asked. “You mean when I fought her nearly to the death, then spent the night-” She glanced at Angus. “I do believe that I remember that night. After that you were so nervous you jumped at every sound.”

“That’s because James had shown up the day before with papers saying you were his wife.”

“His what?” Edilean asked. “I never married him!”

“I know, but he had marriage papers with your name on them. He told me that he was going to a lawyer to make a case that you and he were married in England, but you’d used his name and his gold to run off with your lover to America.”

“He couldn’t have got away with it,” Edilean said.

“He also had a sworn statement from the captain of the ship you two sailed on that you traveled as Mr. and Mrs. Harcourt. You still used the name Harcourt.”

“But-” Edilean began.

“He had your uncle’s backing,” Prudence said. “I didn’t see it, but I was told that there was a letter from your uncle certifying that you were the wife of James Harcourt.”

Edilean fell back against the cushioned seat. She couldn’t comprehend such outright lies.

Angus took her hand in his and held it. “And what about you?” he asked Prudence. “What happened to you after that night you and I uh… met?”

“I went back to my father’s house, and I’m glad to say that he was happy to see me. Without me there, the few servants we had were running the place, and my father couldn’t even get a decent meal out of them. I put it all back in order and we never spoke of my husband or what happened.”

Angus looked at Harriet. “And you paid James off.”

“It was the only thing I could think to do.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Edilean asked. “I could have handled James.”

“You were so unhappy about whatever had happened that night.” Harriet cut her eyes at Angus. “I couldn’t bear to add to your misery. And you were overwhelmed with the business you were just starting. I couldn’t put more burdens onto you.”

“So you paid him off instead,” Edilean said. “How did you do it?”

Angus squeezed Edilean’s hand, but she didn’t stop looking at Harriet.

“I made a few adjustments in the accounting books. It wasn’t so difficult to do.”

“How much did you give him?” Edilean asked. “Whatever it was, it wouldn’t be enough for James, since he thought he was entitled to all of it.”

“We can talk about numbers later,” Angus said as he looked at Prudence. “What I want to know is how you got back into this and how my family became involved.”

“James killed me,” Prudence said.

Both Angus and Edilean stared at her.

Harriet’s eyes filled with tears as she held Prudence’s hand with both of hers. “It was all my fault.” She looked at Edilean. “You’re right about the money. James kept wanting more and more. I… you paid the rent on a town house in New York and you bought him clothes. You paid his liquor bills. You-”

“For how long?” Edilean asked.

“Until I couldn’t stand it anymore. Three years.”

“I don’t even want to think about how much it totaled,” Edilean said. “Is James the reason our profits were down in the third year of the business?”

“Yes,” Harriet said as tears began to roll down her cheeks. “Edilean, I’m so sorry. You trusted me completely, but I betrayed that trust. I-”

“You saved her,” Angus said impatiently. “How did James-?” He looked at Prudence and softened his voice. “How did he ‘kill’ you? And why? If you were in England, what harm did you do him?”

“When I stopped paying James,” Harriet said, “as you can imagine, he went wild with anger. We had a terrible fight and he swore that he would get me back. He said he was going to go to Edilean’s uncle and get him to help. Remember that Edilean was still under her uncle’s guardianship when she ran off with you.”

“Did he go?” Angus asked.

“Yes,” Prudence said. “I don’t know the full details of that meeting, but I think Lawler laughed at him.”

“That sounds like the man,” Angus said.

“What I do know,” Prudence said, looking at Edilean, “is that your uncle told James that there was nothing he could do because he was married to me.”

“Show them,” Harriet said, looking at Prudence.

After a slight hesitation, she untied the scarf at her bodice and pulled it away. Edilean gasped at the sight of the scar on her throat. It was deep and red and seemed to encircle her entire neck.

“I had just been to the home farm that day,” Prudence said, “as we had a new calf born during the night. I was walking back and two men on horseback came thundering along the road. I stepped to the side, out of their way, but they came so close that I fell backward onto the verge. When I heard one of them dismount, I shouted at him to watch where he was going.”

Harriet held Prudence’s hand tighter.

“The man was large, bigger even than my Shamus.”

At the endearment, Angus tightened his grip on Edilean’s hand but gave no outward sign that he’d heard.

“He… He…” Prudence stopped talking and turned her head away.

“The man put a knotted garrote around her neck and proceeded to strangle her,” Harriet said. “He twisted and pulled until Pru passed out and he thought she was dead.” Harriet took a breath. “While my brother sat on his horse and watched.”

Edilean gasped. “I’m so sorry,” she said to Prudence. “This is all my fault. I was fascinated with James because he wasn’t like the others. He was the only man who didn’t pursue me. If I hadn’t-”

“I’m not going to let you blame yourself,” Harriet said. “Even as a child, my brother was horribly spoiled. Our mother used him against our father.” She waved her hand. “It doesn’t matter now.”