“I understand,” she said as she looked down at her hands on her lap, then back up at him. “But what if you and I fell in love?”

For a moment, Angus looked shocked, then he smiled at her in a patronizing way. “You didn’t love me when I was wearing what you called a woman’s dress. And not long ago you were saying that you hated me. Do you know what a time I had getting off that roof after you locked me there?”

“No,” she said. “I was too busy trying to keep from freezing in my wet clothes from where you’d thrown me in the horse trough.”

“That’s not a deed I’m proud of,” he said. “But, lass, you must listen to what I’m saying. You look at me now in these fine clothes, with my hair tied back and my face shaved, and you laugh and flirt with me and you talk about love. If you love anything, it’s the clothes, certainly not the man. Under this silk, I’m still just a poor Scotsman and I’d embarrass you in front of your fine friends.”

“I think you’re my-”

“Your savior,” Angus said. “You think I’m the man who rescued you from a fate worse than death. Aye, I know all that, lass, but never forget that I did no such thing. All I was going to do was get the minister drunk and maybe save you from one night. It was an accident that I got on that wagon and found you in that coffin.”

“Nasty, dirty thing,” Edilean muttered. “I think it was half full of sawdust and when I got in it the dust billowed up around me and nearly smothered me. But by then I’d already taken that awful laudanum James had given me, so I could barely stay awake long enough to pull the lid over me.”

“The fright you gave us when you sat up in that coffin!” Angus said. “I swear my heart stopped.”

“You knew who I was, so you knew I wasn’t dead.”

“I thought maybe your uncle’d murdered you to get your dowry.”

“So you thought I was a ghost?”

“I did until you started complaining about the dirt and telling me that I’d again done something you didn’t like.”

“I did, didn’t I?” Edilean said. “I think it was the dust up my nose that woke me, and I heard shouting and my head ached. Then when I woke up and saw you there and not Shamus, I-”

“You could not have chosen anyone worse to help you. If you had combed all of Glasgow and Edinburgh, you could not have found anyone less heroic than Shamus.”

“But you saved me-reluctantly, mind you-but you did save me, and now you tell me I must be careful not to touch you.”

He could tell by her tone that she was laughing at him. “I’m saying that for my sanity, you must not tempt me more than I can bear.”

“I will do my best,” she said, smiling, “although I think the real reason you were staring at those women this morning was because of that pretty one with the fat chest.”

“The-?” He was smiling. “Oh, aye, I do like a fat chest. More to strap into one of those whalebone things you wear.” He glanced at her chest, which though not “fat” was certainly full enough.

“Now who is flirting and teasing?”

“Ah, but you are not tempted by me,” Angus said. “That is a great difference.” There was a knock on the door and he got up to answer it.

As he walked across the room, all six feet plus of him, she looked at the way the fabric clung to his heavily muscled thighs. She was not tempted by him? Was he insane?

“The captain had me bring these to you,” the officer said. “He thought you might need them.”

Behind him four seamen carried two heavy trunks.

“Put them in that corner,” Edilean said from behind Angus. “And thank you for bringing them.”

The seamen looked at Edilean as though they’d never seen a woman before, and backed out of the room with their caps in their hands.

“I guess if you were a sailor you’d be like those men,” she said as she went to the trunks.

“If I were them and a beautiful woman was on the ship, I’d do what I could to get her to notice me.”

“But not now and not me?” Edilean asked, curious.

Angus gave her a look of great sadness. “Alas, I have come to know you. Knowledge of the lies and betrayals, of the injustice done to you, hinders my advances.”

Edilean couldn’t help laughing. “As if you care! Shall we see what James has stolen for us?” As she said it, they felt the ship move, and for a moment she lost her balance and almost fell, but Angus caught her arm.

“Do you get seasick?” he asked.

“I don’t know. I’ve only been on little boats on lakes that were as still as glass. What about you?”

“I don’t know either,” he said.

Smiling at each other, they turned their attention to the trunks and unfastened the latches. The one she opened had been in the room of James’s wife.

Edilean gasped when she saw that in the bottom were folded what looked to be many dresses, each one more beautiful than the other.

Angus watched as she pulled one dress after another from the trunk and admired it, exclaiming over embroidered silks in beautiful colors of apricot and golden yellow. “These are divine,” she said. “Truly beautiful. I’ve never seen dresses more exquisite than these. They’re-”

She stopped when she saw some papers in the trunk, and as she read them, her face turned angry.

“What is it?”

“Look at this!” She thrust the papers at him.

“I can read the numbers, but I don’t know what it says,” he said stiffly.

“I can tell you what it says. That blasted-may he rot in hell!-James Harcourt charged all his wife’s dresses to me. The name on these bills is mine.”

Angus gave her a one-sided smile. “He thought he’d be gone so you’d have to pay for dresses that you never got, but now he’ll be charged for dresses he doesn’t have.”

For a moment Edilean stared at him, then she started laughing. “That is good! My dressmaker in London said she is so sick of people not paying that she’s hired men with clubs to go after them. I can assure you that I paid her in a very timely manner.”

Angus threw back the lid to the second trunk, and when he looked inside he saw James’s clothes. Digging down through them, he pulled a piece of paper from the bottom and handed it to her.

Edilean grinned. “Also charged to my account. James’s name but mine under it as cosigner for his debt.”

They laughed again, and she turned back to the trunk to see what else was in it. “Oh, my,” she said when she got to the bottom. “Look at this.” She opened a large, thin, dark blue box and held it out to him. “It’s a parure.”

“A paw-roo?” he asked, saying the word with the French pronunciation she gave it. “What’s that?” He took the box from her and looked at the contents. Inside, neatly arranged on satin, was a matching set of diamond jewelry. There was a necklace with two strands, the bottom one making scallops on the edge, and three bracelets. The earrings had hanging diamonds, and a large brooch had a gem that was as big as his thumb.

“What is it?” he asked. “Other than jewelry, but is it something special?”

“James’s new wife was an earl’s daughter, wasn’t she? It’s my guess that this was her mother’s and hers before her, and I’d be willing to bet that James knew nothing about it. If he had, I think he would have pawned it. Let me see it,” she said, taking it from him, then she removed an earring and used her nails to unlatch a tiny hook. “See? They can be worn as drops or as a cluster.” She put the earring back in its place. “I would imagine that all the pieces are like that. The brooch can probably be worn as it is or as two clips or as one smaller piece, and the necklace can probably be changed from one strand to two. Jewelers are such clever people.” She handed the box back to him.

“What do I do with it? You can wear these to dinner tonight.”

She was looking in the trunk. “I’d rather shave my head than wear any of those.”

Angus carefully put the box on the floor beside her.

“You must keep them,” she said.

“Me? What would I do with them?”