“No. You’re not leaving until you’ve eaten and slept. I want to make sure you’re all right.”

“Oh, so now you’re a doctor?”

“If you didn’t think I could take care of you, why did you come here? Why didn’t you go to your expensive house and let Harcourt’s sister take care of you?”

He was glad when her eyes flashed fire. It was better than coldness. “Are you forgetting the reason I went to that band of outlaws in the first place?”

“To make me look like a fool?”

“I didn’t have to work very hard to do that, did I?”

They glared at each other, neither speaking. After several minutes, Angus opened a cabinet, withdrew a clean shirt, and tossed it at her. “That’s all you get for now. I want you to stay in that bed and rest.” His voice was angry, but then he stopped and his eyes softened. “Edilean, whatever possessed you to do something like that?”

It was on the tip of her tongue to say “love,” but she didn’t. “I told you that I wanted to repay the debt I owed you,” she said as she slipped the big shirt over her head.

“That’s it?”

“That’s all of it, and we’re even now. I no longer have to feel guilty that you left everyone you loved because of me. You can buy land and start a McTern village, and you can bring all your friends and relatives here to America. And once again you can be the laird of a clan. You can strut about and have them all look at you in adoration.”

“Is that what you think I want?” he asked softly.

“I have no idea what you want,” she said. “I’m not part of your clan.”

He started to reply but instead he went to the door. “Now’s not the time to argue this out. I want you to sleep, and I’ll send word to Harcourt’s sister that you’re safe.”

The moment he left the room, Edilean realized how very tired she was. At the moment she couldn’t remember why she’d had Cuddy take her to Angus. She knew she should have returned to Harriet, to her own bed, but right now she was too tired to care where she was. She slid down in the bed and was asleep instantly.

Angus stood outside for a few minutes, his head back against the wall, his eyes closed. That he’d been so careless that he’d allowed the jewels to be stolen was humiliating enough, but that Edilean had found them and brought them back to him was almost more than he could stand. He’d been bested by a girl!

He looked back into the room and checked on her. As he thought, she was sound asleep. He pulled the cover higher over her and smoothed her hair out of her face.

He didn’t know it was possible to love anyone as much as he loved her.

Since the moment he’d met her, she’d taken over his mind, his heart-his very life. He’d fought the feelings she awoke in him. In Scotland he’d fought hard against his desire to be with her, to look at her beautiful face, to just be near her. His anger that she’d come into his life and taken it over so completely had shown itself in ways that were out of character for him. He regretted that he’d sometimes reacted with violence-if dropping her into a horse trough could be considered violent.

No one had told him that love could produce feelings other than happiness. He’d thought that when a person fell in love he’d… He wasn’t sure what he’d thought. That he’d hear angels singing?

But Edilean had produced every emotion in him-except at ten times their normal strength. When the rustlers stole a dozen sheep during the night the rage they produced in him was nothing compared to what he’d felt near Edilean. Anger, happiness, weakness, strength. He felt everything when she was near. She made him sure that he was the biggest, wisest, most honorable man who’d ever lived. Then in the next minute she made him feel lower than a worm.

Shaking his head, he touched her cheek, and she moved in her sleep. He couldn’t describe what he’d felt when he saw that boy with an unconscious Edilean in his arms. Angus had thought he’d never see her again. He’d told himself that if he did hear she was to marry, he’d be glad for her. But just the sight of a boy touching her had sent him into feelings of murder. If Angus had been one of his ancestors he would have sliced the boy’s head from his shoulders before even asking a question.

But all Angus’s thoughts and feelings had turned to fear when he saw how battered she was, her beautiful face hidden under layers of dirt and blood.

Reluctantly, Angus left his bedroom to go into the tavern to work. He’d told Edilean a lie when he said he planned to buy the place. The truth was that he hated it. Serving beer and food all day, listening to endless complaints about everything from how hot the water was to how cold the food was, sickened him.

When he’d discovered the jewels were missing, he went into a rage that would have killed a lesser man, but on the night he slipped into her room, he believed he’d hidden everything from Edilean. He would have died before he let her see what a fool he’d been to have let them be stolen. The worst thing was that he couldn’t figure out where and when. He’d spent days retracing his steps to look for them-to look for whoever had stolen them-but he came up empty. He could ask no one anything. Who was going to admit to having even seen the jewels?

Of course he’d thought of the women prisoners on the ship, but he’d naively thought that… Well, that they wouldn’t steal from him. Or maybe he just didn’t want Edilean to be right about Tabitha. He’d liked believing in Tabitha’s innocence and Edilean’s jealousy.

But Edilean had been right, and she’d figured out what Angus couldn’t-and she’d done something about it.

Reluctantly, he went into the tavern. As always, there was so much work to be done that it was sundown before he realized it. Suddenly, it hit him what a fool he was. He was in the tavern and Edilean was in his room.

“What’re you smilin’ about?” the barmaid, Dolly, asked as she filled three pewter mugs of beer from the barrel behind the bar.

“Love,” he said, and broke into a bigger grin. He looked across the bar at the tired travelers in the room, then he put his hands on Dolly’s sizable waist and gave her a resounding kiss on the cheek. “I won’t be working anymore today. In fact, I may never work in here again.”

“The boss’ll have your hide!”

“If he can find me, maybe he will.”

In the next minute Angus was back in his room.

When he opened the door, Edilean was just waking up. “I feel awful,” she murmured. “Every muscle in my body hurts.”

“Let me see,” he said as he sat on the edge of the bed and pulled back the cover. He touched her shoulders through the shirt, his fingers gently massaging her.

“Angus…” she whispered.

“Yes, what is it?” he asked, his face full of concern.

“If I don’t go to the privy I’m going to explode.”

He withdrew his hands, laughing. “Always practical, aren’t you?”

“I’m well past practical. You have to leave so I can dress.”

“Does that mean petticoats, corset, stockings, all of it? And of course I’ll have to help you with the corset.”

“I got a new one that laces up the front, but it would still take too long. I’ll never make it,” she said.

In a swift gesture, he picked her up, blanket and all. “Hide your face and no one will see what I’m carrying.”

“Except that my feet are sticking out,” she said.

“And such adorable feet.”

Her head was under the blanket, and all she could see was his face. “Where are you taking me?”

“I’m carrying you into the bushes, what do you think? Or would you rather share our four-holer?”

“Bushes,” she said. “Angus, what’s going on? Has…” She hesitated. “Has something changed?” She knew she was pushing him, trying to make him say what she so wanted to hear, that he’d at last realized he loved her and wanted to spend his life with her.

“No, nothing’s changed,” he said. “It’s the same as it was.” He was smiling. He knew what she wanted him to say, but not yet. He’d told her the truth. Nothing had changed. He still loved her just as he did before they parted.