Chapter Three #2
Isadora clutched her arm to her chest, the one that the bracelet was on, feeling something she’d thought she’d never feel again.
She’d felt it, once, because in the years since the time she’d first met Cam, she’d briefly considered giving her affections to a young man with rosy cheeks and a sly smile.
She’d become rather fond of him, even expressing her interest to her father.
But any hopes for a romance had ended when the young man made it clear that he wanted a wife to tend his home and his children, not rob travelers in the vale or have skill with a sword.
He’d ended up marrying a foolish chit with big breasts and a ridiculous giggle, and the heartbreak had sent Isadora deeper into the world of swords and battles.
Still, there had moments when she wished she could have been the kind of woman that young man had wanted, but Cam seemed to have no such reservations about a tough lass from the hills.
He would take her as she was.
Only you.
“It seems strange,” she said after a moment. “We’ve not known each other a long time, yet I feel as if I’ve always known ye.”
Reaching up, he pulled her off the rock, down onto the ground next to him. The ground was cold and damp, but his arms were big and warm as he wrapped them around her slender body. Isadora should have resisted purely for propriety’s sake, but she couldn’t muster the will.
Those arms around her felt like heaven.
“Ye have always known me,” he whispered. “Ye met me years ago and ye’ve known me ever since. Ye knew I’d come back tae ye.”
She was having difficulty thinking as he held her close. Every time she tried to form a coherent thought, his proximity would suck it right out of her head.
“I… I dinna know for certain,” she insisted weakly. “But I knew, somehow, that I’d see ye again. Never mind how; but I knew I would.”
“And so ye have,” he said. “Now, let’s discuss where we shall meet tomorrow.”
For the first time in her life, Isadora gave in to the arms of a man. God’s Bones, what arms they were. She relaxed, her head coming to rest on his shoulder. Her heart was pounding against her ribs, so strongly that she was certain he could hear it.
“Tomorrow?” she repeated. “We’ve not even begun today.”
He laughed softly, a sound that was warm and comforting. “True enough,” he said. “With prowling brothers and grandfathers, ye never know when we might be separated, so I want tae have tomorrow’s meeting place established.”
Isadora brought up a timid hand, touching one of the arms that held her. He felt so warm and firm beneath her palm. “Let me think,” she said. “We’ve already done the vale.”
“We have.”
“Now the bridge.”
“If they dunna find us today, then we meet here again tomorrow.”
“Agreed.”
“But if they find us?”
She thought a moment. “There’s a small lake tae the north,” she said. “They call it Took’s Water. Do ye know of it?”
“I think I do.”
“Just head north and ye’ll find it.”
“I will.” His grip on her tightened. “I’ll have tae escape my grandfather again, but I’ll be there as soon as I can. Now… will ye tell me something?”
“What?”
“Where do ye come from? Where do I look for ye if I dunna see ye at the lake?”
She closed her eyes to that unwelcome question. Again. She simply didn’t want him to know.
“Does it matter?” she asked softly. “Does it truly matter where a man is born? Does that make him something different than what he is?”
Cam began toying with one of her long, red curls. “Nay,” he said. “But when ye find someone that ye know ye could be fond of, ye want tae know everything about them. Ye already know where I live. Ye know many things about me but I hardly know anything about ye.”
He was right. She sought to tell him something, but not too much, careful in her restraint. “I have two older brothers,” she said, speaking the obvious. “And my da.”
“What about yer mother?”
“Died when I was born.”
“As did mine,” he said. “And yer village?”
“In the hills.”
“Do ye ever want tae leave? Do ye ever dream of something more?”
She sat up, looking at him. “Nay,” she said after a moment. “I’m happy where I am. Does that shock ye?”
He shook his head, tucking a stray lock of hair behind her ear. “Nay,” he said. “Because I am happy where I am, too. But what if ye met a man who would take ye from yer village, yer family? Would ye go?”
She was fairly certain that he was referring to him and she fought off a smile. “He would have tae be quite a man.”
“I am. I mean, he is.”
She laughed low in her throat. “Do ye wish tae take me away from here, then? But ye hardly know me.”
He lifted his eyebrows, feigning exasperation. “I am trying my hardest tae, but ye’re not cooperating.”
She knew it was the truth. When he lifted a hand to gently cup her cheek, she smiled, leaning into his hand and putting her small palm over his big, rough mitt.
“Mayhap… mayhap I’ll tell ye more the next time we meet,” she said. “’Tis just that there can be a good deal of hate in the Highlands. Fierce loyalties, but also fierce hatreds. I fear… I fear things may change if we know too much about each other.”
Cam’s smile had faded as he listened to her words that were all too true. “A man’s clan has never mattered tae me,” he said honestly. “It’s the strength of his character, not the strength of his loyalties. The same goes for a lass. It’s the strength of her heart, not the strength of her clan.”
Isadora appreciated that view, but she was still afraid. She still didn’t want to divulge too much and chance that he might walk away from her. Even though his words were noble, she didn’t know him well enough to know if he truly, deeply meant them.
She was still afraid.
“Will ye tell me something?” she asked softly.
“Anything,” he murmured.
“Where do ye see yerself a year from now? What will ye be doing?”
His quirky smile was back. “Still working with my grandfather, I suppose.”
“Is that all?”
He lifted his big shoulders. “Mayhap I have a wife tae scold me and tell me I’m working too hard. A wife who will take me intae vales and glens when we visit her family in the hills.”
Her pale cheeks were back to flushing as the subject of marriage was presented. It was something Isadora had all but resigned herself to never happening, but that was before Cam re-entered her life.
Now, what she thought was beyond her reach might very well be within her grasp.
God’s Bones, is it possible?
“That sounds like a dream easily reached.”
“Is it?”