Chapter Three
Netherton
His grandfather was watching him like a hawk.
Not obviously, but Cam could tell. After the incident yesterday in the Vale of Demons, Nikolaus was reluctant to let Cam out of his sight, as if fearful he’d run back to that treacherous dale and the woman who had snared his attention.
In truth, it wasn’t an unreasonable fear.
They were working in the stall on this day and the bellows were going full bore.
The heat in the blacksmith’s forge was intense as Cam worked on an axle for a farmer’s wagon that was laid up behind the stall.
But that wasn’t all he was doing; when Nikolaus was busy with customers or with his own tasks, Cam was working on something else in secret.
With a scrap piece of copper he’d found in his grandfather’s slag heap, he had fashioned a bracelet.
It had been hell trying to keep it from Nikolaus.
The bracelet wasn’t terribly elegant, but Cam was skilled with metal—he’d managed to twist the soft copper around itself so it was a delicate, twisting pattern, perfect for a tough young lady who probably wouldn’t wear fine adornment like gold or silver.
But she would wear copper.
In between hiding it from Nikolaus, Cam managed to inscribe something on the underside of it, something he’d said to her in the Vale of Demons—
Thu fhèin.
Only you.
Two little words that described his intentions toward her.
The inscription was simply written, but clear.
He had spent the morning perfecting it. He was increasingly anxious to leave the stall and head to the bridge over Coe Burn because he knew that Isadora was probably already there, waiting for him.
He wanted to get to her.
Therefore, when the copper bracelet was finished and safely in his tunic pocket, and he finished with the axle for the farmer who had anxiously been waiting for him to repair it, he pulled off his heavy leather gloves and scorched smock, setting them aside.
Nikolaus, bent over the shoes of a horse, immediately noticed.
“Where are ye going?” he asked.
Cam rubbed at his temples. “My head is aching,” he lied. “I’m going tae lie down for a time. Can ye spare me?”
Nikolaus set down what was in his hands. “Now?”
It was clear from the expression on his face that he didn’t want Cam to go, or at least go without him, suspicious old man that he was. But he was right in the middle of shoeing a horse and couldn’t leave.
That’s the way Cam had planned it.
“Just for a short while,” Cam said, continuing to rub at his temples. “At least until the pain passes. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
Nikolaus eyed him dubiously. “Yer ailment seems tae have come upon ye suddenly.”
“It has not. It has been building for some time.”
“Cam…” Nikolaus seemed hesitant. “It will never work, lad.”
“What will never work?”
“The lass in the vale. She’s from the hills. Ye know the clans in the hills.”
He meant Ruthven and Keith, enemies of the clan that ruled Netherton and other villages in the area. But Cam played dumb.
“What brought that up?” he asked. “I havena mentioned the lass.”
“Ye dunna have tae. I can see it in yer face.”
“Ye see nothing except an aching head.”
Nikolaus opened his mouth to say something more but the horse began to get restless so he was forced to turn back to his task.
“Listen tae me, lad,” he said. “I am telling ye for yer own good. Dunna become mixed up with a lass from the hills. It will only come tae heartbreak.”
Cam watched the man as he turned back to the skittish horse, wondering why he should say such a thing. It was almost as if he knew from experience.
There was something bitter in his softly uttered phrase.
But he didn’t press the man; he didn’t have time.
Departing the stall with more speed than he should have, Cam headed in the direction of the cottage he shared with his grandfather just in case the old man was watching.
He wasn’t really adept at deceiving the man, so he had to go on instinct, making for the cottage with the assumption that Nikolaus was watching.
But once he crossed an alleyway and turned the corner, he was out of the man’s line of sight.
He took off at a run.
*
It had taken her some time to outwit the snoops.
Isadora had taken an entire hour to lose her brothers, who were determined to follow her.
She departed her village after she’d finished her chores; it was barely after dawn by the time she headed out.
The bridge over Coe’s Burn wasn’t too far, but it had taken her far more time to get there than it should have thanks to Ewan and Ossian, who thought they were being so clever by tracking her.
But Isadora was cleverer.
She led them off toward an area where the women went to collect chestnuts, an area known to have wild and edible vegetation.
There were already women there, in fact, and when she saw them, she told them not to tell her brothers that they saw her.
Given that the women were more apt to side with the sister of their chieftain than her annoying brothers, they readily agreed.
And with that, Isadora’s way was clear to the bridge.
Unfortunately, Cam hadn’t arrived yet, so Isadora sat down on a rock beneath the bridge to wait. It was a very long wait; the morning passed as she sat and watched the water and wondered if she’d been wrong about Cam. He’d told her to meet him here, yet he wasn’t here.
Perhaps she had misunderstood.
Perhaps he’d even lied.
But she could never think that of her stalwart blacksmith. The man wasn’t a warrior like the men she was accustomed to, but he still had integrity. She’d known that from the start. As the morning began to edge into the afternoon, she finally heard footsteps approach.
Cam landed in the brook with a splash.
Startled, Isadora looked up to see the man closing in at her, a smile on his face. He also had smudges of soot on his cheeks, indicative of his morning’s activities. He’d been working.
That explained the delay.
“I thought ye werena coming,” Isadora said. “Ye’re fortunate I was patient enough tae wait this long.”
His smile broadened. “I’m glad ye did,” he said. “My grandfather was following me like a hawk following prey. I was forced tae work until I could escape.”
“How did ye get away?”
“I told him I had an aching head. He thinks I went tae the cottage tae lie down.”
She frowned. “’Tis a woman’s excuse.”
He started laughing. “What was I supposed tae tell him?”
“Ye should have dropped a hammer and pretended it landed on yer foot,” she scolded, but it was without force. “A man with a broken foot is much more honorable than an aching head.”
“Next time, I’ll have bones sticking out. Would it make ye happy then?”
It was her turn to laugh. “Probably not,” she said, sobering as she gazed into his handsome face. “I suppose coming late is better than not coming at all.”
“If I tell ye I’ll come, then I will. I’m a man of my word.”
“I believe ye,” she said sincerely. “Are ye sure ye werena followed?”
He looked around. “As sure as I can be,” he said, returning his attention to her. “And ye?”
She waved a dismissive hand. “My brothers aren’t nearly as clever as they think they are. I outsmarted them.”
“Good lass.”
With the initial greeting over, a warm silence settled as Cam sat down at her feet, along the brook bank. Isadora would look at Cam, grinning and looking away when he smiled at her. It was a game that went on for a few moments until Cam finally dug into his pocket.
Out came the copper bracelet.
“I made this for ye this morning.”
He was holding it up in the weak light and Isadora gazed upon it in surprise. The metal caught the light, flashing.
“’Tis beautiful,” she said, reaching out for it. “What is it?”
“A bracelet. Put it on yer arm.”
She did, instantly, looking at the warm color against her skin. But more than that, she was looking at a gift he’d made for her.
She’d never been more touched.
“’Tis truly beautiful.”
“Ye said that. Do ye like it?”
She nodded without hesitation. “It is the most beautiful gift I have ever received,” she said, toying with it. Then, something on the bracelet caught her eye and she removed it, peering at the interior of the circlet.
“Thu fhèin,” she breathed, her wide-eyed gaze turning to him. “Only ye.”
The corners of his mouth twitched. “I told ye that ye were the only lass I had an eye for,” he said. “I mean it.”
Isadora was overwhelmed. “So ye put the words on the bracelet?”
“So ye’d always remember.”
She looked at it, stunned. “I dunna know what tae say,” she said. “I’ve never had so fine a gift. I shall wear it until I die.”
He seemed pleased by that. “If yer kinfolk notice it, tell them ye stole it from some fool in the vale,” he said, watching her chuckle. “They would believe that.”
“Aye, they would,” she said, carefully putting it back on her wrist. “It is much better than birds’ eggs.”
He reached out, putting a big hand on her knee where she sat on the stone.
She smiled at him, her cheeks red with the thrill of his touch and the beauty of his gift.
She was smitten with the man as it was, but the bracelet merely cemented it.
Abruptly, she pulled out a small dagger at her waist and grabbed a long, curly tendril of hair.
Quick as a flash, she cut it off, extending it to him.
“It is all I have tae give ye in return,” she murmured. “I wish I had more. I wish I could give ye as fine a present as ye have given me.”
He took the hair carefully, gazing at the spiral curl as if she’d just handed him the finest chalice of gold. Lifting it to his nostrils, he inhaled her sweet, musky scent.
“I shall treasure it always,” he said quietly. “It is the best gift I have ever received.”