Chapter Four
It was before dawn.
Cam was awake, washing his face and hands in a basin of icy water as his grandfather, in the next room, stoked the fire for the morning meal. Cam could hear the man banging around as he coughed and cleared his throat, something he usually did in the morning because his lungs weren’t very strong.
As Cam pulled on a clean tunic, one that hadn’t been ruined by his days working with the blacksmith’s forge, his thoughts drifted back to the day before, that heavenly day he’d spent with Isadora.
And his grandfather knew it.
It wasn’t as if he’d told the old man. He didn’t have to. He’d returned to the cottage after dark, when Nikolaus was already eating supper, and explained to his grandfather that he’d gone on a walk to help clear his aching head.
It had been a horrible excuse and Nikolaus hadn’t believed a word of it. Cam hadn’t, either, but he stuck to it even when Nikolaus questioned him a couple of times. After that, his grandfather said no more.
Now, after sleeping with the guilt of having lied to the man he loved most in the world, Cam made the decision to tell him everything.
Pulling on his heavy boots, the ones he had paid a good deal of money for because they protected his feet against heat and sparks, he headed out into the common room where his grandfather was just putting bread and boiled fruit juice onto the table.
Nikolaus eyed him before he returned his attention to the table. “Sit down,” he said. “Ye’ll need tae eat something before I send ye off tae Brechin.”
Cam looked at him, surprised. “Ye want me tae go today?”
Nikolaus nodded, but he wouldn’t look at him. “The ore ye brought back from Albe the last time was poor,” he said. “Ye saw me trying tae work with it since ye brought it back. I need ye tae return tae the man and tell him we need better-quality ore. I think he tried tae cheat ye.”
Cam didn’t want to go to Brechin today; he wanted to go to Took’s Water where Isadora would be waiting for him. But he couldn’t tell his grandfather that.
“Does it have tae be today?”
Nikolaus stirred something steaming in an iron pot over the fire. “I need it,” he said. “I’ve a commission from one of the Lindsay men for a dirk, so I need the ore. I’d go myself if I could. If ye go now, ye should be back before supper.”
A whole day. Cam wasn’t sure what he was going to tell Isadora, but he would have to travel much faster than usual. His grandfather didn’t travel well these days because of painful hips, so he knew the old man couldn’t go. Cam could move swifter and more easily than an old man with bad joints.
He knew he had no choice.
He hoped Isadora would understand.
Lingering on those unhappy thoughts, he planted his big body on a chair in front of the table. As he picked up a cup and drank down the sweet, tart juice, Nikolaus put a bowl of warmed-over stew in front of him.
“When ye see Albe today, make sure he knows I’m unhappy about the quality of his ore,” he said. “If he’s going tae demand a high price, I want better ore from him or I’ll take my business elsewhere.”
Cam nodded as he shoved stew into his mouth. “I’ll tell him.”
“And dunna let him talk ye tae death. I want ye back before supper.”
“I’ll be back well before supper. But before I go, I want tae say something tae ye.”
Nikolaus sat down in his chair, looking at his meal. “Speak.”
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For lying tae ye yesterday. I suppose ye know I went tae see that lass again.”
“I know.”
Cam swallowed the bite in his mouth and sat back, looking at his grandfather, who was devouring his meal.
“Ye know I’m not one tae chase women,” he said quietly. “I’ve had many a lass try tae chase me, but no one has caught my eye until Isadora. Can ye not understand? She’s different. When she looks at me, my heart beats so that I feel as if it will burst from my chest.”
Nikolaus didn’t slow his food intake. “If that’s how she makes ye feel, then there’s nothing I can say about it.”
Cam could see that the old man was resistant. Hurt, even, that his grandson should lie to him.
“I want ye tae understand how I feel,” Cam said. “I think I want tae marry her.”
That brought a reaction from Nikolaus, who stopped chewing and looked up at his grandson.
“Marry her?” he repeated, aghast. “A lass from the hills?”
“Aye.”
Nikolaus was trying to keep his composure. Sighing faintly, he set down his spoon. “Cam, I dunna want tae hurt ye, but ye canna be serious. A lass from the hills is—”
Cam cut him off. “She’s different from any lass I’ve ever known,” he said. “She is smart and she is strong. She’s not like the women in this town; she doesna care about a man’s money or his position. She only cares about his heart.”
Nikolaus wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and stood up, collecting his thoughts. “But ye know nothing else about her, lad.”
“I dunna need tae know anything else about her.”
“She’s from the hills. That means she’s either Ruthven or Keith.”
“I know.”
“Has she told ye of her clan? Has she spoken of her family?”
Cam shook his head as the conversation grew heated. “I told ye that I dunna care,” he said. “I think she’s afraid tae tell me, but the truth is that I dunna care. Neither the Ruthven or the Keith have ever done anything against me, so I dunna care where she’s from or who she’s part of.”
Nikolaus was standing by the hearth, sincerely trying not to blow up at his foolish grandson.
“If ye dunna care, others will,” he said. “What of her family? What if they refuse tae accept a husband from Netherton and Clan Lindsay? Have ye thought of that? Ye may love the lass, but if her family refuses ye, there’s nothing ye can do.”
Cam watched his grandfather, the way the man was coiled. There was a good deal of pent-up emotion in Nikolaus’ manner, more than Cam thought there should be.
“I dunna care about her family right now,” he said. “I only care about ye. Do ye have a great hate for Keith and Ruthven, then? Ye’ve never told me so. Ye’ve never paid much mind tae clan ties or relations. Ye always said that if a man has a good heart, it doesna matter where he’s from.”
Nikolaus’ shoulders slumped. “That is true,” he said.
“But I speak from experience. There was a Keith lass I was fond of, once, a very long time ago. Like ye, I had dreams. I thought she was the only woman for me. But when it came time tae meet her family, they had a powerful hatred for anything related tae the Lindsay. They told me they’d kill me if I dinna leave her be.
I dinna listen, and tae prove their point, they injured my mother when she was working her garden one day.
After that, I stayed away. I had no choice. ”
Cam was listening intently. Now, his grandfather’s staunch resistance to his entanglement with a lass from the hills was starting to make sense. It was also quite distressing.
“Ye never told me that,” he said after a moment.
“I never had cause tae,” Nikolaus said. He looked at his grandson imploringly. “Lad, I tell ye this for yer own good. I would hate tae see ye disappointed, or worse. Ye must forget about the lass from the vale or her family might not take kindly tae it.”
Cam understood his grandfather’s point, as discouraging as it was. But he didn’t agree with it; he couldn’t. Isadora was different. He couldn’t believe that anything would destroy their budding romance or their plans, not families nor clans nor old hatreds.
He wasn’t going to let them.
“Then I’ll take her away where clans dunna matter,” he said seriously. “I’ll take her tae Edinburgh. I’ll find work there and we’ll be married. I understand yer concern, but I canna give in tae hatred that I dunna feel. It’s foolish.”
Nikolaus could see the heart of a man who only wanted to love a woman regardless of the circumstances. “Mayhap it is foolish, but it is the reality,” he said. “Please, lad, for my sake… stop seeing the lass before it’s too late.”
Cam wasn’t going to listen to him. He was starting to become defensive. Rising from his seat, he went in search of his cloak.
“It is already too late,” he said, swinging the heavy cloak over his shoulders.
“I know ye’re trying tae spare me the heartache ye went through, but I have my own life tae lead.
When I come back from Brechin, I will go and bring Isadora back here tae meet ye.
Ye have tae see her tae understand what I feel for her, Granda. I know ye’ll like her.”
Granda. It was rare when Cam addressed Nikolaus that way, so when he did, it meant something. Cam could be more stubborn than most, but Nikolaus wasn’t going to cave to him.
Not this time.
“Dunna bring her here,” he said. “Not until ye know of her family. Not until ye know everything about her and her family is agreeable tae ye bringing her tae me. Until then, I dunna want tae see her. Do ye understand me?”
Cam’s jaw twitched. He was displeased with his grandfather’s reaction. “I understand,” he said as he opened the door, revealing the pink sky at dawn beyond. “But I think ye’re wrong.”
“Ye havena lived as long as I have, lad.”
“Just because ye were denied marrying the women ye loved doesna mean I will be denied the same. I’ll do everything in my power tae make sure Isadora becomes my wife and I’m sorry if ye dunna approve.”
“If I dinna love ye, I wouldn’t care.”
“I think ye’re letting an old memory cloud yer advice. I’m not ye. Things will be different with me.”
Cam and Nikolaus never had harsh words, but these words were coming close. Unwilling to argue with his grandson any longer, Nikolaus simply waved him on, shutting the door behind him as he headed down the road toward Brechin.
Nikolaus only had himself to blame, he knew.
Cam was just like him, as stubborn and as immovable as a mountain.
In this case, however, that mountain was going to have to consider the alternative to taking a stand—perhaps Cam didn’t have anything against enemy clans of the Lindsay, but it was quite possible those clans had something against Cam.
While Cam was in Brechin conducting business, Nikolaus thought he might make his own trek up to the Vale of Demons to see if he could find that red-haired lass his grandson was so sweet on.
Perhaps he and the lass needed to have a conference of their own before Cam was in too deep to pull himself out.
Perhaps it was already too late.
Nikolaus had a terrible feeling he was going to find out.