But no.
Her castle was at stake. This was important.
She approached a pair standing just off the main circle, their cloaks marking good wool, and the way people gave them space marking rank.
“Evening,” she greeted. “I need a word.”
“Evening,” said the taller one. His voice kept the courtesy of the place. “What sort of word?”
“A shield,” she said. “I come from a house that needs a stand for a season. I have coin, and I have pledges I can keep.”
“Which house?” he asked.
“Bryden,” she answered.
A pause.
“I ken the name,” he said. His friend shifted a step back.
“We pay our debts,” Erica said. “We daenae break bargains.”
“I heard different,” he said. “Best of the night to ye.”
They turned away with a nod that gave nothing.
Erica exhaled. Bad start to the evening, but this was to be expected. The news of her castle’s infamy had spread far and wide. She moved on anyway.
The next man wore a captain’s sash and spoke like one, quick and spare. He listened to her openly, then asked where she kept her herds and how many men stood on her wall. She answered without flinching. He nodded, interested, and then she said, “Bryden.” The interest shut like a door.
“Ye should keep to the dance,” he said. “Find a song ye like. Let the week pass lightly.”
“I am nae here for a song.”
“Then ye are in the wrong place.”
She crossed the meadow and tried again with a pair of women who carried themselves like queens. They were generous withadvice and names of men who might help a widow keep her land. When Erica thanked them and said she was a Bryden, their gazes turned careful.
“We daenae judge,” one said. “We keep the rules. Yet a public tie is a different thing.”
“I am nae asking for marriage,” Erica said. “Only a shield.”
“A shieldisa tie,” the other argued. “Take care where ye set it.”
She left them with a bow as the music swelled near the main fire.
This wasn’t working.
She needed to do something else.
Something different.
She changed her approach and decided to stop opening with terms. She watched instead and learned further on the rhythm of who set the tone at each fire and who followed. She tracked the men who said little and decided much. Then she tracked which captains cut a path through the ring without raising a hand. She was not here to win a friend. She was here to find a shield that no man would test.
The most feared.
The most useful.
The one whose presence would make even a smile feel like a risk.
