With that, he headed off to the west, toward the hills where the Vale of Demons lay in wait, but what he didn’t see was Nikolaus as the man paused a nominal amount of time before heading off after him.
The old man was going to have the last word.
*
She’d been theresince sunrise.
In fact, Isadora was quite certain she hadn’t slept a wink that night, knowing she’d be seeing Cam on the morrow.
It seemed like some silly, impossible dream.
The shock she felt at seeing Cam Netherton again in Brechin was indescribable. The years since she’d last seen him had changed him tremendously; he wasn’t that lanky youth any longer, but a big and handsome man. Muscular, with enormous arms and cropped blond hair that had a way of falling over one eye, he’d looked at her in a way that she remembered from those years ago. Green eyes that had captured her attention.
Everything about him seemed to make her heart flutter.
The vale was cold and bright on this morning, the dew glistening off the leaves. Isadora had been to this vale a thousand times and she knew it down to the last detail, so she knew whereto wait for Cam as he entered the vale from the east. As she made her way down to a brook where the path into the vale began, she heard footfalls behind her.
Startled, she grabbed a rock at her foot and whirled around, prepared to smash it into whoever was sneaking up behind her only to see her brothers coming through the bramble. Heaving a sigh of relief and irritation, she lowered the rock.
“What are ye doing here?” she demanded, looking between the pair. “Ye scared the wits from me!”
Ewan Keith eyed his younger sister. “The better question is what areyedoing here?” he said. “Ye’re sneaking around as if ye’re up tae something.”
Isadora didn’t like the inference, even if it was true. Although she had dropped the rock, that didn’t stop a hand from flying out at him, shoving him back.
“’Tis my own business,” she said. “Get out of here before I give ye a wallop ye’ll not soon forget.”
Ewan was young and strong, and mostly unafraid of his sister although he knew she could give him a licking. If he tried to fight back, that just made her angrier. He’d seen her leave their village of Auchnacree and head off toward the vale. Curious, he and their middle brother, Ossian, had followed.
“If ye’re thinking tae rob travelers on this day, why dinna ye tell us?” he asked, peering down the path. “We’ll help ye.”
Isadora looked between her tall, dark-haired eldest brother and her middle brother with the light brown hair. They were her greatest nemeses and her greatest champions all at the same time. Impatiently, she waved her hands at them.
“Off with ye,” she said. “Whatever I do, I intend tae do it alone.”
“Ye’re going tae rob menalone? How will ye do that?”
She reached down, picking up the rock again, and flashed it at them. “Ye want I should give ye a demonstration?”
Ewan and Ossian did not, in fact. Scowling, and shaking their fists at her, they left their sister down in the forested portion of the vale near the brook. Isadora kept the threatening rock aloft as they trudged off, finally disappearing from her sight. Only then did she lower the rock, but she had a feeling Ewan and Ossian hadn’t gone far. They were just the type to lurk about and watch her. But she couldn’t worry about that now.
She didn’t want her foolish brothers to ruin her moment with Cam.
An hour later, as she sat on a rock by the stream and watched the water swirl, she began to hear rustling downstream where the path began. Heart immediately racing, she stood up and strained to catch a glimpse of what was making the noise. When she saw it, a smile crept onto her lips.
Cam had finally made an appearance.
He, too, looked as if he was hiding from someone as he slipped in and out of the trees, staying off the path. More than once, she saw him look behind him to see if someone was following him. Isadora waited until he was very near before she stepped forward, onto the path.
Their eyes met.
She smiled.
“What ails ye?” she asked. “Ye look as if ye’re being hunted.”
He smiled broadly, an expression of satisfaction as he looked upon her. “I dunna think so,” he said, “but I keep hearing noises behind me.”
Isadora strained to look behind him. “I see nothing,” she said. “Ye’re simply not accustomed tae the sounds of the vale like I am.”
