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.
