“Am I tae understand that there is a man down there ye wish me tae see?”
Now he was starting to catch on. With a smile playing on her lips, Isadora pointed down to the arena floor where men were practicing disarming each other.
“That one,” she said. “The man with the blond hair and the broad shoulders. Do ye see him? He is fighting the man with the dark hair.”
Niall watched for a moment. “I know him,” he said. “He is the one who lost tae The Beast.”
“Aye.”
“And ye helped him from the field that night.”
“Ye saw that, did ye?”
Niall nodded firmly. “I did,” he said, turning to look at her. “The question iswhy.”
Isadora could hear her father’s great suspicion. “It’s not what ye think,” she assured him. “I recognized the man when we first came tae The Cal. I have seen him before.”
“Where?”
“When I was a wee lass,” she said, deliberately omitting the fact that she’d not only met him while trying to steal from him, but she’d been seeing him when Netherton was burned. “He is from Netherton.Netherton, Da. And now he is here, learning tae fight.”
It was clear by Niall’s expression that something clicked in his mind as she mentioned Netherton. His attention returned to the field.
“He’s from Netherton, ye say?” he muttered thoughtfully.
Isadora nodded. “We saw what happened tae Netherton, Da—it was a massacre. But somehow, Cam survived and he has come tae The Cal.”
“Cam?”
“’Tis his name.”
Niall scratched his head, watching as Cam tripped up his opponent and pounced on the man. “He seems strong,” he said. “He is cunning from what I have seen, but he’s not fully trained.”
“I know.”
“Then what did ye have in mind?”
It was time to close the deal. “He has a stake in the same thing that concerns us. We can hire any warrior, but defending the Keith against Drostan Lindsay would only be a task, a duty. But tae Cam… it means much more. His heart would be in the fight and that is the most powerful motivator of all.”
That had Niall’s attention. He continued to watch Cam; he had natural ability. That was evident in every move he made.
Seeing that she had her father’s interest, Isadora went for the kill.
“Because he’s not fully trained, Sir Clegg will take less money for him,” she said, appealing to her father’s frugal side. “Cam is good enough tae lead our men intae battle. Our fight with the Lindsay ishisfight, Da.”
Niall sighed faintly, lured by his daughter’s reasoning but understandably torn. They’d come for a fully trained warrior, after all, but what she said made a great deal of sense.
“I’ll consider it,” he said. “I must see the man fight again before I can make any decision, lass. There is a feast tonight honoring some ancient Roman god, so I’m told, and tomorrow there will be fights in the arena.”
Isadora hadn’t heard about any feast or games but, then again, she’d spent every day in the lists, watching the trainees. She hadn’t paid attention to much else. But she didn’t push him, mostly because she didn’t want to anger him so he would refuse purely out of spite.
She was willing to let him think on it.
Isadora watched him leave, heading up to join her brothers as they observed the more advanced warriors, but she remained where she was, watching the blond man beneath the cold winter sun.
She could envision herself fighting side by side with him, a warrior of great strength and honor, as they defeated the Lindsay and punished them for their nefarious deeds. It was a bit idealistic, but Isadora didn’t care.
Cam Netherton was the stuff of dreams.
