The last she saw of him, he was being taken back behind the arena. He may have been beaten, but he’d done extremely well. As he’d told her once, he would try to make her proud.
He had.
*
“You fought well.”
Cam opened his eyes slowly, or at least the right one. The left was nearly swollen shut. Clegg gazed down at him.
“Now I see what Axel and Luther saw in Edinburgh,” Clegg said. “To last as long as you did against The Beast, you must be extraordinarily strong. I commend you.”
Cam was still on the stone bench where he’d been placed after he’d come off the field. The physic had examined him, told him he didn’t seem to have any broken bones, and gone off to fetch a pain potion.
Everything hurt.
A smile tugged on Clegg’s lips. “I think you are destined for great things, Highlander. I will keep my eye on you.”
“I want tae train with Milo.”
Clegg’s smile faded with the surprising request. “Why?”
“Because he’s a man I respect.”
Clegg nodded, mulling over the appeal. “And you do not respect Wendell?”
“I respect Milo more.”
“Then I will consider it.”
“Thank ye, m’laird.”
With that, Clegg wandered out of Cam’s line of sight.
The physic returned a short time later with a potion that tasted terrible. It was bitter and acidic, but Cam drank it down,then two men heaved him off the bench and helped him back to his cottage. By the time they got there, he was standing on his own.
He waved the men off. All he wanted to do was sleep, wondering fleetingly if he’d be expected to train on the morrow. He hoped his violent bout had earned him a day of rest but he suspected not. There hadn’t been a day off since his arrival two months earlier.
A knock on the door caught his attention just as he lay down.
The door opened, but Cam didn’t turn to see who it was. He simply closed his eyes again, feeling drowsy from the potion the physic had given him.
A soft voice spoke.
“I am sorry if smashing the man’s toes made him angry. I meant that it should disable him, not turn him against ye.”
Cam’s eyes popped open and he turned his head. Isadora was standing just inside the doorway and he moved painfully into a sitting position to greet her.
“It worked for a short time,” he said, feeling light of heart just to see her in spite of his pain. “Ye tried tae help me and I am grateful.”
She smiled, a toothy grin that he found so lovely. “How do ye feel?”
“Like a man called The Beast has beaten on me.”
She laughed softly. “But ye survived,” she said, moving to him and reaching out to touch his swollen face. “I only wish they’d let me get intae the arena with ye. I would have given that animal a fight he’d never forget.”
Cam took her hand, trying to kiss it but wincing when he did. “Och,” he said. “I think my face is about tae fall tae pieces.”
She giggled softly. “It could have been worse,” she said. “At least ye walked away.”
