But she stayed close, following Cam as her father and great-aunt showed him the village and introduced him to villagers. Ewan and Ossian were part of the tour group and they seemed to be engaging more with Cam than ever before. Isadora was pleased about that, considering Cam hadn’t been their candidate of choice, but they were monopolizing his time just like everyone else and Isadora couldn’t get close to him. He was being paraded around like a prize, and everyone wanted a piece of him.
Especially Isadora.
But so many people wanted to talk to Cam that she didn’t have the chance. Feeling left out, she simply followed the group as they moved around the village. But as they spoke with people and introduced Cam to the villagers, Isadora noticed that something else was happening.
The women were quite interested in him, too.
Young or old, it didn’t matter. They were all very interested in the big, blond warrior, and as handsome as Cam was, Isadora didn’t blame them, but by midafternoon, she was flaming with jealousy.
Finally, she gave up following the group altogether and headed back to her father’s cottage to do a few chores before suppertime.
Niall had taught all of his children how to feed themselves so they wouldn’t starve, so Isadora had a general knowledge of preparing a meal even though she didn’t like to do it. There was a woman in town that would make extra bread and sell it, so the first thing she did was visit the woman only to discover she hadtwo loaves remaining, which she then quickly purchased. With bread for their meal, Isadora built a fire outside of their cottage and put a pot on it to warm.
Into the pot went the mutton and gravy from the previous night’s meal, water, cabbage, onions, and beans, of which they had plenty. She didn’t particularly like mutton because they ate it so much, but it was all they had after having been gone for so long, so she brought the stew to a boil and let it bubble.
And that was the extent of her cooking.
She hoped it was edible.
As the meal simmered away, Isadora settled down to look over the weapons they’d left behind when they’d gone to the Ludus Caledonia. Sitting outside as the day waned and the sky began to cloud over, she could see nearly the entire village from her vantage point and she kept an eye out for Cam and his entourage.
Overhead, the thunder began to roll, signaling that soon they would find themselves ankle deep in pounding rain. So Isadora made the decision to move the pot of stew inside to the smaller hearth so it wouldn’t be ruined by the downpour. Fortunately, she moved it just in time because shortly thereafter, it began to storm. Isadora brought in the weapons, too, and shut the door.
Once the storm started, she didn’t have long to wait before her father and brothers returned. The old oak door flew open and in they came, shaking off the water, with Cam bringing up the rear. He was soaked, too, and in the larger common room of their cottage, the men began to peel off their wet tunics. Droplets of water were spraying everywhere.
“Ye’ve a good fire going, Issie,” Niall said as he hung his tunic up on a peg near the hearth. “Sorry I left ye tae cook supper alone. Ye dinna hurt yerself, did ye?”
He meant it as an insult and she scowled. “I have all my fingers if that’s what ye mean. I dunna know how good it is, but at least it’s hot.”
Niall pushed her out of the way as he tasted the stew, smacking his lips as he did so. Then, he began to forage around, tossing in a palmful of salt and stirring it around. As her father tended the meal, and Ewan and Ossian dried off, Isadora finally had the opportunity to focus on Cam unimpeded.
He was standing near the door, brushing the water from his tunic, which was wool and wasn’t absorbing the water as much. Feeling her heart race at the sight of him, she took a few steps in his direction.
“So now ye know the entire village and they know ye,” she said. “I think it has been a busy day for ye.”
Cam looked up from the tunic and Isadora could see the warmth in his eyes. “Busy enough,” he said. “And enough tae see that the boundaries of the village are not as wide as I had always believed. We had an interesting walk today.”
“Did ye walk the perimeter?”
“We did.”
“Did ye walk the burns and the vales?”
“Some.”
She pointed toward the west. “The Vale of Morning runs between Auchnacree and Netherton, as ye know, but it wasna something our village claimed. It always belonged tae Netherton.”
He grinned. “Ye mean the Vale of Demons?”
Isadora put a finger to her lips to shush him. “Do ye mean tae cause me trouble?” she whispered.
“Ye still havena told him, eh?”
Isadora shook her head, unwilling to entertain that line of conversation, so she continued with their previous subject. “And Teygret Wood is tae the north,” she said, raising her voice. “Yeknow that it stretches all the way intae Lindsay lands, but it also—”
Niall, still at the hearth, interrupted her. “Teygret is where the Lindsay wait for us,” he said, turning to look at Cam and Isadora. “We spoke tae yer uncle today, Issie. The Lindsay harassment has grown worse in our absence. It seems that we’ve returned just in time.”
Isadora’s brow furrowed. “In time for what?”
