Page 31 of Conquer the Highlander

“Do ye really want tae work?” he asked.

She nodded. “I do. May I?”

“I’ve not even told ye if I’ll pay ye for it.”

She shrugged. “It does not matter if you do,” she said. “I will do it because you are allowing me to stay in your cottage. I will do it to earn my keep.”

It seemed as if she had an answer for everything and he was coming to see that, for her, working to earn her keep was a way of keeping her honor. The woman wouldn’t take anything she hadn’t worked for.

He’d fussed at her enough for it.

“I’ll pay ye two shillings a day, then,” he said, moving for the bedchamber door again. “But only if ye dunna disturb me.”

It was a very generous daily wage. “I promise that I shall not disturb you.”

“If ye do, I’ll throw ye out on yer arse.”

“Then I shall make doubly sure not to disturb you.”

Titus didn’t say anything further. He entered the bedchamber, shutting the door and realizing he had a silly smile on his lips. His bed was stripped, his clothing missing, and a woman was determined to take over his house and hold.

But he didn’t care.

The thought of it made him smile.

What he didn’t know was that on the other side of the door, Esme was smiling, too.

CHAPTER EIGHT

The Bear was pacing again.

It was another warm night in the Highlands as Titus stood at one end of the arena and The Bear stood at the other. It was the primus bout, the last one of the night, and the crowd had been prepared for it.

They were on their feet now because Titus had entered the arena after The Bear, a privilege reserved for the Ludus Caledonia’s elite warriors. There wasn’t one man or woman in the stands that wasn’t drunk to various degrees because they had been drinking all evening, betting on fights and waiting with great anticipation for the very last one.

It had finally arrived.

Titus soaked up the adoration of the crowd like he always did. It was something that fed him, nurtured him, and gave him the very foundation of the arrogance for which he was known. The spectators knew he was great, he knew he was great, and everyone was in agreement. Titus looked up to the crowd, acknowledging them with a mere glance, and it drove them mad.

Already, coins were raining down on the arena floor and the two servants that Titus employed to collect that money were running out onto the field, grabbing at the money. At the edge of the arena where it joined up with the staging area, Titus could see his friends and supporters standing there – Cam, Brody, Galan, Axel, Wendell, and another doctores named Milo Linton. Even Christos was with them, watching the crowd, watching The Bear, and feeling some trepidation just like the rest of them.

This was the bout that everyone, including those who ran the Ludus Caledonia, had been waiting for.

The Bear was pacing in circles now, beating his chest and roaring, going through some kind of ritual meant to work himself into a frenzy. Titus was busy pulling on what amounted to fingerless leather gloves, meant to protect his hands, yet leave his fingers free to work. He bent down and scooped up some of the dirt of the arena floor, sprinkling it onto the gloves to give them better traction. He was pretending to be busy when what he was really doing was watching The Bear in his periphery.

He was watching every move the man made.

As he busied himself, he caught sight of Axel as the man made his way out onto the arena floor. As the manager of the Ludus Caledonia, he was permitted everywhere, at any time, even in the arena before a bout started. Axel von Rossau was an enormous man, Saxon by birth, with skin as dark as tanned leather and bright blue eyes. He was a ferocious fighter, as Titus had seen on occasion, and he was greatly respected by all as a fair and just man, if not quite hard. As he came near, Titus continued busying himself.

“Eagle,” Axel said in his heavy Germanic accent. “I came to give you some advice.”

Titus didn’t look up from his gloves. “I am listening.”

Axel’s gaze drifted to the opponent across the arena. “He is going to try to kill you,” he said. “I have not been told this; it is simply a feeling I have. I have seen enough men to know what is in his heart and on his mind. He will kill you if he can.”

Titus nodded his head as he finished with the gloves. “I trust ye,” he said. “It is my intention tae take him out immediately. I willna toy with this one. He smells my blood.”

“He does indeed,” Axel said. “If you do not disable him at the first, it will go badly for you. A wounded bear is a dangerous thing.”