Abi watched Reid walkout of the great hall with the dogs trotting at his heels. She felt oddly bereft now that he’d gone and wished he’d come back.Stop that,she told herself. She had to remember that this was the same man who’d all but kidnapped her and was now holding her here against her will.
But was that really true? He’d given his word that he would help her get home once it was safe to do so, and she found herself believing him. Whatever else he might be, Reid Campbell struck her as a man of his word.
She recalled the kiss on the riverbank and a sudden heat swirled in her stomach. She’d been outraged, of course. How dare he kiss her without her permission? How dare he act as if he could do whatever he wanted? Yes, she had been outraged. Shocked. Furious.
But she’d felt other things too, things she had no right feeling. As his lips had touched hers and his arms had held her against him, she’d felt...what? Desire? Longing? Need? She wasn’t quite sure. All she knew was that his kiss had awakened feelings of such intensity, that it had left her reeling. She’d never been kissed quite like that before. Such fire and passion. Such power and strength.
She shook her head. Insane. This was all insane.
A cough beside her brought her back to the present. Martin was studying her intently. He was an older man, perhaps in his fifties, with gray hair and an unkempt beard. He was small and skinny and had weathered skin full of creases that suggested he’d spent most of his life outdoors. He watched her with pale eyes that looked like they had the beginning of cataracts in them.
Was she going to have trouble with him? In her experience, men didn’t like taking orders from a woman. It was true even in the twenty-first century so how much worse would it be here in medieval Scotland?
So Martin surprised her when he said suddenly, “What’s an administrator?”
“It’s um...somebody who is good at organizing and getting jobs done so everything can run smoothly.”
Martin scratched his armpit. “Oh. Is that it? Well, that sounds like exactly what I need. Take a seat, lass, take a seat.”
Abi did as he bid, perching herself on the long bench opposite Martin. He picked up a jug and poured Abi a drink.
“This is thirsty work,” he said with a wink.
Abi took a sip and found that it wasn’t water but very weak ale. It didn’t taste very nice—reminded her of dishwater in fact—but it quenched her thirst somewhat.
She looked over the documents strewn across the table. “Right. What can I help you with?”
“Are ye any good with arithmetic?” Martin asked. “I’m trying to work out the lads’ pay only I canna seem to get it tallied up. If I get it wrong and give them too much, both Lord Reid and Laird Campbell will take a piece out of my hide. If I get it wrong and give them too little, we’ll have a mutiny on our hands.” He scratched his armpit again. “It’s giving me a headache, I can tell ye.”
“Here, let me take a look.”
Martin passed her over the piece of parchment he’d been working on and Abi examined it. It was filled with columns of numbers that had been tallied and then scratched out. No wonder he couldn’t make head nor tail of it. It was a mess. Oh, what she wouldn’t give for a spreadsheet right now! Or even better, their payroll software that worked all this stuff out in the blink of an eye.
“This is no good. We’ll need to start again. Do you have a clean parchment?”
They worked all morning and eventually they had the accounts up to date and the stacks of coins sorted into the correct amount to ensure that not only did the warriors get paid, but that the armorers, tanners, farmers and all the other myriad of people who sold supplies to the castle got paid too. Abi itemized it all in one of the leather-bound ledgers in her neat script, simplifying Martin’s chaotic system by breaking it into sections for personnel, services and goods.
“There,” she said, snapping the ledger shut. “All done.”
Martin beamed at her, showing a set of remarkably good teeth. “Ye are a marvel, lass! That would have taken me all day!”
“How often do you do the accounts?”
Martin shrugged. “Whenever I have the time.”
Abi grimaced. Shehatedinefficiency. She’d spent years honing her systems at the hotel so that it ran like a well-oiled machine.
What was happening back at her hotel now? she wondered. Was anyone missing her? She doubted it. She’d only been gone a few days and she’d trained her staff so well that everything would be running perfectly smoothly without her. Hmm. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that. Another thing that Abi hated was not being needed. Not being in control. Not being able to influence the events of her life. Which is exactly what was happening to her right now.
To distract herself from the unsettling thoughts, she gestured to another pile of documents that Martin had left untouched. “What are those?”
Martin glanced at the pile and grimaced. “They’re um...they’re um...” He suddenly looked uncomfortable. He began chewing on his thumbnail and his eyes darted everywhere but at her. “I...um...I’ll get to them later.”
“Why don’t I help you?” She reached for the pile but Martin snatched it away from her.
“No need! Why dinna ye go get something to eat? It’s almost time for the midday meal.”
Abi sat back, puzzled by the old man’s reaction. He clutched the stack of documents to his chest possessively and squirmed in his seat. His pale eyes darted up to her and away again. In his eyes Abi saw a deep unease and something else. Shame?
