She folded her hands on the table. “What is it?” she asked the old man. “What’s wrong?”
“Naught!” he snapped. “I’ve already told ye!”
“Martin. Reid asked me to help you. I can’t do that if you won’t tell me what the problem is.”
“I dinna need yer help! I dinna need anybody’s help! I’m Lord Reid’s castellan and I can manage perfectly well on my own!”
There was no venom in his words, only defensiveness, and Abi sensed there was more going on here than her merely stepping on his toes.
“I’m not here to take your place,” she said gently. “I know how hard it is running a place like this with so many things to take care of and so many things to go wrong. In my experience, things go much more smoothly if you share the burden. Why don’t you tell me what’s bothering you? Why don’t you want me to help you work through that paperwork?”
He glanced at her and that shame flashed in his eyes again. With a sigh, he placed the documents back on the table. His mouth worked a few times but no words came out. “Will ye promise not to tell Lord Reid?”
“I promise. This will just be between us.”
Martin’s shoulders sagged and he seemed to deflate like a popped balloon. “I...er...I dinna read so well.”
He couldn’t read? What? But then, thiswasthe middle ages, not the twenty-first century and she guessed literacy rates were poor. Wasn’t it normally church men who were educated in this time? But there were no church men here and so she guessed that the job had fallen to Martin—whether he was suited to it or not.
“Then I’ll read for you,” she said decisively. She only hoped the documents were written in English rather than Gaelic or she would be as clueless as Martin. Even then, she knew the Middle English used in this time would take quite some deciphering but it was too late to back out now.
Martin watched her warily, as if looking for an ulterior motive. “And ye willnae tell Lord Reid? He thinks I was educated at Warelow Abbey—and I was for a few months. I was training to be a monk but it turned out the life wasnae for me. I left before I’d learned to read and scribe properly. Please dinna tell Lord Reid. I need this position.”
There was real fear in his voice. Would Reid really turn him out if he discovered the truth? Reid didn’t strike Abi as the kind of man who would do that but then he didn’t strike her as the kind of man who would kidnap a defenseless woman either and look how that had turned out.
She raised her hand to the side of her face, holding up three fingers. “I won’t tell Reid. Scout’s honor.”
He looked at her blankly. “Scout’s honor?”
She laughed, shaking her head. “Never mind. Now, are we going to get this paperwork sorted or what?”
They worked diligently for the rest of the day. It was hard work as the language was archaic, even if thankfully it was written in English, but they gradually plowed through reports from outlying garrisons, requests for more men or supplies from various outposts and updates on Muir troop movements. These were put aside for Martin to discuss with Reid later. There were also orders for goods from France and England, complaints from merchants about late payments, requests for meetings with Reid, and Abi and Martin even got around to updating Reid’s accounts of what was coming in and out of the castle’s coffers.
At one point a huge slab of a man entered the hall and slapped a couple of bowls of stew down on the table. Martin introduced the man as Angus, the cook, and despite his intimidating size and scarred face, he turned out to be a softly spoken man with a light Irish accent. He had lost a hand in fighting in his homeland and been taken on by Reid as a cook when he could no longer wield a sword. He gave Abi a shy smile that belied his size, and a bow that took her wholly by surprise. The stew, it turned out, was delicious.
The sun was getting low, slanting through the narrow windows in the room, when the men began filing into the great hall for the evening meal. Many of them glanced at Abi but none of them spoke to her. Thomas and Clyde came in, gave her a nod of greeting, set up a chess board on one of the tables, and began playing. Soon, most of the benches were full and the hall was filled with the raucous sounds of men laughing and talking and in some cases, arguing. There was no sign of Reid and the large chair at the head table remained empty.
Abi shifted on the bench uncomfortably. She felt vulnerable being the only woman in the room surrounded by men that Reid had warned her were not to be trusted. More than one look was aimed in her direction and she didn’t miss the hungry expression on some of the men’s faces as they watched her.
She swallowed. It was time to go back to her room. At least there she could put the chest across the door and feel a little safer. She pushed back the bench and stood.
Martin looked up. “Are ye not staying for the evening meal?”
“Um, no. I’m a little tired so I think I’ll go back to my room.”
Martin took her hands in his and clasped them tightly. He gave her a warm smile, his eyes crinkling at the edges. “Ye have my thanks for yer help today, lass. Ye’ve taken the weight off an old man’s shoulders. If there is aught I can do for ye in return, just name it.”
Abi smiled and squeezed the old man’s hands, feeling that she might have made a friend. “I’ll bear that in mind.” She released Martin and walked away, skirting around the edge of the hall rather than weaving through the benches to avoid the men.
She’d almost made it to the door when a voice called, “Do ye play, my lady?”
She turned. It was Clyde. He gestured to the chess board. “I’ve just thrashed Thomas again. Do ye fancy a game?”
Abi hesitated. She really ought to return to her room. But then stubbornness kicked in. Was this how she was going to spend her time here? Scuttling around like a mouse, trying to keep out of everyone’s way? Not bloody likely. If she was going to have to stay here for a while, she would make the best of it, and that started with showing these men she was not intimidated by them.
She forced a smile onto her face. “Actually, I would love a game,” she said to Clyde.
Thomas moved over on the bench and Abi took his place, facing Clyde across the chess board. She’d played a lot with her brothers when she’d been a kid and it used to drive them to distraction when she beat them every time. She wondered if she could remember her old skills.
