You complete idiot, she thought.Look at what he really is. A bully. A thug. She thought she’d begun to see another side to the man, but it seemed that her first assessment of him was correct.
She swallowed, caught between wanting to march down there and put a stop to this, and wanting to flee. She did neither. She just stood and watched, her feet seeming rooted to the ground.
She was dimly aware of Clyde and Thomas coming to stand by her side, but she had little attention to spare for them. She couldn’t seem to tear her eyes off Reid.
His men were gathered around the villagers in a wide circle and she recognized the tall form of Malcolm and the bearded one of Domnall amongst them. Reid finished speaking and fell silent, seemingly waiting for a reply.
Then suddenly, Domnall darted forward, grabbed a woman, and began dragging her away. Across the distance, Abi thought she heard his rough voice shout something like, “payment”, and “mine.”
The woman didn’t even make a sound. She didn’t scream, didn’t fight, didn’t try to get away as Domnall dragged her towards one of the thatch-and-timber houses.
But Reid moved. He shouted something at Domnall, and the man bellowed a defiant reply before turning his back on his commander. Reid crossed the space between them in a heartbeat, his sword whipping out of its scabbard and the tip coming to rest against the base of Domnall’s throat. Domnall froze and Abi could imagine the look of fury that must be on his face right now. But he let the woman go and she scurried back to the others, the villagers closing around her protectively.
Words were exchanged between Domnall and Reid and although she couldn’t make them out, she could tell they were angry words. The atmosphere went up a notch and everyone watched the two in anticipation, expecting violence, but then Domnall snorted a laugh, shook his shaggy head, and resumed his place in the circle.
Reid watched him for a moment before sheathing his sword. Then he turned towards the river and froze as he caught sight of Abi standing there.
Abi turned away and scrambled back down the bank towards the river. She was moving so fast she paid no heed to her footing and skidded and slipped down the slope, brambles tangling in her dress, willow branches snatching at her hair.
Captain Drummond watched grimly from the barge as she scrambled aboard, her heart thumping and her breath coming in ragged gasps.
“I told ye it wasnae our business,” he said in his gruff voice. “I warned ye that no good would come from putting ashore.”
Had he known what she would see? Of course he had. Thomas and Clyde must have known too, which is why they’d looked so uncomfortable. This is war, they’d said. To them, this was all just an accepted part of life.
A hand settled on her shoulder and she turned to find Captain Drummond standing beside her. His voice was surprisingly gentle as he said, “Come, let’s get ye back to the castle.”
“No,” Abi said. “I need to go north. Can you take me north?”I need to get back to Kalmack. I need to find that arch. I need to go home!
Drummond shook his head. “Ye know I canna. Reid will probably have my hide for bringing ye this far.”
Thomas and Clyde scrambled aboard and they cast off, heading back the way they’d come. Neither of the youths would meet her gaze as they worked under Drummond’s tutelage, busying themselves with the manning of the barge. Abi sat in morose silence, staring out at the river passing by.
When the barge finally docked against the pier, she jumped ashore without waiting for the others, ran through the castle gates and up to her room, where she pushed the chest up against the door. She threw herself onto the bed and lay there staring up at the ceiling, desperately trying to come up with something, anything, that would enable her to get out of this brutal place and back to her normal life.
Sometime later, there was a knock on her door and Reid’s voice said, “Abigail? May I come in?”
Despite everything, her heart soared at the sound of his voice. She badly wanted to let him in. But she didn’t. She said nothing. There was a snuffle and a scratch as one of the dogs pawed at the door, too. Abi hardened her heart and ignored it. Finally, she heard Reid’s footsteps retreating down the corridor.
After that, she didn’t see Reid for three days. She fell into a routine: taking breakfast in the great hall with Clyde and Thomas, then spending the day helping Martin with the running of the castle. More and more of the men were coming to her for instructions, and she was becoming as busy as she was at the hotel. That was good. The busier she was, the less she thought about Reid. He was already gone for the day when she went down to breakfast and hadn’t returned by the time she went to bed. As she lay in bed at night, she couldn’t help wondering where he had been all day. Doing more of what she’d seen at the village?
His room was just down the corridor from hers and she found herself lying awake, listening for the sound of him returning, of his footsteps on the stairs and then the opening of his door. Each time he returned, there would be a scratching at her door from one or both of the dogs wanting to be let in, but she ignored it and eventually that stopped, too.
But the next morning, she opened her door and found Bo and Whitefoot waiting in the corridor outside. They sprang up as her door opened and barrelled into her, almost knocking her flat, showering her with doggy kisses. Abi threw her arms around them, finding herself suddenly in tears as all the emotion she’d locked up for the last few days came flooding out.
“Where’s your master, eh?” she asked them. She went into the corridor and looked around, but there was no sign of Reid. With the dogs padding along at her side, she made her way down to the great hall. Reid’s chair was empty as it had been each morning for the last three days.
She made her way over to Martin, Clyde and Thomas and lowered herself onto the bench. The dogs lay down by her feet.
“Where’s Reid?” she asked. “I thought he’d be here considering the dogs are.” Wherever Reid went, the dogs went.
“He left them behind when they refused to get up this morning,” Clyde said around a mouthful of porridge.
The morning disappeared quickly. There were always a hundred different things that needed seeing to in a place of this size with so many people living in it and, ably assisted by Thomas and Clyde, Abi diligently went about seeing to it all. Martin was happy to let her and she saw a certain relief in the old man’s face as she took some of the burden from his shoulders.
Later that day, as the sun was beginning to sink towards evening, Angus, the cook, came bursting into the great hall and stomped over to where Abi and Martin were going through a list of supplies needed for fixing the stable wall.
“Chimney’s blocked,” he announced without preamble. “I just lit the fire for the evening meal and damn near set fire to the whole kitchen. We willnae be getting any hot food tonight unless it gets unblocked.”
