He stepped aside from his great table not to dismiss her, but to welcome her into the space he guarded most fiercely, which was his work.
“Very well,” he nodded. “Come.”
Davina moved to the table. Papers were stacked in uneven piles, some sealed, some half-folded, and some creased at the edges by handling. She began picking through them with a practiced eye, gleaned from years of helping manage her father’s household accounts.
“This is a supply request fer fencing,” she murmured, flipping open a letter. “The steward should review this first, aye?”
Baird nodded, watching her more closely than the papers. “Aye.”
She proceeded to set that one aside, then swiftly divided the others: council matters, clan matters and trade matters. Baird’s shoulders eased inch by inch as the chaos diminished under her hands. When she hesitated over a torn, mud-stained notice, he leaned in, close enough that she felt the warmth of his presence.
“That one is urgent,” he told her, reaching beside her. “Keep it.”
She did. Their hands brushed, but neither commented on it.
Within twenty minutes, the mountain of correspondence had transformed into a clear order, starting from urgent, to pending and finally to irrelevant. Baird stared at the final arrangement as though she had performed sorcery.
“Saints,” he muttered. “I’ve been fighting with that heap fer days.”
Davina smiled. “Sometimes, all ye need is a different pair of hands and eyes.”
A slow exhale left him as he watched her. She did not expect him to thank her, so she was surprised he did.
“Thank ye, Davina,” he said, pushing a hand through his hair. “I suppose now I have fewer excuses.”
She tilted her head playfully. “Excuses?”
“Fer nae signing yer request,” he confessed. He reached for the paper atop the nearest pile. “And fer delaying the trip.”
Davina steadied her breath as he dipped his pen and scrawled his signature across the bottom of the page with decisive strokes. When he set the pen down, he met her gaze.
“Shall we go, then?”
A warmth fluttered through her chest. “Aye. I shall only be a minute,” she added quickly, heading toward the door, where she stopped in the doorway. “Wait fer me outside?”
He smiled and only nodded. That smile made her blush, so she hastily disappeared before he noticed it. Although she knew that he noticedeverything.
CHAPTER 16
Baird still wasn’t entirely sure how Davina had managed it.
He walked beside her down the winding road toward the market square, with the guards trailing a few steps behind. The early sun glinted off the rooftops, warming the cobbles underfoot, and Davina’s elegant yet quick stride matched his own without effort.
He couldn’t believe she’d convinced him to leave his post, his maps, and three urgent letters awaiting his seal.
But then again… it was his own fault.
He’d wanted to go with her the moment she’d said she needed the supplies. He wanted to walk at her side and to see that spark in her eyes when she found exactly what she needed for the garden. He had wanted to go with her long before she’d given him no choice at all.
They reached the edge of the town square as the traders were setting up their morning stalls. The scent of fresh oatcakes drifted in the air, mingling with peat smoke and the sharp tang of early spring. People glanced up, murmured in surprise, then dipped their heads respectfully.
“Me laird!” several people called.
But more voices called to Davina.
“Lady Kincaid!”
“A fine morning tae ye!”
