Kyla sighed and pulled up a chair beside him, organizing the stacks of books and papers surrounding them as she began to review his work. She soon realized he had greatly exaggerated his own efforts, as he had not actually done much at all since she had left.
Kyla had reorganized the entries and the accounting in ways that made sense to her, so that she could see where the extra costs were incurred and where the most significant amounts of revenue came from. She couldn’t understand why her father struggled with her system, as it was fairly straightforward and she had explained it to him repeatedly. Nevertheless, she went through it with him again, then called Rory to come in and reviewed it with him as well.
By the time she and Peggy mounted their horses to return to Galbury Castle, it was close to supper time. She bid her father and brother a swift farewell before she and Peggy turned their horses to home.
She had much to mull over as she rode and Peggy, apparently sensing her need for silence, for once said blessedly little.
It seemed Kyla’s family was doing well enough in caring for the castle and themselves, but she wasn’t sure about the administration of the lands. Would Rory ever be ready to take over?
Despite how much it chagrined her, Kyla’s heart began to beat a little faster when they arrived home and she saw Finlay enter the stables, likely to work with Hurley. Upon their entry, he looked up from the floor of the stall, his eyes catching Kyla’s. He didn’t break the stare but gazed at her intently, as if reminding her of the night before without speaking any words.
It was Kyla’s turn to flush as Peggy looked from one of them to the other, though Kyla nearly forgot she was there, until she caught Peggy rolling her eyes as she dismounted and began to lead her mare into the stall.
“How was your visit?” Finlay finally asked, resuming his raking of Hurley’s stall. Others would offer to care for him, but Finlay insisted on doing any work near his finicky horse himself.
“Fine, thanks,” Kyla responded, before walking Cadarn to her stall.
“It was quite interesting,” said Peggy, coming around the corner, unable to keep herself away from the conversation.
“Oh?”
“Why yes,” Peggy said with a wide smile. “Rory was there, and had quite the tales of London and Glasgow. They have hired women from the village to do the household work that Kyla used to do. However, did you know Finlay, that Kyla kept all of the ledgers of not only the house but the management for all of their lands? And now, Kyla’s father canna make any sense of it at all. Kyla had to show him everything once again, and Rory refused to even pay attention. And—”
“Peggy!” Kyla rounded the corner in time to put a halt to the remainder of Peggy’s tale. “I dinna think you’ve quite captured what happened. Really, Father just needed a bit of a reminder.”
“A reminder? Kyla, ye ran everything over there! Why did no one say so?”
“I wouldn’t say I ran everything, I just made notes, kept the books, that sort of thing,” she said, self-consciousness creeping over her as Finlay stared at her.
“Is this why you’re so keen to instill your ideas here? To turn the McDougall holdings into that of the MacTavishes? I knew you were part of things over there, but didn’t know it was all your doing,” Finlay said, placing one of his hands on his hip, the other still on the rake. “’Tis interesting Niall left the management of his lands to a woman.”
“First of all, Finlay McDougall, a woman is perfectly capable of managing property if she so chooses,” Kyla responded, glaring at him in indignation. How dare he say such things? He knew nothing of what they had done. “However, for the record, my father made the decisions. I simply recorded them and provided advice, which he sometimes listened to. Other times he did things of his own choosing. Listening, though, Finlay, is something you could use a lot of work on.”
With that, she turned on her heel and returned to the house, noting that Peggy followed her with a smug glance backward at her older brother.
What was it with Finlay McDougall? Every time they made any progress in becoming closer, he took two steps backward, as though he wanted them to fail.
Which was fine, for she would be happy to be gone in two months… wouldn’t she?
10
Kyla spent the next day truly exploring the McDougall lands. While she had been busy with the household ledgers, she had managed a look at the overall balances of the business side of the McDougall land holdings and agriculture. It was a rather dismal outlook. The McDougalls had some sheep, but not enough to truly be profitable. They were too spread out in various areas of the land. Were they closer together, they could be more efficiently cared for.
It was the same with the fields of potatoes and other crops. They were not being grown in the land best suited for each of them. Looking at the maps, she could discern which areas they might be better positioned.
Not that she had superior knowledge to anyone else. She was sure the McDougalls knew just as well as she did what the best land use was. However, they still followed the old ways, which was to have various clansmen farm the same areas they always had, choosing what to do with the land allotted to them. Which was fine, but perhaps they could initiate a system in which they could better work together.
It was what she had always wanted to do on the MacTavish lands, but her father hadn’t listened. He
