“A job? Doing what?”
A flicker of annoyance showed in her eyes and then she suppressed it. “I will be managing his warehouse.”
“His warehouse?” Niall repeated, feeling confounded.
The man rose. “Allow me to introduce myself. Archibald Haines, owner of Haines Consolidated Warehousing. I house stores for several shipping lines.”
“Niall MacDonald,” Niall replied.
“Yes. I remember you from last night. You seem quite protective of Miss Ferguson.” He gave Niall a speculative look. “Are you her fiancé?”
“Nae!” The word came from both of them at once.
Mr. Haines glanced from one to the other. “I see.”
He probably didn’t see at all. Good God. Just because Naill found Annie interesting—even intriguing—didn’t mean he wanted to marry her. He hadn’t even considered marriage. To anyone. From Annie’s forceful answer, neither had she. Niall frowned. Actually, her response was more forceful than his was. And louder. In his experience, women always wanted to get married. Didn’t they? He shook his head to clear it. “I am escorting Miss Ferguson while I am a guest at the boardinghouse, just as any gentleman would.”
Annie made a strange sound he couldn’t quite identify, so he ignored it and continued. “Why would ye want Miss Ferguson working for ye?”
This time, full-fledged indignation showed on her face and also in her tone. “Why would he nae?”
Niall gave her his most contrite smile, which did absolutely nothing to diminish her scowl. Why was this one woman so damn unimpressionable? He turned back to Mr. Haines. “I would think ye would already have a manager in place.”
“Oh, I did,” Mr. Haines replied, seeming not to notice the exchange between Annie and Niall. “But he was involved in a bad carriage accident several weeks ago. Killed, actually. I’ve had to manage the job myself since then.”
“So why did you choose Miss Ferguson?” Niall asked, risking infuriating Annie further. Out of the corner of his eye, he could practically see her hair bristle. Interesting how the color seemed to glow brighter when she was angry. And he had no doubt she was.
“To tell you the truth, I had not considered a woman managing the place before last night,” Mr. Haines answered. “But when I heard Miss Ferguson speak…” He smiled and nodded at Annie. “…I realized there was no reason a woman could not handle the position.”
“There. Ye see?” Annie said to Niall before she turned to Mr. Haines. “Thank ye. It certainly is assuring thatsomemen see value in women.”
“I dinnae say ye had nae value,” Niall said. “Ye do.”
“Just nae when it comes to holding an actual job,” Annie shot back.
Niall started to protest, but then decided against it. He wasn’t going to win this particular argument. At least not now. If he wanted to tell Annie how much value she had, he wasn’t going to do it in front of Haines. The conversation could—would—get personal. Annie probably wouldn’t appreciate that either. In fact, he was probably going to get another glare, if not worse, from her when he asked his next question.
“So what will this job include, exactly? I doona want Miss Ferguson injuring herself.”
He hardly had the words out before he could hear her start to sputter. Luckily, Haines interjected before she could unleash a tirade.
“Nothing like manual labor,” the man said. “I have a number of young men who can do the heavy lifting and moving things around.”
Niall didn’t like the sound of that either. He didn’t want Annie surrounded by a lot of young, strong men. It wouldn’t be safe. “I doona think a lady should be—”
“By the saints! Will ye stop?” Annie gave him a look that might have withered another man, but Niall just set his jaw.
“I doona think being the only woman working in a warehouse is a suitable job for ye,” he said stubbornly.
“’Tis my decision,” Annie replied, equally defiant.
“Perhaps I could interpose,” Mr. Haines said mildly.
They both stopped glaring at each other to look at him. He smiled benignly.
“I can understand Mr. MacDonald’s concern,” Mr. Haines said smoothly, “but Miss Ferguson will mostly be in the office handling the paperwork. The only time she need be on the floor is to make sure the inventory is correct before it leaves. She will have to vouch for that.”
“Which is something I can do,” Annie said, blue fire flashing from her eyes in Niall’s direction. “Unless ye think me utterly a nitwit.”
