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might be suited for…many different roles.’ Luna kept her eyes on the path. This entire conversation was starting to feel like a trap.
    â€˜I think I’m suited to being a PA,’ she said simply, and then, because that response seemed churlish in its brevity, ‘I work harder when it’s someone else’s head on the block. It means more to me, helping someone else succeed, if that makes any sense.’
    â€˜It does. I can see that.’

    *
    Paul Walker took a long drag on his roll-up and picked a piece of tobacco from his teeth.
    â€˜Ah tol her,’ he nodded dismissively at Luna, ‘ahm no’ the one ye wannay talk wi’.’
    Over thirty years in Berkshire hadn’t made a dent in their gamekeeper’s strong accent, or his Glaswegian abrasiveness. Of all the managers who reported directly to the Marchioness, Walker was the only one Luna privately feared. She still remembered the time over a year ago when she’d been running through the estate forests and he’d confronted her, shouting at her to ‘clear out, ye daft betch’. She’d disturbed his precious pheasants, apparently.
    Luna had taken care to steer well clear of him after that, until the previous day when she’d phoned to schedule an appointment with Stefan.
    â€˜Dinnae see the point,’ he’d said when she explained the purpose of Stefan’s visit. He was a gamekeeper, he said, not an accountant. And Luna had tried to forewarn Stefan, suggesting he might be better off talking to their in-house finance team, which handled invoicing Arborage’s hunt clients. But Stefan had insisted.
    â€˜This isn’t the nineteenth century, Miss Gregory. It simply isn’t acceptable for someone as handsomely remunerated as Mr Walker to claim ignorance of financial matters.’
    Luna silently thought differently. She also knew Walker had friends in high places that meant he got away with things others wouldn’t dare.
    So they had trekked out to his hut in the woods, to Walker’s obvious disgust. The grizzled Scotsman, fingers and teeth stained yellow from what smelled to Luna like a two-packs-a-day habit, made no attempt to hide his contempt for Stefan.
    â€˜So ye jes tell folks how tae run their own bezness, do ye?’ he said laconically.
    â€˜I try to help them run it more efficiently, yes,’ Stefan replied.
    Walker grunted and wiped his mouth on the sleeve of his none-too-clean flannel shirt. ‘Well, sonny, ah jes hunt. And tek rich folk like you hunting.’
    â€˜And yet,’ Stefan responded mildly, ‘your job description says you oversee a staff of twelve, and an annual budget of hundreds of thousands of pounds.’
    â€˜Job description?’ Walker barked, laughing harshly. ‘Ah didnae know ah had a job description.’
    And so it went. As Luna had feared, it had been a wasted journey. Stefan, however, seemed philosophical as they began their walk back to the house.
    â€˜Sometimes it goes not so well, this initial chat,’ he shrugged, touching Luna’s elbow lightly as she stepped over a tree root. Luna smiled; she liked the way his phrasing sometimes betrayed the fact that English was his second language.
    â€˜If it was all plain sailing and everyone we dealt with had all the answers, firms like mine would be out of business,’ he added. Mentioning his firm seemed to remind him of something and he glanced at his watch. ‘
Skit!
’
    â€˜What?’ Luna looked at him.
    â€˜I have a conference call with my office in Stockholm in two minutes. I completely forgot about it.’ He pulled out his mobile, but Luna shook her head.
    â€˜You won’t get any reception out here.’ She glanced back at Walker’s hut. ‘He has a landline. You could ring, let them know you’ve been delayed, put the call back?’
    Stefan smiled at her in that honey-on-toast way of his. ‘You
are
a good PA, Miss