She said softly to him, “You don’t teach everyone to shoot this way.”
“Nay, only a very special student.”
“I don’t think I can hit anything with you being so close.”
Guthrie chuckled.
“I’m serious.
“Aye.” But he stayed beside her. “I haven’t been close to you all day, and you have no idea how hard that’s been.”
She laughed. “You’ve been busy.”
“Watching out for you, aye.” Then he continued the lesson. “Some like to release their breath and then shoot. Some close one eye. Others prefer to keep both eyes open. It might take a few tries to adjust for the wind and learn to sight the target properly. Okay, let’s get ready to do this.” He helped her pull the string back, his fingers on the tips of hers.
“Ready. Release.”
She let go of the string and watched as the wind carried her arrow to the right of the target. The lad had at least hit the edge on two of his tries.
“Good,” Guthrie said, as if he really meant it.
“Guthrie, I missed the target completely.”
“Aye, but you have never done this before, right?”
“Nay, never.”
“Aye, so it takes practice. When you shoot the next arrow, you’ll be able to adjust your aim and better compensate for the wind.”
She let out her breath. “Aye.” She’d love to do this when Guthrie wasn’t watching her. That was a first, since she normally wouldn’t have cared. Yet with him, she didn’t want to look like a failure. Not that she was easily discouraged.
She tried again, only without his help. She wasn’t sure what she did, but the next thing she knew, the arrow fell at her feet. Overheated with embarrassment, she picked up her arrow and tried again. This time, she way overcompensated and came closer to hitting the target to the left of hers.
Cearnach and his archery student glanced at her and grinned. “I liked your target better,” she said to them, though her arrow was a foot away from hitting their target.
“Next one will be a perfect shot,” Guthrie told her.
To her chagrin, Cearnach and his charge both waited to see how far off she was this time. She released her arrow and it nicked the top of her target. Cearnach and the boy clapped.
She felt her skin warm considerably with mortification.
Guthrie smiled. “You did it!”
“It didn’t even stick to the target.”
He laughed. “Aye, but if you aimed a wee bit lower, it would have hit the bull’s-eye.”
That made her think of him hitting the bull’s-eye with her—making her come apart under his exquisite touch.
“I’ll give you private lessons later,” he whispered in her ear, his lips brushing a kiss there.
She didn’t believe he was talking about archery. “Who removed my gown last night?”
“Ah, lass, everyone had gone to bed already, and I didn’t think you wanted wrinkles in your gown.”
“So you did.”
“Aye. I would have given you a foot rub, if you had awakened.”
“Hmm,” she said. “Next time we go dancing, I’ll take you up on it.”
“You’ve got it.”
He glanced behind them as footfalls approached. “Seems I’ve got a lineup of lassies wanting lessons.”
Four ladies about her age were smiling brightly at him. “Ah, so I see. Thanks for the lesson. Have fun.” Calla smiled sweetly at him, trying not to show her jealousy. When did she begin to feel so possessive of him?
She handed him the bow and stalked off to a food booth. She had not even made it halfway there when Guthrie caught up with her. She glanced back to see that Oran had taken his place at the archery range. “Too many lasses to handle?”
“I was only interested in teaching you how to ply a bow and arrow,” Guthrie said. “Only…you.”
***
After all the guests had left and the MacNeills had finished the meal that night, several of the pack members gathered around the den in front of a fire.
“I would like to propose a toast,” Julia said, “to thank Calla for her brilliant idea and for helping change Ian’s mind about opening the castle and estates to outsiders.”
“I thought it all turned out really well, but everyone in the pack has to take credit. Everyone did a marvelous job and I think we all had fun,” Calla said.
Julia took a seat next to her. “Guthrie is upstairs in his office, figuring out how much money was made. Ian’s with him. He has asked if you and Guthrie could be in charge of this again next year.”
Before Calla could respond, Heather added, “I’ve never had so much fun in my life.”
Aunt Agnes agreed. “With more time to plan next year, we could have the children put on a puppet play, and we would have time to make more crafts.”
“I’d love to offer cards made with dried flowers, if I’d had more time,” Shelley said.
“Cook told us she’d prepare more food.” Elaine motioned in the direction of the kitchen. “She and her assistants are in the kitchen now making food for tomorrow. She said their cakes and scones sold out quickly.”
The rest of the conversation centered on the day’s activities—what worked and what could be improved—and Calla hadn’t heard of any trouble all day long. Best of all, Baird and his wolf pack had stayed away.
Ian joined them in the den with Guthrie. “After all sales less expenses were calculated, we made more than twenty-five thousand pounds to be put toward a college fund for the older teens,” Ian announced, sounding as proud as he could be.
Everyone clapped and cheered.
“Both our own people and numerous guests asked me throughout the day if we could do this as an annual Christmas event,” Ian continued. “As you know, I’m not happy with having humans invading the castle at any time, particularly when we have wolves who are more newly turned and some children who are not good at keeping their shifting urges in abeyance around humans.”
Everyone looked expectantly at him.
“But, as successful as it was, and as much as everyone wanted to do this again next year, we will.”
Everyone agreed.
Ian looked directly at Calla and said, “If you agree to help organize it. Guthrie said he couldn’t do it without you.”