They heard the back door open and then Calla say, “Okay, Heather, I’ve got fabric samples and wedding books in my car. Who would have thought our first-ever ladies’ night would turn into a wedding-planning event?”

Grant smiled, then left the men in the living room when Ian said, “Go, Guthrie. Ask her to stay with us afterward.”

Guthrie muttered something under his breath about lassies and money and how the two soon parted company.

Grant smiled, then saw the lasses near the foyer. “Can I have a word with you, Calla?”

She smiled at him, albeit her expression was a bit wary. “Aye.”

“Guthrie and I can help you with whatever you need to bring in,” Grant said.

Calla glanced in Guthrie’s direction and arched a brow.

He folded his arms. “Aye.”

“Thanks.” She and Heather headed outside.

“If you would like,” Grant said, catching up to her, “you can stay with us at Farraige Castle to make all the plans.”

“I would like that,” Calla said. “Makes it much easier to plan the event.”

Grant glanced at Guthrie, who wasn’t saying anything. Grant swore that if Guthrie had pockets in his kilt, he would have his hands shoved in them. Grant tilted his head to the side, silently appealing to him to ask Calla to stay at Argent Castle after the wedding was concluded.

Looking mutinous, Guthrie didn’t say a word.

When they reached Calla’s car, she handed Guthrie a heavy catalog of fabrics. “Since you are so braw and gallant, you can carry the heaviest of the items.”

He grunted.

She smiled, then turned and fished out a couple of bags for Grant to carry, another book for Heather, and her laptop. Once she’d emptied her trunk, they walked back to the keep. Grant cast Guthrie another look, telling him there was no time like the present. Ask already.

Guthrie scowled back at him, then cleared his throat.

Everyone looked at him expectantly.

Guthrie said, “Ian wants you to stay here after the wedding.”

Grant rolled his eyes. That hadn’t worked before, and he was certain it wouldn’t work now.

“I’ve told him and Julia no,” Calla said.

Grant had been right.

“It’s not safe out there with Baird stalking you everywhere you go. You were lucky tonight that we came to your rescue, but…” Guthrie continued.

“Aye, and I thank you. I’m not going to hide away from place to place, not doing my job because Baird and his brothers and cousins are harassing me. I won’t.”

They walked in silence for some time. Grant really thought the lass would go along with it because he suspected she did have a fondness for Guthrie.

“Unless…” Calla said and paused dramatically.

Everyone looked over at Calla, waiting for the rest of what she had to say.

“Julia wants me to plan a Christmas party at Argent Castle.”

Guthrie groaned out loud. Grant could just imagine Guthrie thinking about the expenditures for such a venture.

Calla smiled. “I’m not saying she will. She hasn’t asked, but if she does, maybe while I’m planning the affair, I can stay here for a while.”

“Christmas is too far away,” Guthrie said.

Grant was surprised he said so as they made their way around the keep to the gardens out back.

“Okay, then here’s the deal. If I stay, I have to be allowed to leave anytime I want,” Calla said. “I know Ian, and he’ll want to keep me confined within these walls until Baird no longer has an interest in harassing me.”

Guthrie said nothing. Grant couldn’t speak for Ian, or he would have said it was a deal.

“So the only way this will work to satisfy Ian’s need to keep me safe and my need to do my job is if you will accompany me everywhere I go.”

“I have a job to do,” Guthrie said quickly.

Calla frowned at him. “Aye, as do I. My terms are nonnegotiable. I don’t mean for you personally to have to escort me everywhere, but as in you—your kinsmen.”

Looking vastly relieved, Guthrie nodded. “Ian can send out others to guard you, and that should be perfectly acceptable to him.”

She pondered that and then said, “Agreed.”

Grant breathed a sigh of relief. He wasn’t even involved in the matter, but he did care about Calla’s safety.

“But…” she said.

Grant wanted to shake his head. The terms were agreed upon. The lass couldn’t already be changing her mind.

“That’s only if Julia asks me to plan a Christmas party for her.”

Guthrie didn’t look happy about that. Would he tell Julia that? Encourage her to have a party when it went against every financial bone in his body?

Grant wondered which way it would go.

Calla changed the subject abruptly and said to Grant, “Since Archibald Borthwick was here tonight, it made me think about him and Colleen, and I thought you should know this. He wasn’t at my wedding as friend of the groom but only because he was trying to learn when Colleen Playfair was coming to Scotland and forgot the time. I didn’t think anything of it because I didn’t know his connection to Colleen. I thought he was an old friend of the family.”

“Hardly,” Grant said, although Archibald might claim to have been a friend of Theodore Playfair.

“Baird had said, by rights, the castle should have been Archibald’s.”

So Archibald had told Baird this tale, too. “How did he figure that?” Grant asked as he opened the gate to the garden path that led to the garden room. They could hear the ladies all laughing and having a good time of it. He wanted to know what they were talking about that was so funny.