myth seem real. As he flipped through the pages again, he noted the illustrations—the stone arch and other landmarks that surrounded the castle. He’d read in an article that the illustrations had been drawn by Eleanor herself. Nell’s ancestor had the same talent Nell had for capturing significant details on the page. Studying them brought vividly to mind the little fairy-tale princess of a girl that he’d done his best to protect that long-ago summer.
He fervently wished that was the only image of Nell that lingered in his mind. But there was another one that he couldn’t quite shake loose. At their parents’ wedding, she’d still looked a bit like a fairy-tale princess with her long blond hair. But she hadn’t been a little girl anymore. She’d been eighteen, just on the brink of womanhood, and she’d been beautiful.
Stunning actually. Her resemblance to Eleanor Campbell MacPherson had been striking. He’d caught himself looking at her more than once during the brief wedding ceremony, and when he’d met her gaze, for a moment he hadn’t been able to see anyone or anything else. And he’d felt...well, the only way he could describe it was a kind of recognition—a knowledge that she was the one for him. It was as if they stood alone beneath the stone arch, and he’d wanted her with an intensity that he’d never felt before or since.
Later when he returned to college and the demands of finishing his senior year, he’d convinced himself that what he’d felt was a fluke, a onetime thing that had been triggered by the emotions of the day and his twenty-two-year-old hormones. Still he’d been careful to avoid Nell. A pretty easy task given the demands of his career.
But once the sapphires started popping up, he’d known that he would see Nell again—and he was enough of a Scot to believe that perhaps it was destined.
And if what he’d felt beneath the stones hadn’t been a fluke?
Well, he wasn’t twenty-two anymore, and he’d always been able to handle Nell. As he recalled, she’d been eager to please and meticulous about following orders, so he didn’t expect any problems in that regard.
Rising from his desk, he tucked the book into his duffel bag. But the ringtone on his cell had him crossing back to his desk quickly. It was Duncan. Why was he calling again when his earlier mission had been accomplished?
Unless...
“Problem or favor?” Reid asked.
“A big problem,” Duncan replied, his tone grim.
AS A FICTION WRITER, Nell knew that a good story always began on the day the trouble started. There was no mistaking that the letter with the threat to her family meant trouble.
If you choose to ignore your mission, someone in your family will die.
The numbing chill that had streaked through her when she’d first read the words hadn’t surprised her. Neither had the fear she felt, fluttering like a trapped bird in her throat. Those were standard reactions any of her fictional characters might have felt. But the spurts of anger and excitement had been both unexpected and helpful. Because of those feelings, she’d been able to keep her smile in place, and get herself and her sister Piper halfway down the block and seated in the little sidewalk café before she handed over the letter.
Now, Piper, ever the lawyer, was reading it for at least the third time. Nell suppressed an urge to pinch herself to see if she was just imagining it all.
The setting couldn’t have been more perfect if she’d been writing it. The morning sun was already high in the cloudless blue sky, the temperature was in the low eighties and the humidity tolerable. The sidewalks were bustling with happy shoppers and tourists. The whole lovely scene offered a stark contrast to the threat in the letter.
“I don’t like this,” Piper said. Then she read the message again, this time out loud.
Nell didn’t like it, either. Hearing the threat helped her to focus on the fact that this wasn’t some story she was making up. No need to pinch herself; this was real. And it was up to her to do something about it.
Excitement sparked again. She’d spent her entire life reading, imagining and writing stories, and now she was going to live one of her own. Wasn’t that just what she wanted? Where would the adventure take her? Would she have the courage and the know-how to do what any one of her fictional heroines would?
One thing she knew for certain. No one was going to hurt anyone in her family—not if she could prevent it.
The waiter set down two chocolate and caramel Frappuccino drinks. Nell took a long sip of hers. She’d learned a long time ago that chocolate helped smooth over life’s rough patches. Not that she’d had very many. As the youngest of three sisters, her life had always run pretty smoothly. She’d been a baby when her mother had died, and their father had turned into a recluse. So she hadn’t known either of them long enough to really miss them. Then their aunt Vi had moved in with them, and Nell had always thought of Viola MacPherson as her mother.
People had always taken care of Nell. Adair had been the idea person, and based on her inspirations, Nell would invent stories that the three of them could act out during playtime. When Nell’s plotlines had landed the MacPherson girls in trouble, Adair landed on her feet and thought of a way out. Or Piper, always the negotiator, would find a way to fix things with their aunt.
It wasn’t until Nell went to college that she’d had to solve problems entirely on her own. Her goal from the time she was little had been to become a published writer and tell the stories she was always spinning in her mind. On the surface, the fact that she’d signed a publishing contract for her first book within a year of graduation might look like pretty smooth sailing. But she’d worked hard to achieve it.
The federal grant she had landed had allowed her to visit cities across the United States, offering writing classes to children and promoting her book at the same time. Several of the schools she’d visited had added It’s All Good to their required reading lists, and they were passing the word on to other schools and libraries. Adair called what she was doing “networking.”
The signing at Pages bookstore earlier today had been the last stop. It had only stalled her return to the castle by a few days. How could she have known that the delay could put those she loved in jeopardy?
“My best guess is that whoever sent this is the person Deanna Lewis was working with. Or at least someone who shares her belief that Eleanor did not have a right to the sapphires.” Piper glanced up and met Nell’s eyes. “Agreed?”
“Yes.”
“One thing I don’t get,” Piper said. “Why did they send this letter to you? You’ve been traveling the country. And Adair and I have a proven track record. We each found one of the earrings.”
They think it’s my turn, Nell thought. What she said was, “The two of you stirred up quite a bit of publicity. Anyone paying attention knows that Adair is now engaged to a CIA agent, and you’ve hooked up with an FBI profiler. I don’t come with that kind of baggage.”
Piper studied her for a moment, before she nodded. “Okay. Makes sense. But another thing puzzles me.” She tapped a finger on the last sentence. “Why do they say ‘if you refuse your mission again’?”
Guilt stabbed at Nell, and she felt heat rise to her cheeks. She hadn’t told Piper about
