No Risk Refused. Cara Summers

wedding, when she and her sisters had come out here with a bottle of champagne to write out their secret fantasies about their ideal fantasy lovers.

      She’d written her fantasy about Cam. She hadn’t been able to get him out of her head from the instant her eyes had met his during the ceremony. In that moment of eye contact only, no one else had existed. The intensity of the awareness she’d felt, the depth of it, had been something she’d never experienced before. When he’d asked her to dance later, she’d seen the challenge in his eyes. He’d known the effect he was having on her. But she’d refused the dance, preferring the safety she’d felt in his brother Reid’s arms.

      It was only later, with a little help from the champagne, that she’d given full flight to her desire and her fantasy. Just thinking about it made her knees feel so weak that she sank onto the narrow ledge that ran along the side of the arch. Cam spelled trouble for her. And she didn’t kid herself. She’d increased the problem exponentially when she’d written her fantasy down on paper and buried it in the arch.

      The whole thing had been her idea, and she’d talked her sisters into doing the same thing. Adair the great planner. In the back of her mind she’d had some idea that if she wrote a fantasy about Reid or Duncan, she could negate what she was feeling for Cam.

      Hadn’t worked out. The instant her pen had struck paper, it had all been about Cam and no one but Cam.

      Calm down. Adair forced herself to breathe in, breathe out.

      You’ve avoided him for years. His job at the CIA has kept him overseas. There’s nothing to worry about.

      Except the power of the stones.

      And there might be a way to lessen that….

      Dropping to her knees, Adair traced her fingers along the base of the arch, trying to find the loose stones that she and her sisters had discovered when they were children. Behind them there was a niche just big enough to hold the metal box they’d used for years. Any fantasy that she’d put into the box could be taken out. Then she just might have less to worry about.

      None of the stones were loose.

      That couldn’t be. Lowering herself to her stomach, Adair squinted at the stones as she ran her hands along them again. There wasn’t even a crack she could get a finger into.

      Had the lightning shifted things?

      The sound of Alba’s bell had her scrambling to her feet. Once the dog reached the arch, she wandered around to the side and started pawing at some stones. Adair spotted her aunt as she stepped out of the gardens.

      “Find any damage?” Vi called.

      “Seems pretty solid.” Adair brushed her hands off on her slacks. And she was going to put that box and the fantasies it contained out of her mind. Why on earth was she obsessing about Cam Sutherland all of a sudden? Avoidance had worked so far, and there wasn’t any reason to think that it wouldn’t continue to work.

      Unless you don’t want it to….

      Pushing the thought firmly away, Adair stepped out of the stone arch. “I have an idea about how to avoid the runaway bride disaster.”

      Vi smiled at her. “I’m all ears.”

      “You distract Bunny tomorrow and give me some time alone with Rexie. Maybe she’ll tell me what’s bothering her. I’d like to know what really happened with her first husband that’s making her so nervous about taking a second chance.”

      Vi smiled. “I can handle Bunny. She’s very interested in getting the recipe for the scones I served with her herb tea.”

      “You never give that recipe out.”

      “I won’t this time either, but I have several older versions of it that I can bear to part with.”

      Alba’s bell jingled again, and she suddenly appeared around the side of the arch with something in her mouth. The dog dropped what looked like a leather pouch on the ground at their feet.

      She and Vi dropped to their knees together. Then Adair picked up the pouch. It was folded like an envelope with another pouch inside of it and another pouch in side of that. “Chinese boxes,” Adair murmured.

      But when she opened the last one, all she could do was stare. Inside lay a sapphire earring set in gold. The gem was the size of her thumbnail and it dangled from a link of gold chain.

      Vi caught her breath. “Oh, my.”

      Oh, my, indeed. Adair recognized it right away. Eleanor Campbell MacPherson was wearing it in the portrait that hung in the main parlor. And Mary Stuart might very well have worn it on the day she was crowned.

      But Eleanor’s dowry had been missing for years. The theory was that one of the Anguses had sold it long ago.

      With the earring still lying in the palm of her hand, she stood and walked around to the side of the stone arch where Alba had been digging. Sure enough, there was a pile of stones that looked as if they’d shaken loose during the storm.

      “Who on earth put this here and why?” Adair breathed.

      Alba began to bark. When Adair glanced at her, she saw that the dog wasn’t looking at the loose stones but at the wooded hill that sloped sharply upward beyond the stone arch. Alba continued to bark as she raced to the hedge that separated the gardens from the trees. Adair ran her gaze up the hill, trying to see what was upsetting the dog, but she saw nothing.

      “There’s something up there she doesn’t like,” Vi said as she moved past Adair to take the dog’s collar and pat her head.

      Even as the dog quieted, Adair scanned the hill again and still saw nothing.

      “We’d better get that earring inside and then we’ll have to call your father and let him know,” Vi said.

      Adair stared down at the earring and as she did, it seemed to glow. She could have sworn that she felt a warmth in her hands. After all these years, a part of Eleanor’s dowry had shown up. Why now, she couldn’t help but wonder. And why had it been hidden away in the stone arch?

       3

      Received a call from Mom and A.D. Need our help. Conference call with all three of us at five-thirty?

      CAM SUTHERLAND READ the short text from his brother Reid twice. Some things never changed. In spite of the fact that he and his brothers were triplets, there’d always been a pecking order. From the time they were little, if his mom needed something she’d always called on Reid, the oldest. Even now, she used him as her main contact person, and it was his job to relay the information and/or request.

      Because his younger brother Duncan had always been studious and a bit shy, he’d always seemed to receive extra attention, too. Not that his mom had a lot to spread around. Her work teaching and her research had always absorbed her. “Absentminded professor” might have been a term coined to describe her. But after their father had been sent to prison, Beth Sutherland’s academic success and her publications had been key to keeping custody of her sons. So from the age of ten, they’d all pitched in.

      And they’d fallen into roles. Reid had become the leader and organizer, Duncan had offered ideas and analysis, and it had usually fallen on Cam to carry out the missions. Not that he’d complained. He’d always preferred action over giving advice or orders.

      His mother didn’t turn to them very often anymore, but he had no doubt that he would probably get the assignment. His older brother’s new duties in the Secret Service serving on the Vice President’s security detail were keeping Reid very busy, and the last time he’d talked to Duncan, who worked as a profiler in the Behavioral Sciences division of the FBI, he’d been consulting on a case in Montana.

      Then with a frown Cam read the text again. His mom and A. D. MacPherson were in Scotland, and if they’d taken the time to call, his best guess was that something was going on at the castle. From what