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It was absurd, even for a ghost hunter, to believe that so to reach his That was Jackson Crow’s ical that he think about Ashley now, and logical that even after all these years, he wanted her to need his were taking over And thoughts of Ashley and Donegal Plantation

2

Ashley surveyed the expanse of the property one last ti and laughing, the ca on everywhere

She headed for the house It was tiet ready for the evening’s battle

But as she walked toward the house, she slowed, paused and looked over at the ce of unease swept over her

She shrugged it off; a dream was a dream Good God, she’d dreah school one day, and she loathed hiet her unease

Her grandfather, Frazier Donegal, was sitting on the back porch She grinned; he looked spectacular, she thought Frazier was eighty-three, but he showed little sign of slowing down Today he was dressed in a frock coat, pinstripe breeches and high riding boots--a pure gentlee with his full head of snohite, a Colonel Sanders ht blue eyes She worried about hihty-three

He was really in thea mint julep He didn’t even liketo wonder"

Ashley sat in one of the wicker rockers across from him "Last-ood didn’t want to be a Yankee"

Frazier rolled his eyes and shook his head "It works, you know, for the property, it works But why on earth everyone alants to be on the losing side, I’ll just never know Did he finally accept his assignment?"

"He did--but Ramsay Clayton stepped in at the last al," Ashley said

"Oh?"

"I don’t think Raood fellow You think he was trying to appear nanimous in front of you?" Frazier asked

Ashley shook her head "There’s never going to be anything between Ramsay and me, Grampa, there just isn’t"

He lifted his hands "I was just asking about his motives"

Ramsay had asked Ashley out the previous year; she had always liked hiood artist, and a handsome man, but she had never felt the least bit of chemistry with hiood friendship Ratime lover She wondered if she was still on the rebound--even if she had been the one who had run from Jake

"I honestly believe Ramsay just doesn’t care," Ashley said "I think he’ll have fun saying, ‘Oh, Lord! I had to be a Yankee’ No, Ra to impress me Griffin even asked me to be his friendly companion for a dinner he had--and I said no They all understand that the friendships we have are too iood for Raet dressed," Frazier told her

"Yep, I’m on it"

She rose and walked into the house froe of the river and bayou breezes when they had built the house It hadn’t been changedhallway stretched from the front of the house to the back, and before the advent of air-conditioning, the double doors on each end had often been kept open The house had one unique feature: double winding staircases to a second-floor landing that led to the six bedrooms, three on each side of the house on that floor The stairway to the third floor, or attic, where there were still two roouest rooms or let out to renters, was on the second floor, bayou side, of the house

Beth Reardon was in Ashley’s rooh her corset

Her skin was pure ebony; she was tall, regal and beautifully built But she had chosen to get into the action She earing a cotton skirt and cotton blouse and her hair rapped up in a bandana She gazed over at Ashley "Hey! Ti an argument over who had to be a Yankee," Ashley told her