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Prologue

Glen Loch, NY

Summer 1812

THUNDER CRASHED AND lightning ripped through the sky while rain lashed at the stone arch over Eleanor Campbell MacPherson’s head

Perfect, she thought

It was one of her dreaain The sound of the wind had drawn her out onto her balcony and when she’d seen the clouds roll in over the lake, blacking out the stars, she’d known it was ti that she’d done so many years before

Slipping out of the castle, she’d raced the rain to the stone arch and reached it just as the skies opened The drea since her husband’s death had centered here in the place that had played such a powerful role in her life and in Angus’s

Her sons and daughters-in-laho loved her dearly, would not be happy that she regularly sneaked out of the castle in the dead of night Even less happy that she was here in the stone arch on a night like this And she doubted they would approve of her plan

So she would make sure that they didn’t know

All her life, she’d been good at keeping secrets But since the death of her husband a year ago, one of those secrets had begun to weigh on her And the drea them to her He’d known her so well, and he’d known that the Stuart sapphires she’d carried with her to the New World had troubled her conscience

Thunder roared and lightning flashed so bright and fierce that for an instant, Eleanor saw everything clearly—the garden, the elegant facade of Castle MacPherson, the cliffs beyond and the roiling waters of the black lake below

Ho here with Angus Daniel MacPherson fifty years ago was not one of thehlands of Scotland, the pride and expectations of her family, and a man who’d claimed to love her very much And she’d never looked back

Not that Angus had given her any choice

Theback to that night in Scotland so long ago, when he’d asked her to run aith him to the New World She’d been shocked at the idea, thrilled and frightened at the saardens of her faarden made it a perfect place for them to meet in secret

And secrecy was essential She shouldn’t have even talked to hih their families’ lands shared a common border, the MacPhersons and the Campbells had been blood enemies for years

And she’d been promised to another man

But once Angus had kissed her beneath the stone arch he’d completely captured her heart Her end surrounding the stones They carried a power from ancient times, and the man you kissed beneath that arch would be your true love forever

And she hadn’t just kissed Angus once Each tiain And each time she’d promised herself it would be the last time

The night of Angus’s proposal, her fa to her betrothed She earing her future husband’s gift to her, the legendary sapphire earrings and necklace that had been bequeathed to his fan of Mary Stuart The queen had worn them at her coronation, so they were priceless He’d insisted she wear theht as proof of his love for her and as a symbol of the unionof their two families

When she’d slipped away frooodbye

She’d been repeating the little speech to herself all day She was betrothed to another o back on her word, and their situation was impossible There was no way that their families would allow them to marry In fact, her father would probably inflict bodily harus