Read Online Heart of the Highland Wolf by Terry Spear - Free Book Online Page A

shouldn’t have. Maria had dropped in earlier than Julia had expected, so she’d forgotten what she’d been doing.
    â€œI remember.”
    The shower began running. Maria hollered over the rush of water, “Your email was open to a note from your grandfather. I wouldn’t have read it, but the MacNeill name and reference to his castle caught my attention. Your grandfather said he wanted you to retrieve something from within the castle. He didn’t say he wanted you to ask the MacNeills for it. So I assumed he wanted you to steal it.”
    Julia shook her head and returned to her bedroom to get her socks and boots. “You turned off the computer so I forgot what I’d been doing before you arrived.”
    â€œYou told me to turn it off because we were rushed to see the earlier showing of the movie. So what are you supposed to retrieve?”
    â€œThanks for being a friend, Maria, and for not trying to stop me from doing this.” Julia felt sheepish that she hadn’t trusted Maria beforehand.
    The shower shut off, and Maria exited the bathroom, wearing a blue towel. “Are you kidding? You’re the most interesting person I know. If you’re not rappelling off a building to see how it’s done for one of your books, you’re learning to shoot a gun for another. Now it’s searching for a hidden treasure in the MacNeill stronghold filled with brawny Scots who will thwart you in any way they can. It’ll make for a great story if you don’t get caught. Maybe even better if you do get caught. So what is it you’ll be looking for, exactly?”
    â€œIt’s a rosewood box engraved with the symbol of a thistle, the Celtic knot, and the name Artur MacPherson. None of my family members were able to return to the castle after they left it in haste, from what my grandfather said. They have tried with various ruses over the years, but the place has been sealed tight with no one allowed in except the MacNeills or their kin or close friends. Before my grandfather dies, he wants me to retrieve the box and return it to the family.”
    At least that’s what her grandfather had said. But something really worried him about that box. He’d been so adamant and just as concerned as her father that she locate it and bring it home. Why now? Why after so many years of trying to get back in and not succeeding? Why not leave it buried in the castle walls?
    It was locked, he had warned her. She wasn’t to break the lock. But a niggling of untruth plagued her. What was in the box that she was to risk sneaking into the castle and locating it, and then return it unopened to her grandfather?
    Pandora’s box came to mind.
    â€œThey left the castle in haste? This gets better and better.” Maria entered Julia’s bedroom. “So what’s in the box? Maybe a claim to the estate?”
    Julia only wished she knew. “I’m sure my grandfather or father would have said. And I’m sure once a family abandons a castle to another, if that was the case, we’d have no claim to it anyway.”
    Julia sat on her bed and pulled on her socks, then her boots.
    â€œYou’re probably right, but… if the MacNeills have lived here since your family vacated it, wouldn’t they have found the box already? Disposed of the contents, most likely?”
    â€œIt’s hidden. Or at least it was.” If it was valuable, the MacNeills might have hung onto it. But what worried Julia more was whether or not the box contained information that could be used against her family. So many years had passed. What information could possibly be of importance any longer?
    All ready to go sleuthing, Julia collapsed on the green tweed sofa again, eager for Maria to leave so she could run off.
    Wearing a more casual hot-pink wool sweater and black jeans, Maria whirled out of the bedroom and met Julia in the living area. “A secret niche? You can’t be