The Curse of Clan Ross by L. L. Muir Read Free Book Online Page B

hole in the floor and run away; there was a sinister pressure in the stagnant air around her. Waving at her from the back of her mind was her grandmother’s conspiracy.
    Had it only been two weeks since she’d walked through the doors of the genealogical library in Salt Lake City?  Had she known the sisters for only days and not years?
    Just as they might have done for any other visitor, the Muirs had listened to what leads Jilly had on her grandmother’s family, had patiently written down the dates and names she knew, and ordered microfiche to dig deeper into her ancestry. She’d been immediately comforted by their gentle words and kind encouragement. With these two as her champions, she’d felt nothing was impossible, that other relatives could be found.
    Little did she know.
    It was only after she told them her birth father’s name of Ross that Lorraine and Loretta revealed the animated, obsessive sides to their natures. At first, Jilly had been charmed by their stories of mysterious curses and star-crossed lovers. Compared to her own unhappy grandmother, the Muirs showed an unrepentant zeal for life, an optimism to which Jilly had never before been exposed and she’d been caught up in the wrinkly whirlwind.
    When they took her under their fragile wings, a lonely orphan from a lonelier state was powerless to turn away from them. When they had insisted she accompany them on their last tour of Scotland before they were too old to travel, her first reaction was suspicion. After all, hadn’t she been warned away from Scotland all her life? Too bad she hadn’t taken it more seriously.
    There was one secret, however, that Jillian kept to herself—every warning about the country and its people drove Jillian crazy with curiosity until Scotland became a mysterious gift she was dying to open. And now, it was all hers with no one left to forbid her from ripping off the paper.
    The sisters had immediately played the “pity” card and convinced her they’d feel ever so much safer if there were an able-bodied young woman along, just in case. If ever Jillian MacKay had an Achilles Heel, it was her need to be needed. And that need, combined with the bright bow tied around the country, had made her such an easy recruit.
    Until now, though, it had all been a game. It was easy to come to love these women while she worked out just who was patronizing whom. Looking back, Jilly chided herself for never imagining the game could turn dangerous.
    “Jillian.”
    She turned to find Lorraine looking as disturbed as she felt.
    “Don’t touch the necklace, dear. I’ve changed my mind.”
    Laird Ross looked at the necklace curiously, then up at Lorraine. “Do ye sense something, then?”
    “I do,” both sisters volunteered.
    “Must be a woman’s ken. What say ye, Miss MacKay?  Have ye changed yer mind as well?” Quinn bit his lip.
    He looked like a child who suspected he was about to be turned away at the gates to the amusement park. Perhaps he was a romantic after all.
    “I wouldn’t want anything to happen to you, honey,” Loretta said. “Enchanting this necklace was clearly not The Lord’s work.”
    The Devil’s then?  Well, that was a cheery thought.
    Then it struck Jilly funny and she began to laugh. The theme music from Disney’s Peter Pan echoed in her head and she nearly broke out singing, “Think of a wonderful thought…”
    They’d come that far. They were trying something not tried before. The necklace had lain inside its stone box all these centuries, hidden from the very people who might allow two souls to rest in peace together, and it seemed a pity to not at least try. Her laughter had driven away the creepy feeling and the fact that four somewhat reasonable adults were standing inside said box, hovering over the beam from a flashlight, divining whether or not one of them should try on a necklace that may or may not be a dangerous fashion statement. It was the silliest thing in the world.
    The Muirs were