Page 5 of Tempting the Highland Spy
She was an American. But she wasn’t an heiress. She wasn’t making a grand tour of Europe, and her father wasn’t a wealthy tycoon.
Gracie Mae Winters was a thief.
And now, it was his job to bring her to justice.
Blast the foul luck. He’d been an utter dunce to fall for her act. She had a talent for deception. He’d give her that much.
Damned if she would make a fool of him again.
She’d stolen Lady Caversham’s prized emeralds right beneath the countess’s nose—and his. Their hostess had been none the wiser until Grace and her daft aunt were an ocean away. The emeralds had been mounted in a necklace crafted centuries earlier. Legend had it that Robert the Bruce himself had bestowed the piece as a gift to his beloved wife. There’d been hell to pay when the officers of the Antiquities Guild discovered he’d been taken in by the most elemental of masculine weaknesses—desire.
But now, Gracie Mae Winters had once again crossed the Atlantic. She was here, in search of some other trusting soul to fleece.
Why had she left America—what was she after?
She’d been spotted disembarking at Southampton a week earlier. The Highland Antiquities Guild had dispatched him on this mission soon afterward. Her presence at the wedding was a significant clue to what had lured her back to Scotland. The bride was rumored to have brought a fortune in jewelry to the estate that would be her marital residence, but the Guild suspected Grace’s interests centered on a jeweled pin that had been in the groom’s family for centuries. The ruby-and-sapphire-laden MacGinty brooch was uniquely valuable, an ancient design tied to the heritage of the Highlands. He’d make bloody sure she didn’t get her slender hands on the heirloom. If Grace had come to this wedding for any purpose other than to convey her best wishes to the bride and groom, he’d find out.
He’d stop her.
And then, he’d see to it that she paid for her treachery.
