The Adventurer

Trace. In fact, she looked forward to the task with her usual boundless self-confidence and optimism. She glanced over her shoulder to where her two best friends sat on her shiny new, black leather Italian sofa.
    "I can't explain it, Kate, but I know that the legend of the Flowers and Gideon Trace are linked. I'm going after both of them," Sarah said.
    "You have no experience in treasure hunting."
    "Gideon Trace will help me. I have a feeling about this particular treasure. It's mine. I'm going to find it with Trace's assistance."
    Margaret raised her eyes to the ceiling. "Out of all those treasure hunters and salvage operators you contacted five months ago when you were researching
Glitter Quest
, why on earth did you fixate on Trace?"
    "Something in his letters told me he was different from the others."
    "Well, who am I to discourage you?" Kate said. "I wish you luck, my friend. I've had enough good fortune of my own recently. It's time you had a little, too."
    Kate was dressed for travel in a flower-splashed turquoise cotton dress. She looked remarkably fit and healthy, Sarah noticed with great satisfaction. Her friend's eyes sparkled vivaciously and her tawny-brown hair gleamed. The tense, stressed-out look that had been hounding Kate had gone. There was nothing like a couple of months on a tropical island and marriage to a pirate to give a woman a shot of energy and the sheen of happiness.
    "I suppose Kate has a point," Margaret said slowly. "We probably shouldn't try to talk you out of this. If a treasure hunt is what you want, go for it. Your intuition has always been extraordinary. Maybe it will lead you to the Flowers."
    "Or at least to Gideon Trace," Sarah said, thinking, not for the first time, that her friend Margaret had that wonderfully elusive, subtle quality known as panache. Margaret managed to appear casually elegant just sitting there with one leg tucked under the other. She was dressed with her usual restrained flair, the collar of her pale yellow silk blouse turned up to frame her attractive face. Her black slacks had been beautifully tailored by an expensive designer and her fashionable black pumps had been made in Italy.
    "And meeting Trace is the more important goal?" Margaret asked, her gaze shadowed with faint disapproval.
    "Oh, yes, definitely. There's something in his letters, something I must…" Sarah paused to glance out the window again, her eye caught by a flash of yellow on the street. As she watched, a cab pulled over to the curb and a lean, dark-haired man dressed in jeans and a casual cotton shirt got out. He was followed by a miniature version of himself. "Jared and his son are here, Kate."
    "So much for their whirlwind tour of the Space Needle and the waterfront. Guess it must be time to head for the airport." Kate got up to walk over to the window. Her eyes were warm and soft as she watched Jared Hawthorne lean down to say something through the window to the driver. Then he vanished with his son into the lobby ten floors below.
    "How does it feel to have found your pirate?" Sarah asked softly.
    "What can I say? I'm a new woman."
    Margaret laughed from the couch. "That's certainly true. I take it Sarah and I are forgiven for having shanghaied you into that trip to Amethyst Island three months ago?"
    "Given the way it all turned out, I'm more than willing to let bygones be bygones. What's a little matter of kidnapping and impressment among friends?" Kate's wedding ring gleamed in the reflected glow of a late afternoon sun. "I just wish you two could be as fortunate." She looked at Sarah. "Do you really think this Trace person is going to be someone special?"
    "Yes." Sarah knew her sense of serene assurance was evident in her voice. "Very special."
    "Don't be mislead by a few cryptic letters," Margaret advised. "The man publishes a low-budget, treasure-hunting magazine, for goodness sake. It caters to a bunch of gung-ho males of questionable intelligence who actually believe they're going to find a lost gold mine or Amelia Earhart's plane. Frankly, that puts Gideon Trace just one notch above a con artist."
    "That's not true," Sarah said quietly. "He sells dreams. Just like I do."
    "Never discount the value of a good dream," Kate added with a note of satisfaction as the doorbell rang. "I'll get that."
    Sarah watched her friend walk across the room to open the door for her husband. No doubt about it, Jared Hawthorne was just right for Kate. Those gray eyes and that wicked grin made