The Pirate & The Adventurer & The Cowboy

Let's go cut my birthday cake." He waited until David had run ahead down the path before pulling Kate briefly close once more. "And as for you, my sweet shrew…"

    Kate heard the sexy threat in his voice and shivered with anticipation. "What about me?"

    "Just be sure you stick around. When I've finished with tonight's festivities, I intend to show you what happens to smart-mouthed, feisty heroines who can't remember their manners. That crack about the antique Hawthorne dagger is not going to go unpunished."

    "You expect me to stick around after a threat like that?"

    "How can you resist? You're a feisty heroine, aren't you?"

    Ten minutes later, the wicked-looking dagger flashed as Jared took the first slice out of a giant cake. The crowd cheered and champagne flowed. Spelled out in red icing across the top of the cake was the name Hawthorne. Beneath it was a carefully picked-out reproduction of the dagger. Kate stood to one side and sipped from a fluted glass as Jared led a salute to his ancestor.

    "The guests love these affairs," drawled a voice behind Kate. "I always said this was a smart bit of theater on Hawthorne's part."

    Kate turned to look at the man who had spoken. He was not wearing a mask, but even if he had been, she would have recognized him by his girth and his pristine white attire. This was the man who had accompanied Jared on the midnight walk up the castle path the other night. An uneasy chill chased off some of her pleasure.

    "You seem to know a lot about these masquerade balls. Are you a regular guest here at Crystal Cove?" Kate asked. She pushed her silver mask up on top of her head to get a better look at the heavyset man.

    "I'm not precisely a guest," he responded judiciously. "More like an old friend of the family. I've been living out here in the islands for longer than I can remember. Even longer than Jared. I'm a writer. Allow me to introduce myself. The name is Butterfield. Max Butterfield."

    "Katherine Inskip." Kate racked her brain but could not think of anything she had ever read by a Max Butterfield. She smiled to herself. Now she knew how other people felt when they were introduced to her and could not claim to have read her books. "I write, too."

    "So I hear. Romance novels."

    "What about you?"

    "I'm working on a novel, but in the meantime I keep body and soul together by doing the odd travel piece here and there. You know how it is."

    Yes, she knew. She felt a wave of sympathy for Max Butterfield. She also wondered how long he had been working on his novel. "Have you known Jared a long time?"

    "Years." Max took another long drink. "It's a small world out here in the islands."

    "You can say that again, Max. Too small at times." The colonel, nattily attired in an early nineteenth-century British officer's dress uniform smiled benignly as he approached. He had an attractive, vivacious woman in her early forties on his arm. She was wearing a gown similar to Kate's in style, but done in mint green. "Ms Inskip, allow me to present my fiancée, Letty Platt. Letty, this is the heroic Katherine Inskip who leveled Sharp Arnie with but a single blow."

    "This is getting embarrassing," Kate complained as she shook the other woman's hand. "What did Jared do? Give the story to the local newspaper?"

    Letty Platt grinned, her blue eyes sparkling. "Better than that. He just told it to a couple of people, and within an hour it was all over the island. Out here we thrive on interesting tidbits like that."

    Kate realized immediately that she was going to like this woman. "I'll keep that in mind. Do you live here on the island, Letty?"

    "Oh, my, yes. My husband brought me out here a long time ago when he took a notion to live on a tropical island. He was Jared's mechanic and general handyman for years before he died."

    "I see. And you've been living alone out here for some time now?"

    "Not for much longer. The colonel and I will be tying the knot soon." Letty beamed up at the colonel, who patted her hand with proud affection.

    "Do you work here at the resort, Letty?" Kate asked.

    "Officially, I'm the bookkeeper, but in reality I help out where I'm needed. Enough about me, though. I'm delighted to meet you, Kate," Letty confided. "When the colonel told me you were on the island, I was so excited. I've read all your books except for Buccaneer's Bride , which I just bought today in the resort gift shop. Can't wait to start it."

    "Thank you." Kate felt herself going an awkward shade