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fortune in gold?”
    “It is mine,” Blue Crow said again. “I will decide who
should have it.”
    “I don’t believe any of this,” Kelly muttered. “I don’t
believe you’re real. I don’t believe I’m sitting here at three o’clock in the
morning arguing with something that doesn’t exist.”
    “I am real, Kelly McBride,” Blue Crow replied quietly. He
held out his hand. “Look at me. Touch me.”
    She swallowed hard and then, feeling as if she had no
control over what she was doing, she gazed deep into his eyes, felt her heart
swell with compassion as she sensed the loneliness he had endured for over a
century.
    Of its own volition, Kelly’s hand reached for his, but it
was his fingers that closed over hers. For a moment she stared at their locked
hands—his was large and scarred, hers was small and very white in comparison to
his. But it was the heat of his touch that made her pulse race and her blood
sing a new song.
    When she tried to take her hand from his, he refused to let
go, and for the first time since he’d entered the room, she was truly afraid.
Afraid and confused. He couldn’t be a ghost. Ghosts were vaporous, without mass
or substance.
    She blinked up at him, mesmerized by the heat in his gaze,
by her sudden awareness that, ghost or no ghost, this was a man with all of a
man’s desires.
    “I will not harm you,” Blue Crow assured her, and though
that had been his intent when he entered the house, he knew now that this woman
was a part of his destiny. He would not harm her and he would destroy anyone
who tried. “I will not harm you,” he repeated. “It is only that your skin is so
soft, so warm and alive, and it has been so long since I have held a woman…”
    His fingers tightened on hers and she felt him tremble and
then, without warning, he vanished from her sight.
    In the morning, Kelly tried to convince herself it had all
been a dream. There were no such things as ghosts.
    But the eagle was gone.
    And when she got up, she discovered a single eagle feather
on the floor beside the bed.
    Distracted, she dressed and went into the kitchen to prepare
breakfast. A short time later, Lee entered the room and took a seat at the
table.
    Unable to help herself, Kelly stared at him all through
breakfast. It was uncanny, his resemblance to Blue Crow.
    “Something wrong?” Lee asked when she poured him a second
cup of coffee.
    “No, why?”
    Lee shrugged. “I feel like a bug under a microscope.”
    With an effort, she drew her gaze from his face. “Sorry.”
    “You gonna tell me why you’ve been staring at me?”
    “I…it’s just…no reason.”
    “Can’t be my good looks,” he mused, locking his fingers
around his coffee cup. “Did somebody say something to you in town the other
day? Maybe warn you to stay away from me?”
    She flushed guiltily, remembering Harry Renford’s
admonition. “No, of course not.”
    “Maybe you’re having second thoughts about my working here?”
    “No, it’s not that.”
    “What then? Come on, Miss McBride, tell me what’s bothering
you.”
    Kelly shook her head. She couldn’t tell him she’d been
visited by a ghost. The ghost of Christmas past, she thought, smothering the
urge to laugh. Oh Lord, maybe she was losing her mind.
    Lee frowned, wondering what was troubling her. She’d gone
suddenly pale.
    “Somebody told you I’d been arrested, didn’t they?”
    She started to deny it, then nodded. “Mr. Renford, at the
bank, told me you’d been arrested for breaking into my grandfather’s house.”
    A muscle tensed in Lee’s jaw.
    “He said you did ayear in jail.” Kelly took a deep
breath. “That seems like a rather harsh sentence.”
    “I was carrying a gun at the time,” Lee replied tersely.
    “A gun! Why?” She stared at him in horror. “Surely you
didn’t mean to—”
    “Of course not.”
    “Then why did you need a gun?”
    Lee shrugged. He couldn’t tell her about the gold and yet…he
swore under his breath,