The Charm Stone Read Online Free PDF

rolling off of him was palpable. She finally began to relax. She'd cart the necklace off to the museum Wednesday and that would be the end of that. As long as she didn't ever put it on again, she could simply pretend nothing had ever happened.
    “We've done work for people all over the world, right?”
    She nodded.
    “Surfed everywhere.”
    “Right.” Where was he headed with this?
    “Not right. Did you know they surf in the U.K.?”
    A certain dread welled up inside her. “No,” she choked out. “I… didn't know that.”
    “Well, they do. Not too many of them, but the sport is growing over there. Anyway, Finola is in charge of the Scotland National Championships, which are coming up shortly. It's their twenty-fifth and she wants to commemorate the event by handing out boards designed by the world's best to the winners. And we're one of the best, aren't we, Josiecat?” He laughed and slapped his knees. “She wants us to do a special design on one of our signature long-boards and come over there to award it personally.”
    Josie couldn't say anything. The room was closingin on her, darkness creeping in around the corners of her vision. “We…we're famous enough,” she heard herself say. “What do we need this for?”
    Her father frowned, obviously surprised. “Because it sounds like fun,” he said. “A new page in our long and colorful legacy. I thought you'd get a kick out of it.” He stood and leaned over her. “You really took a knock today. We should talk about this later.” He bent down and kissed her on the tip of the nose. “I'll let you get some rest. I want to hear what happened today, your report on the new board design, but you need some rest.”
    Josie was lucid enough to tell her father that the last thing a concussed person was supposed to do was sleep for a long period of time unmonitored, but she'd monitored her own self for years. “Okay.” Though nothing was remotely okay.
    “I'll check back in on you later. You call me if you need anything, okay, kitten?”
    She just waved at him and forced a smile. She hated that she'd ruined his enthusiasm for this latest adventure of his, but she'd make it up to him later. Stateside.
    Because though she hated disappointing her father, she wasn't going to Scotland. Not now. Not ever.

Chapter 3
    J
osie settled back in her airplane seat. It had been eight weeks since she'd found the damn trunk. Two long months spent questioning her sanity.
    She'd taken the trunk and the necklace to the local maritime museum, causing a few raised eyebrows when she'd all but lunged at a visiting tourist who'd tried to put the necklace on. In the face of the woman's obvious embarrassment, Josie had let her put it on. Mercifully no dwarf had appeared. In the end, she was glad for the incident. It made it easier for her to pretend Bagan had never really existed.
    Josie agreed to allow the museum director to send the trunk and necklace to a local university specializing in marine archeology. She'd left that day, hoping it would be misplaced in the bowels of scientific research, never to resurface. Weeks passed, her head healed, and she finished the board design for Finola. She'd almost convinced herself she was in control of her life again.
    Then the museum had called with their report. The trunk dated to the midseventeenth century, the stone and chain were traced back to Scotland, the exact origin undocumented, but they'd classified it as likely being a clan charm stone. They couldn't find any paper trail putting it on a ship that hadbeen documented as having sunk off the coast of South Carolina and Josie didn't bother explaining the ship might have sunk on the other side of the Atlantic. She really didn't want to know anything more about the trunk or the stone.
    They'd made some suggestions as to where she could send the trunk to have it fully restored, if that were her intention. Josie had no desire to keep it, much less restore it. She'd grudgingly picked it up,