Laurel      Gurnsey

In the Irish Sea, a ferry sinks; among the survivors two people connected by a book of Irish verse; its underlined words a code to be used by kidnappers. Ashley Gallagher, co-owner of a California art gallery, is headed to Ireland to paint an Irish steeplechase horse. Hurt in a barn fire years earlier that killed her horse Sirocco, and ended her future as a ballerina, Ashley is afraid of fire and can’t face riding again.
Daemon O’Hare, Scotland Yard undercover detective, is in the ferry waiting room and drawn to Ashley, the young American with the startling blue eyes and wild dark hair. But he is on a case...waiting for the next in a series of couriers to pass a package thought to be a key to an upcoming crime. When the courier slips something into Ashley’s bag Daemon is stunned and follows her on to the ferry. When the ferry sinks, Daemon has hours in a lifeboat to watch as she finds the package,a book of Irish poetry by Yeats, and is clearly bewildered. Once rescued, he is able to clear her, but she is now in the crosshairs of kidnappers and there is an attempt to steal the package back. Intrigued by underlined words in the poetry, Ashley adds her own underlining and photocopies the book.