—Romance and More

“How to Abduct a Highland Lord is laced with passion and drama, and with its wonderfully romantic and thrilling ending, it’s a story you don’t want to miss!”

—JoyfullyReviewed

and Karen Hawkins

“Always funny and sexy, a Karen Hawkins book is a sure delight!”

—bestselling author Victoria Alexander

“Karen Hawkins writes fast, fun, and sexy stories that are a perfect read for a rainy day, a sunny day, or any day at all!”

—bestselling author Christina Dodd

“Karen Hawkins will make you laugh and touch your heart.”

—bestselling author Rachel Gibson

All the titles in the Hurst Amulet series and
The MacLean Curse series are also available as eBooks

ALSO BY KAREN HAWKINS

THE HURST AMULET SERIES

One Night in Scotland
Scandal in Scotland

THE MACLEAN CURSE SERIES

How to Abduct a Highland Lord
To Scotland, With Love
To Catch a Highlander
Sleepless in Scotland
The Laird Who Loved Me

CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE

Talk of the Town
Lois Lane Tells All

OTHER

Much Ado About Marriage

Available from Pocket Books

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2011 by Karen Hawkins

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Pocket Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

First Pocket Books paperback edition November 2011

POCKET and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com.

Cover illustration by Alan Ayers, hand lettering by Ron Zinn

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

ISBN 978-1-4391-7594-1
ISBN 978-1-4391-7602-3 (ebook)

For my husband, aka Hot Cop, who knows me well
and loves me still.

You are the heart of my heart.

Dear Reader,

In this book, there is a reference to a woman named Princess Caraboo who was one of the most notable shysters throughout history. In 1817, she managed to convince many people—some of them quite high in society—that she was a lost princess from an exotic land who’d been kidnapped by pirates. According to “Princess Caraboo,” a title given to her by her avid supporters and an even more eager press, after weeks of imprisonment, she’d escaped the pirates’ evil clutches by jumping overboard and swimming to shore, where she was found wandering through the parish of Almondsbury, near Bristol.

There’s not enough room on this page to give the details of her entire deceit, but suffice it to say that she was not a princess, nor had she ever been kidnapped from an exotic land by pirates. The impostor’s real name was Mary Willcocks Baker, and she was the daughter of a very poor family and had spent most of her life wandering from job to job and practicing the art of deception.