In 1746. eight-year-old Colleen Stuart was more than ten-year-old Jonathan Rodes' playmate -- she was his best friend. She could do anything a boy could do and best of all, she could play jokes on the adults without getting caught. Jonathan assumed they would always be together, but no sooner had his father told him the secret of the jewels, than his world collapsed. The King's men executed his father, his ailing mother died and he found himself painfully separated from Colleen.For years he remembered his promise to find her, but it seemed hopeless until one day an odd letter arrived.