in various hues, filled no doubt with scents and oils and creams. And I counted twelve candles. The tub itself sank into the floor and it was big enough for two. I couldn’t help wondering if it had ever been used that way. Cameron and Sloan? My sister definitely had a sensuous side.
That shouldn’t surprise me. So did I. At least I was pretty sure I did. I just hadn’t had much time to indulge it—or perhaps, I hadn’t had much of a reason to indulge it. Cameron had her very attractive fiancé.
Turning, I moved back into the bedroom and began to pace. Bottom line, after an hour in my sister’s bedroom, I’d learned she had excellent taste in decor, expensive taste in clothes and the money to indulge it, and a passionate side to her nature—all of which I admired and envied her for.
To top it off, she was going to be heir to half of her father’s kingdom—worth millions of dollars.
Compared to hers, my life seemed rather mundane.
But my purpose here wasn’t about me, I reminded myself. I was here to learn all I could about Cameron and just why she might have disappeared on that day five weeks ago.
Moving to the window, I focused on what my next move should be. I’d fully expected to spend my first day on the ranch meeting all the major players that I would have to convince that I was Cameron without a memory. With Sloan and James away, I was out of plot line. The view from Cameron’s bedroom was the same as the one Beatrice, Cole and I had had on the patio, and my eyes were drawn to the stables. If Sloan had been here, I would have asked him for a tour and perhaps gone for a ride. It had been so long since I’d been on a horse.
But that might not be my best move. I was suffering from memory loss. So it might look strange if I walked down to the stables and asked someone to saddle up a horse. My gaze moved to the hills that bordered the valley the ranch sat in on the east and the west.
But I could ask for a car. After all, I was Cameron McKenzie, home after an absence of five weeks. Memory loss or not, I might be interested in driving around to see if something, anything stirred a memory.
It certainly beat sitting here in Cameron’s room with a cat who seemed to value me only for my ability to provide food. Elena would know whom I’d have to speak to. I hurried to the door, opened it, and then glanced back at Hannibal. He was back on the bed, sitting on his throne. “Coming?”
He made no move.
“See you later,” I said as I let myself out and shut the door.
ELENA HAD GIVEN ME the keys to an SUV that was parked right outside the kitchen. It had a McKenzie Ranch logo on the side, and anybody who needed to run an errand could use it. On impulse and out of curiosity, I’d driven up onto the bluff that formed a natural boundary on one side of the valley the ranch lay snuggled in. The road was unpaved and rough in spots. When I’d gone as far as I could with the SUV, I’d parked it and walked another half mile along a path that wove in and out of boulders until I’d reached the top.
All around me as far as I could see, lay the vast stretch of land that the McKenzies could lay claim to. I knew from the maps that Cole and Pepper had shown me that the shores of the Pacific were blocked by more hills behind me, but the estate extended all the way to the sea. Below me the ground sloped gently before it dropped off sharply into the valley below. Since I have a problem with heights, I was careful not to go near the edge. My view of the hacienda itself was still blocked by some of the boulders that dotted the bluff, so I walked farther along the narrow path to get a better look.
The wind had picked up, and to the west I could see huge dark clouds racing in from the Pacific. Thunder growled in the distance, and lightning split the sky.
Shades of Wuthering Heights, I thought. Not a good omen. Then I resolutely turned my back on the approaching storm and walked onward until I had a good view of the flat stretch of land in the little valley below.
From this vantage point, I could see everything that I hadn’t been able to see from the patio or Cameron’s window. Behind the hacienda there was an Olympicsized pool and a pool house surrounded by trees and terraced gardens. Fanning off from that I could see orange groves, tennis courts and what must be Beatrice’s greenhouses.
If Beatrice was responsible for all of that, my hat was off to her. The stables, along with the training and riding rings and what was probably once the original carriage house, were a short distance away. Here and there, I caught glimpses of a stream twisting like a silver snake in and out among trees which grew thicker in some places than in others.
And this was only the ranch land. The entire McKenzie estate, I reminded myself, included that prime undeveloped real estate along the Pacific Coast. All I could think was Wow!
Far below me, a truck pulling a horse trailer drew up in front of the largest of the stable buildings. A second later, two men climbed out and the larger of the two, the driver, went immediately to open the trailer door. Even at this distance, I could tell that the horse he led out by a tether was magnificent. Huge and black, the animal reared up as if he just had to stretch after being cooped up. I grinned, thinking that I’d felt the same way myself just a short time ago.
Then, instead of leading the horse into the stables, I watched the man leap up onto the horse’s back and ride him bareback across the nearest field. Admiration and envy streamed through me as rider and horse took the first fence and began to make their way toward the very hills I was perched on.
I let my gaze sweep the estate again as I struggled to identify the other emotions tumbling through me. Excitement and pride that all of this belonged to my twin sister. Reading Pepper’s report and studying the photos had whetted my curiosity. Now, seeing the hacienda, the land, from this vantage point was making Cameron even more real to me. But I wanted to know more. I needed to know everything. Obviously, we shared a love of horses, and hers had been easily nurtured here.
Although it had always been a dream of mine, I’d yet to own a horse of my own. My parents had pointed out the difficulties involved with trying to stable and care for one in Chicago. Aside from the expense, would it be fair to the horse? They’d been right, of course. They usually were. And they hadn’t stood in the way of riding lessons. Although they hadn’t been enthused when I’d wanted to try steeplechasing, they’d come to see me do it. In college I’d been a member of the riding club.
I’d often thought that it must have been hard for them to have a daughter who was so different from them. Oh, they loved me. But there’d always been that sort of bemused expression on their faces when I’d excelled in a field that was so outside of their own areas of interest. They were left brained, and I was right. I found myself wondering if they’d ever regretted not having a child of their own. I also wondered if Cameron had fit in better with her adopted family.
Thunder cracked and lightning split the sky, but I ignored both. Instead, I continued to think about my twin. Would a love of horses, of riding, be genetic? Wardrobes aside, in what other ways was I like Cameron—or not like her? Would she be able to understand me in a way my parents never had? More than ever, I felt the need to find out.
And soon. The more I saw of the ranch and the kind of life that Cameron had, the more I wondered why she would disappear.
Thunder boomed overhead this time, and the lightning flashed to my left almost simultaneously. I thought I smelled it. Below me, a line of pitch-black shadows raced across the valley reminding me of a shade being drawn down for the night. In the murkier light, the hacienda made me think of Thornfield, Manderley, the Château de Valmy and every other mysterious mansion gracing the pages of those Gothic novels I’d read as a girl. I thought again
