by Arlene James
“I hope they still have that turquoise plaid,” Violet mused. “If they do, will you get one for me? I’ll pay you back.”
“Sure, which one do you prefer, the one with gold thread or silver?”
Violet waved a hand dismissively. “You get one, I’ll get the other. Then we can trade as we like.”
“My thought exactly.” Maddie’s eyes twinkled.
Kendra smiled, intrigued and a little envious of the two. She didn’t know if she had a sibling. “It must be fun being twins.”
“You know, it kind of is,” Maddie said, grinning at Violet.
Jack dropped his fork with a clunk. “I don’t know what’s fun about it,” he snapped. “I’m not sure I even want to meet my so-called brother.”
Kendra gasped. She’d give anything to know if she had family somewhere, anyone at all, really, even a great-aunt or second cousin. While little Darcy watched avidly, Violet and Maddie exchanged troubled looks. Ty stilled as if waiting for Jack to say more, but he did not look up from his plate. After a moment, Jack picked up his fork again and started to eat. The rest of the meal passed in silence.
Kendra found that her appetite had fled with his words. She wondered what she’d walked into here—an ill mother, twins who had never met... She found it all very confusing.
Jack excused himself and left the table without so much as a glance in Kendra’s direction. She worried that he might be angry with her. Perhaps they all were. She looked to Violet, on the verge of an apology, but the other woman beat her to it.
“I’m sorry, Kendra. Don’t mind Jack. He’s got a lot on his mind right now.”
“We all do,” Maddie added.
“You see,” Violet went on, “Jack and I didn’t even know until a couple months ago that Maddie, Grayson and our other brother Carter existed.”
Kendra switched her shocked gaze back and forth between Violet and Maddie. “How...?” She bit off the question, fearing that to voice it would be rude.
“We don’t know,” Maddie said flatly.
“And until our mother wakes up...” Violet began.
“Or we find our father,” Maddie supplied.
“We won’t know why they split the family and raised us apart,” Violet finished.
Kendra shook her head, overwhelmed. “That’s...that’s...” She swallowed the word awful, a question occurring. “You said, until your mother wakes up?”
Violet’s whole countenance fell. “Mom’s in a coma,” she whispered. “She fell off her horse.”
“Oh, wow,” Kendra said, impulsively clasping Violet’s hand with hers. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know....”
“No reason why you should,” Violet told her, squeezing her hand.
Kendra took her hand back, exclaiming, “I shouldn’t be here! You have enough troubles without me bringing mine into the mix.”
Both Maddie and Violet rushed to reassure her.
“No, no,” Violet said. “It’s no bother.”
“It might even be a good thing,” Maddie said at the same time. Ty cleared his throat, and she instantly subsided. Kendra could only wonder what that might be about, but she had no time to ponder the matter as Violet suddenly rose.
“You must be tired,” she said, “after everything you’ve been through. Let me show you to your room.”
“I’d like to help clean up first,” Kendra insisted, aware that she really had no choice but to stay the night here at least.
Violet waved that away. “Lupita will have cleaned up everything but what you see here.”
“Ty and I will clear the table and load these things into the dishwasher,” Maddie volunteered. Ty lifted an eyebrow but said not a word. He was certainly a quiet type, good-looking, too, almost as good-looking as Jack.
Kendra got up. Suddenly exhausted, she felt herself sway. Violet instantly reached out.
“You poor thing! You haven’t recovered at all.”
“I’m fine,” Kendra said with a wan smile, “just a little tired is all.” Straightening, she lifted her chin and took a deep breath.
“You come on with me now,” Violet instructed, taking Kendra by the arm.
“Do you have any things to be brought in?” Maddie asked, looking to Ty.
“I left a bag of toiletries in Jack’s truck,” Kendra said, just then remembering. “Other than that, I only have what I’m wearing.”
“I’ll run out and get the bag,” Maddie told her, hurrying away from the table. “Then I have some things you can borrow.”
“We’ll get you all fixed up,” Violet promised.
Embarrassed, Kendra could do nothing but smile and follow her hostess from the room.
Chapter Four
Violet led Kendra into the living room, a large space beautifully decorated with overstuffed leather pieces and Native American fabrics. They crossed the floor to a sort of open hallway, from which a pair of identical stairways ascended to the second floor from opposite sides of the house. Kendra gazed through a wall of windows to an enclosed courtyard until the stairs turned. They came out on a narrow landing above.
“You’ll be just at the head of the stairs,” Violet explained, “and I’m at the other end of this landing.” She opened a door for Kendra, saying, “Make yourself at home. I’ll just run and grab some things for you and be right back.”
Kendra wandered into a spacious room with sage-green walls and cream-colored woodwork and carpet. A queen-size bed with a tall, wrought-iron headboard stood against the center of the far wall, its silky, quilted bedspread echoing the sage-and-cream palette with strips of coral pink highlighting the geometric pattern. Marble-topped wrought-iron tables flanked the bed, each holding an identical pottery lamp. A pair of deep window seats, framed by coral-pink drapes and strewn with fluffy pillows, centered each of the side walls, one looking out over the compound, the other over the courtyard below. A small desk and an overstuffed chair in a complementary flower print comprised the only other furnishings, giving the room a clean, airy feel.
Violet returned, her arms full of clothing, the plastic bag of toiletries and the bridal veil, which she dumped on the bed. “Shorts and tops,” she announced, “and a few other essentials. The closet is through the bathroom.” She pointed to a door beside the one through which she had just entered. “Let me know if you need anything else.”
“Thank you. You’ve all been very kind.”
“It’s no problem,” Violet told her in her soft drawl. “Do you mind if I ask how you came to meet my brother?”
“I’m told that he came on the accident right after it happened and called for help.”
“I see. Funny, he never mentioned that part.”
“The first time I remember seeing him was when I woke up at the clinic yesterday.” Kendra looked inward, remembering that moment. He had seemed so familiar, and yet she hadn’t known him—or anyone. “At first, I thought he must be someone connected to me personally. But then I realized that wasn’t the case.”
“It must be so awful to lose your memory,” Violet said, shaking her head. “You don’t remember your family, even?”
“No.”
“A boyfriend?”
“No one,” Kendra said solemnly.
Violet dithered for a moment before saying, “There is that bridal veil.”
Kendra closed her eyes. “I don’t remember anything about that. Jack says I was wearing it when he found me, but...” She waved a hand at her casual clothing. “That doesn’t make any sense. Nothing makes any sense.”
“Well, don’t you fret about it now,” Violet advised, patting her shoulder. “We’ll pray on it, and it’ll all come back to you.”
Kendra nodded, doing her best to smile, but she couldn’t be quite so certain as Violet sounded. What if she never figured out who she was or where
she belonged? What if she’d run away from an ugly past?
She shook her head, thanked Violet again and watched the other woman leave the room.
“Now you rest,” Violet said, gently closing the door behind her.
Kendra stood for a long moment, feeling so very alone.
Oh, Lord, why is this happening to me? What if my memory never returns? What will happen to me? As kind as they had been, she couldn’t expect Jack’s family to offer her shelter forever. Please return my memories to me, and please don’t let there be anything in my past to shame You or me.
She ended her prayer a few minutes later, and once again loneliness swamped her. Desperate to shake it off, she grabbed the plastic bag of toiletries and carried them into the bathroom. Creamy white with splashes of sage and coral, it offered ample storage, a small shower and a lovely tub. The closet had built-in drawers, where she stowed her borrowed clothing and the puzzling veil. Picking out a pair of soft knit shorts and a sleeveless top that could be worn as pajamas, she decided to run a tub of water and take a long, hot soak.
Finding bath salts in a pretty container on the side of the tub, she poured some into the steaming water before taking fluffy towels from a stack in the small linen cabinet. Making a note to get some rubber bands and clips for her hair, she twisted it up inside one of the towels and slid into the steaming water. A pleasant lethargy invaded her tired muscles, and she became aware of soreness in places she hadn’t realized had been strained, but she couldn’t quite seem to relax. She simply had too many questions circulating around and around in her mind.
The sun had set when she returned to the bedroom in her borrowed pjs. She sat in the window seat, staring down at the softly lit courtyard, trying not to cry. This was a beautiful place, and these were kind people, but this was not her place and these were not her people. Where did she belong? she wondered. With whom did she belong? And what if she never remembered?
Laying her head back against the wall, she whispered, “What is to become of me?”
She thought suddenly of Jack, of seeing his handsome face when she awoke at the clinic. The urge to talk to him came over her, but she shook her head, determined not to impose. She couldn’t cling to a man just because he’d been kind to her, no matter how handsome he was. Besides, Jack seemed to have enough troubles of his own. He didn’t need—or likely want—hers added to the heap. Curling into the window seat, she sighed and prepared to endure a long, lonely evening. She could only pray that it would not be a harbinger of evenings to come for the rest of her life.
* * *
The peace of early morning slowly invaded Jack’s troubled soul as he sipped from his coffee mug. The weather held a hint of fall at dawn, though he knew that the sun would blaze later in the day. Sitting in a comfortably cushioned chair beneath a spreading oak tree at the very edge of the courtyard, he let the coffee do its work and mentally went over his plans for the day.
He still hadn’t finished riding fence on the Franken Road section, and the boys had quarantined some cows that seemed to have a worm infestation. Some question existed as to the specific pest, and he needed to try to figure that out today, so he’d probably be taking a sample to the vet over in Wichita Falls. First, though, he had to feed all the animals in the barn.
Normally, Violet handled the farm, pecan grove and vegetable stand in town, Jack tended the ranch and cattle and their mother usually took care of the finances and the livestock at the compound. With Belle out of commission, however, Jack had taken over many of her duties. He wondered how much longer that would be the case. Unfortunately, when he’d called the nursing home before heading down to breakfast this morning, the charge nurse had told him that nothing had changed.
He closed his eyes, remembering with a pang the day that his mother had fallen. The argument had started at breakfast with Jack demanding to know why she objected so vociferously to answering his questions about the past. Growing up, he’d realized that other kids had fathers and grandparents, aunts, cousins...whole family trees. All he and Violet had ever had was their mother’s terse assertion that “knowing wouldn’t make any difference.”
She had ridden out to where he was working with a thermos of iced tea in an attempt to make peace, but he’d been stewing all morning that fateful day. “How,” Jack had demanded, following her back to her horse, “could knowing my father’s full name not make any difference?”
“Jack, drop this,” Belle had pleaded. “Trust me when I tell you that you’re better off not knowing.”
“How can I be better off not knowing my father or my grandparents?”
“Your grandparents are dead, Jack. You can’t blame me for not knowing them!”
“But there has to be other family,” Jack had insisted.
Belle had blown up at him then, throwing up her arms and bawling at him. “All I’ve ever done is protect and provide for you and your sister! Don’t you think that if I could give you more than I have, I would?”
“I don’t know, Mother,” Jack had responded coldly. “Would you?”
He had seen that he’d hurt her, but he’d closed his heart to her pain, determined to get some concrete answers for once.
“How dare you?” she’d breathed, gathering her reins into her hand. Sensing her distress, her grulla mare, Mouse, had shied, but Belle, an experienced horsewoman, had ignored the animal’s nervousness. “I gave up everything for you and your sister!” she’d declared. “And all you can do is complain that it isn’t enough!”
“So tell me, Mom,” Jack had harangued, “what exactly did you give up? And why?” She hadn’t answered him as she’d calmed the horse with a quiet touch. “Has it occurred to you that whatever you gave up, Violet and I were forced to give up, too?” he’d shot at her.
“Yes!” Belle had cried, throwing herself up into the saddle. “Of course I’ve thought of that, but I had no choice except to let it happen that way.”
“But why?” he’d demanded.
“I can’t tell you that,” she’d insisted.
He’d watched helplessly as she’d wheeled the horse and ridden away. Grinding his teeth, he had stamped his foot like a spoiled child as Mouse had stretched out with her long, graceful legs, racing across the ground. Belle and the horse were just tiny figures in the distance when suddenly the horse had stumbled, going to its knees. Jack remembered all too well the horror he’d felt as Belle had sailed over the horse’s head. He’d yanked out his cell phone and called for help even as he’d begun to run toward her. Thankfully, Doc had been close by that day, but Jack would never forget seeing his mother lying there in a crumpled heap, her head bent forward beneath her. She’d been in a coma ever since.
God, forgive me, and heal my mother. Please, please bring her back to us. I’ll never ask her another question about the past, I promise.
Sucking in a deep breath, he opened his eyes—and saw Kendra slip out of the living-room door into the courtyard. She wore the same shoes and jeans as the day before, but this time she wore a dark blue tank top beneath one of Violet’s chambray work shirts, the tail of which she’d tied in a knot at her waist. She’d rolled the sleeves, which were probably too short for her, to her elbows. Her long, golden hair waved buoyantly from a casual center part to flow across her shoulders.
She looked beautiful, achingly so, without a bit of makeup or artifice. Glancing around at the cool, terra-cotta tiling and outdoor furniture scattered about in groupings beneath hanging plants, she jammed her hands into her pockets and wandered deeper into the courtyard. Jack kept expecting her to spot him, but he must have sat too deeply in the shadow of the oak.
Drawing to a stop, she turned her face upward and prayed, “Father, I’m so confused and frightened. I have nowhere to go, nothing to do, not a cent to my name... What is to become of me?”
Jack didn’t have answers for her, but he felt compelled t
o let her know of his presence, so when she said nothing more, he chose an obvious topic and spoke up.
“Sleep okay last night?”
She jerked, her gaze targeting the tree. After a moment, she began to saunter slowly toward him. “Actually, I did. I had some weird dreams, but I can’t recall much about them now, and I do feel rested.”
“That’s good,” he said, adding offhandedly, “are you usually such an early riser?” Too late, he realized the futility of asking such a question.
Wincing, she sighed. “I wish I knew.”
“Sorry. Should’ve thought before I spoke.” That seemed to be a real problem with him lately.
“It’s not your fault,” she told him.
She, of course, didn’t know about his temper, and he found that he didn’t really want her to know. He decided to change the subject.
“How’s your head?”
“My head?” Her hand lifted to the bandage on her forehead. “It’s fine. I don’t even remember it’s there most of the time.”
“That’s good.” Lifting his mug, he said, “Lupita won’t start breakfast for another hour or so, but there’s coffee in the kitchen, if you’re interested.”
“Maybe later,” she told him, gesturing at a chair near his. He waved a hand and shrugged to let her know that she could sit anywhere she liked. She sank down, rubbing her hands over her thighs and knees. “Your sisters are wonderful.”
Jack nodded. “Violet’s always had a heart of gold,” he said. “Hard worker, too.”
“And Maddie?”
He looked into his cup. “Maddie has been surprisingly good for Darcy and Ty,” he said carefully, “and Violet’s thrilled to have found her.”
“But not you,” Kendra surmised, tilting her head.
Jack shifted in his seat. “I didn’t say that. It’s just that I didn’t grow up with Maddie, and she’s not my twin.”
“But she is your sister.”
“Yes, she is my sister. Her resemblance to Violet proves that.”
“What I wouldn’t give to discover family. You’re so blessed to have found Maddie and Grayson and... I’m sorry. I forget the other name.” She shook her head as if to say that had become par for the course.
