Journey's End by BJ James

Author:BJ James
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2011-06-04T04:00:00+00:00

Six

“It must be strange finding someone like me in Montana. Someone like I used to be,” Cat amended quietly. “As strange as it is to have someone recognize me.”

“It was a long time ago,” Merrill reminded.

Cat studied the younger, smaller woman critically. “You would have been a very young girl when the scandal hit the papers.”

“I was twelve, and anxious to be thirteen. My father was a career soldier stationed in the States for the first time in more than three years,” Merrill explained “I loved being back home, I wanted to immerse myself in my own culture. Be a part of it, not an outsider.” The dismissing lifl of a shoulder, the tightening grip on the arm of her chair betrayed another unhappy part of her childhood. “I was a misfit, struggling not to be.”

Cat smiled into the fire, her head bowed. “A not so uncommon phase for an American teen. Most of us cope, in one way or another. We either outgrow the desperation to be part of the crowd, or we change.”

“I was years away from the maturity and understanding that being different wasn’t disastrous.” Merrill didn’t elaborate that in her family it was worse. Settling back in her chair, encouraged by Cat’s gentle observation, she found it easier to put her family and the disappointment she’d been from her mind. This was ultimately about Catherine Carlucci and how she came to be an indelible influence in the life of an uncertain adolescent.

“But you coped? I think you would always cope, Merrill Santiago.”

“I did, by choosing change. I began by buying the fashion magazines, trying to learn about hair and makeup, and clothing. All of which were low priorities in our home. I hid them under my bed.” She could smile now at the callow, almost teen, and the secret cache of slickly elegant publications her father branded nonsense. “Your covers were my favorites. I wanted to look exactly like you. I spent hours pretending I could and would if only I had the right makeup, the right clothes, the right hairstyle.”

An astute gaze considered Merrill again, slowly, thoroughly. “Not such a great stretch of the imagination in any case. The eyes are different, but the hair is the same, the skin tones.” Without a modicum of regret she corrected herself. “The skin tones of my younger days, before Montana.”

Merrill remembered the sophisticated, yet innocent beauty. Six feet tall, rail thin, though shapely, with tawny skin and tawny hair, and eyes like emeralds. Carlucci the cat, every young girl’s dream, her allure and celebrity enhanced by mystery. No one knew who she was, or where she came from. But no one cared. All that mattered was that she was young and beautiful, the brightest star. The most desirable, courted by sheiks and princes and movie stars.

There had never been anyone like her. Never one so perfectly suited for the camera. But one day it all ended in tragedy.

A would-be suitor fell from the balcony of her penthouse, taking Catherine Carlucci’s bright world with him.

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