The Mysterious Twin. Leona Karr

out of your mind?” Ashley Camdon stared at her twin sister in utter disbelief.

      “No, I’m just making a simple request.”

      “A simple request?” Ashley repeated in utter amazement.

      “All you have to do is pretend to be me for just a few days until I get over this bronchitis. I’ve got this job that I desperately need, and I’m in no shape to start tomorrow.” Jill’s next fit of coughing turned into sobbing. “After all that’s happened, Ashley, I just can’t take any more. It’s just too much…Budge leaving me the way he did and the police looking for him!”

      “Honey, things always look darker when you’re sick,” Ashley said gently. She refrained from commenting on Jill’s missing husband. This wasn’t the time to point out her sister’s blindness where Budge Gordon was concerned. Her marriage to the basketball star had plunged her life to an all-time low. The papers had been filled with the charges pending against her husband for illegal betting and game fixing. Budge had disappeared two months ago with thousands of dollars in betting money, leaving behind a wife and baby with bills to pay and very little income.

      Ashley sighed. Jill had often mocked Ashley’s view that a woman could take care of herself. But more than once she had depended upon her sister’s steady presence to get her out of a jam.

      “It’s not as if we haven’t switched places before,” Jill reminded her with a wan smile. As identical twins with honey-blond hair and deep blue eyes, they had fooled teachers, friends and even boyfriends while they were growing up. But their lifestyles were now as different as those of any two siblings could be. Ashley’s sedate, well-ordered life as a college professor bored Jill to death and, in turn, Ashley couldn’t stand Jill’s high-flying, tempestuous flare for excitement.

      “But this is different,” Ashley protested. “A nanny? You have to be kidding.”

      “This job is a godsend, Ashley. When Hugo Vandenburg offered to let me take care of his two grandkids while their parents are in Europe, I couldn’t believe my luck. As owner of Budge’s basketball team, he lost a lot of money because of Budge, and he sympathizes with my situation. Even though Hugo was embarrassed by a lot of negative publicity around him and the team, he was kind enough to offer me this job. If I don’t show up as planned, I can kiss the job goodbye. His two grandkids are eight and ten. For heaven’s sake, Ashley, you ought to be able to babysit them for a few days. And Davie’s gotten used to you, so he won’t be much trouble.”

      Ashley couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She’d already flown from Denver to Atlanta to help Jill get over her illness and take care of her baby. Now her sister expected her to take the baby, go off somewhere to be a nanny to two children she’d never met and pretend that she was Mrs. Budge Gordon who had a husband running from the law.

      “It’s only for a few days,” Jill insisted, watching Ashley’s look of utter dismay. “I just couldn’t show up like this, coughing my head off and looking like a rag doll that went through the washer. This nanny job will see me through the summer, and by then…” her voice trailed off, and a haunted look deepened the shadows in her face. “Maybe by then I’ll have some of this sorted out.”

      The whole idea was crazy. Ashley couldn’t believe she was even considering it. “Where does this Hugo Vandenburg live?”

      “He has an estate not far from here. You can take my car, it’s only a few hours drive.”

      “In Georgia?”

      Jill nodded, but avoided looking directly at her twin. Ashley knew her sister well enough to know she was holding something back.

      “Where is this place?” she asked. “Where does Hugo Vandenburg live?”

      “Well, he doesn’t exactly live there, I mean, not all the time. It’s kind of a summer mansion,” she hedged, and then took a deep breath. “His estate is on one of those small islands off the Georgia coast. You have to get to Roble Island by ferry.”

      Her lips trembled. “He’ll hire someone else if I don’t show up as planned…I mean, if you don’t show up as planned.”

      Saying no to Jill had never been easy, and under these circumstances, a heartless refusal was almost impossible. Ashley didn’t know exactly when she made the decision that she would impersonate her sister for a few days, but a harmless charade seemed the least she could do to get her sister out of a tight spot. And she was on summer faculty break.

      “Thank you, thank you, sis,” Jill kept saying gratefully between coughing spells.

      “How will I know when you’re ready to make the switch?” Ashley sighed in defeat.

      Jill thought for a minute. “I don’t want to answer the phone unless it’s you. Call me every evening and leave a message on the machine…like, “Life is great.” Then call me right back and I’ll answer the phone. When I’m over this bug, I’ll rent a car, meet you and we’ll change clothes and switch cars. No one will be the wiser. Take my cell phone and use it so nobody in the house will know.”

      “Good idea. I brought my cell, but it only works in the Rocky Mountain area. Can you think of anything else?”

      Jill shook her head, and Ashley sighed. Oh, what a tangled web we weave when we first practice to deceive. She’d never been any good at lies and now she was preparing to live one.

      Chapter One

      The ferry trip across the Sound was a short one, but long enough for Ashley’s stomach to tighten with nervousness. She was supposed to call the Vandenburg house when she arrived on the ferry, and someone would come and lead the way through the marshlands and tropical woods to the estate on the Atlantic side of Roble Island.

      The ferry berthed at its pier, near a main thoroughfare bordering the west side of the island. A colorful little village hugged the waterfront, tempting tourists and residents with inviting shops, restaurants, parks and several inns and motels.

      She parked beside a public telephone that stood in a parking lot across from the nautically styled Seaside Inn. She dialed the number Jill had written on a slip of paper, and worried her lower lip waiting for someone to answer the insistent ring.

      What if nobody was home?

      A woman with a trace of an accent finally answered, “Vandenburg residence. Who is calling, please?”

      “This is…Mrs. Budge Gordon.” Even as she said the name for the first time, it sounded false in Ashley’s ears. “I was told to call when I arrived. Someone is supposed to guide me to the house.” Then she added, “I’m the new nanny.”

      “I’ll tell Mr. Stone. Where are you?”

      Ashley glanced quickly around. “I’m at the Seaside Inn,” she said, and before she could ask how long it might be before her escort arrived, the woman hung up.

      Great, thought Ashley. She had no idea how far away the Vandenburg house was from the wharf. Ten minutes? A half hour or more? Jill had said that the estate was on the Atlantic side of the island at its southern tip.

      Davie was sleeping peacefully in his car seat, and Ashley hesitated to move him. I should have told them I’d be waiting in the car, she lamented. Whoever was coming for her would probably go inside the inn looking for her. Sitting in the front seat, she could watch everyone who went in and out of the white clapboard building, but the problem was that she didn’t know what Mr. Stone or anyone else the woman might send looked like.

      After waiting twenty minutes, she decided that she’d better unload the baby and make herself visible. Not a good start, she thought, as her natural penchant for having things well-ordered put her off balance.

      She was busy unhooking the carrier from the back seat when a red Jaguar pulled into the parking lot and parked a few stalls away. She didn’t see the dark-haired slender man who got out of the car and walked toward her.

      There