THE PASSION, THE PROMISE—AND THE PERIL Lovely spirited Beth Lowell scorned New York high society when in 1846, she jilted a fabulously wealthy bachelor in favor of one Michael Porter, a charming adventurer bound for the wilderness of California. Defying the will of her family, the blonde beauty with the flashing, green eyes joined the man she loved on his trek to the Far West. The journey held both pleasure and sorrow for Beth. There was the joy of motherhood, but also great personal loss. In Antelope Valley, Baja, she found her fate closely intertwined with that of Rancho Cielo and the part-Anglo, part Mexican Porter clan. There was the proud matriarch, Luz, whose authority was not to be questioned; there was the raven-haired temptress, Carmen, whose flery, sensuous beauty no man could resist; and there was Michael's mysterious half-brother, Joe Porter, with whom Beth was to become deeply involved. These and others, some good and some evil, would lead Beth Lowell to her rendezvous with a unique destiny: the discovery of a closely guarded, century-old secret that alone could keep Rancho Cielo in the hands of the proud Porter family.