This
is while driving their car that Eden Capwell and Cruz Castillo discover the
magnificent scenery that surrounds the Pebble Creek hotel. Eden, amazed and
delighted, sees the set of her dream getting materialized and the framework
described by her mother Sophia comes to life in front of her eyes.
Eden
and Cruz
first discover, along the road, the stables with a ground to train horses. Then,
after a bend, the residence stands in front of them : a cream-colored
roughcast facade and a century old cypress, which seems to protect a turret. In
front of the facade with a darkest architecture, spreads a large gravel parking.
The building has only two floors.
The
hotel entrance is revealed after a few steps, as protected by three arches of
stone, out of sight under a small terrace decorated with plants. A magical and
almost mystical place protected in a natural setting in the wild.
The
other front of the residence keeps the same style, except that the stone arches
support a larger terrace. Many trees, which rise as high as the windows of the
upper floor, surround the house to shelter it from the looks, but also to offer
it peace and quiet. This is also along the paths of flowers boarding this side
of the building that Gina DeMott Capwell crosses the road of Captain Anderson.
From
there, we dominate a big part of the park : a large surface of green and greasy
grass, on which a buggy is often placed. On the right side of the building, the
trees let glimpse a large swimming-pool with rounded edges. The terrace is
separated from the park by a staircase with two arms in stone surrounding a
small fountain, with a wrought iron banister. It is these stairs that Eden will
go down alone, before taking her father's arm to take her to the altar. It is in
the garden at the foot of this beautiful staircase that will be held the so
expected wedding ceremony between Eden Capwell and Cruz Castillo.
It
is Fielding Coe who tells them the story of the property while leading them to
their bedroom. Originally, it was the summer residence of a wealthy family, the
Bartleys, who made its fortune in the railroad. At the death of his only
daughter, Thomas Bartley left the place and abandoned the entire property. In
the 1920s, the residence and the entire property were acquired by the Muller
family to turn it into a luxury hotel. Thus was born Pebble Creek.
Built
in the border of the ocean, the property occupies a large area. But the place
which characterizes it the best is certainly the cliff bordering Pebble Creek.
This landscape represents the best the strength and the beauty of love feelings.
No one can remain insensitive to this moving spectacle : the waves crashing with
violence on the rocks. It is besides here, in this place permeated with history,
that Eden will see for the first time the ghost of Amelia. This is also there
that, troubled, she lets the wind to tear her wedding dress away from her to
offer it as a gift to the ocean.
At
the entrance to the property are the stables, with a training ground for horses.
Several race horses, under the responsibility of Helmut Schilling, are trained
in this place. Built entirely of wood, the stables are made of several boxes
distributed all around a large central hall, where we find the perfect kit for
the maintenance of the horses : saddles, reins, forks for straw...
Upstairs the stables, a small bedroom has been fitted out, in the attic. This is
where Gina and Keith Timmons will move after having deserted Amelia's old
bedroom. Unfortunately for them, the big wedding day, the road from the stables
is covered by mud...
The
main room of the hotel serves both of reception desk (on the right of the
entrance stands Fielding Coe's desk, covered with papers and an old register),
and of small lounge where the visitors can take a cup of tea or coffee. In the
center of the living room, a chess game is on the table, the party seeming to
have started years earlier.
The
walls are partly of wood, whereas they are painted in yellow-green on the top.
The entire room, though loaded with decorations, keeps a feeling of lightness
and everything is done in the decoration to make a leap into the past. The
chairs in bright colors show embroidery which could be described as antiquated
anywhere else. But not here, as the whole frame, the furniture, seem to match to
give to Pebble Creek an incredible feeling of serenity and romance.
On
the left of the entrance, a spiral wrought iron staircase provides access to the
floors.
The
corridor leading to the bedrooms is covered with a red carpet and the cream
walls are decorated with picture of flowers. All the other bedrooms have these
same qualities, that of Cain Garver and Andrea Bedford is in red (with a
bathroom tub in an adjoining room), that of Sophia Capwell in blue and grey.
The
basement of the house contains a very large cellar in which are displayed the
best Californian and French wines, wines old of more than a century. It is in
this cellar that Keith will see, after having drunk a lot, the ghost of Amelia.
Deep in the basement, a door closed for many years gives to the storage which
contains all the clothes of the guests at Amelia and Captain Edward Anderson's
wedding. In a chest covered with dust, Eden will even find her wedding dress.
