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won't settle . . ."
All of which was just what King had told Teddi, and she had to look away to keep her best friend from
reading it in her expressive face.
"I love him," Jenna said stubbornly. "If I have to draw water from a well and make my own clothes,
I'll do it, as long as I can live with him. That's all I want in the world. And I'll get it," she added with a
stubborn set to her jaw. "You just watch me!"
"I believe you," Teddi assured her with a laugh. She was a lot like King, and if anybody had a chance
of holding out against him, it was Jenna.
The men ate their sandwiches in the study, so Teddi was spared a confrontation. But when they sat
down to dinner that night, it was as close to civilized warfare as Teddi had ever come.
Bruce sat across from her, his eyes resting appreciatively on the soft white shirtwaist dress she'd
donned. King glared at her from the head of the table, his eyes as cold as winter. She felt like a human
sacrifice, and Jenna's evident amusement didn't help a bit. Mary, blissfully oblivious of the
undercurrents around her, chatted enthusiastically about an upcoming art exhibit in Calgary.
"I thought you'd be working this summer, Teddi," Bruce murmured when there was a pause in the
conversation. "I asked for a local assignment in New York for that reason."
Teddi met his eyes coolly. "Did you?" she mut-darling enemy
tered, hating him for what he'd done to her fragile relationship with King. "I thought I'd made it quite
clear that I didn't have time for a lot of night life."
"Pull the other one, honey," he laughed, his eyes calculating as he measured King's interest. "I've seen
you in nightclubs all over New York."
Teddi's eyes dilated. "You most certainly have not!" she cried.
"Sure, if that's the way you want it," he agreed, making it sound as if he was covering up for her. "It
doesn't matter, you know," he added in a demoralized tone.
"I know I couldn't compete with the kind of money your escorts had. I'm just a working man."
Teddi's fingers clenched on her fork, and just for one wild second, she contemplated the effect of
throwing her plate across the table at him. His green eyes were laughing at her. He knew what he was
doing, and she realized all at once that her first impression had been right. He was going to crucify
her for the blow she'd dealt his masculine pride. If he couldn't have her, no other man was going to,
especially not King.
"I don't need to date rich men," she bit off. "You don't?" Bruce asked innocently.
"But, sweet, Dilly doesn't give you a penny toward your education. You've got to get money
somewhere."
He was planting deadly seeds and finding fertile ground in King's already suspicious mind. "I make
enough to support myself," Teddi said. "You must, if you can take the whole summer off for a
vacation," Bruce said with an insinuating look toward King. "Or are you np here on a 'fishing' trip?"
King's expression was one of pure fury.
With a mighty effort, Teddi lifted her coffee cup to her lips and managed not to burst into tears. It was
like having an invisible knife take the skin off an inch at a time, and nobody could see the wounds.
Especially not King, who got to his feet and tossed his napkin down.
"If you're through, Billingsly?" he asked with maddening carelessness, leading the way out of the
dining room.
Teddi watched him go, aware of Bruce's triumphant smile as he followed. The light went out of her
eyes, her soul, at that moment, because she knew King had believed Bruce. All that she had kept from
him was suddenly out in the open. Now King knew that she was responsible for her own educational
expenses, her living expenses, that Dilly didn't help out and he believed one more thing, that she
needed money.
He would inevitably come to the conclusion that she had been trying to trap him, especially since
she'd come to Gray Stag instead of going back to New York during summer vacation. He would fit
those puzzle pieces together, along with what Bruce had let drop about her so-called "dates" with
wealthy men a lie if there ever was one and her indifference to working men. And when he put all
that together, he was going to have a false picture of a penniless young woman out to catch a wealthy
man any way she could. The fact that she flirted with him at Easter would take on new meaning. And
there was nothing, absolutely nothing, she could do to convince him that he was wrong, because now
he'd think she was a liar. Chances were good that he'd also doubt her innocence, think it was part of
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