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and Toni postponed any more serious thinking until after the party
was over.
She kept to her resolution not to look at Noah Seton again, although
she was aware of when precisely he returned from the rose-garden
with Jocelyn. The atmosphere of the party somehow heightened at
his re- entrance. She was also aware of those watchful dark eyes
resting on her from time to time. It made her feel more vividly alive
than she had ever felt in her life. What she had always needed, Toni
decided, was a challenge worthy of her mettle. The party ended up
being more fun than she had ever imagined.
It was only after everyone had gone and she was alone in her
bedroom that Toni really began to get her mind in order and focused
on what had to be done. A re-employment service was clearly
indicated. She had plenty of good contacts and she could give
glowing references. There was no reason why she couldn't find good
jobs for every one of those twenty- seven people.
But first she would need an office. She could hardly operate from
the company building once she had left it. And she couldn't use
Ray's home for business calls. That wasn't fair. Retirement was
retirement, and she was going to be much more considerate to Ray's
needs from now on. So she had to get an office of her own.
Which brought her to money! She wondered how much it cost to
rent an office in the city. And how much the initial outlay might be.
Once she got her reemployment business running, she would earn
commissions that should cover costs, but until then... money was a
problem.
There was a time when Toni had had quite a lot of money ixi her
own right, but Murray Sheldon had divested her of the inheritance
from her mother. Of course, that was her own fault. She had been
mad to marry him, mad to trust him. Which just went to show how
blinded one could be by sexual attraction. Well, she had learnt that
lesson, and at the time she hadn't cared how much it had cost her. It
was worth it, just to be out of that stupid marriage.
What little she had left had somehow disappeared over the years.
She was never quite sure how it went, but then she had never gone
without anything she really needed. It was the same with her income
from work. She gave it away, lent it to friends, spent it on things.
She simply wasn't very good at sticking to money. It was a
commodity to be used for whatever seemed like a good idea at the
time. She hadn't realised until these last few weeks just how
fortunate she was to have the fall-back security of a good home
where the door was always open for her. And Ray to cosset and
spoil her.
It was well past time she stood on her own two feet and proved
herself capable of it. Which Toni didn't doubt for a second. She
would not ask Ray for a loan. She would raise the money for the
office by herself.
She could always hock her pearls if she had to. Or sell some of her
clothes to a second-hand shop. There was always a way to do
anything. And she would find it.
'Toni?' Jocelyn's voice whispered around the bedroom door. 'Are
you still awake?'
'Wide awake! Come on in,' Toni promptly invited, leaning over to
switch on the bedside lamp.
Jocelyn looked wonderfully ethereal in a floating white nightie and
neglige. Toni herself was wearing a cotton nightshirt with a Kermit-
the-frog motif, which had appealed to her sense of humour. Maybe
some day some frog of a man might turn into a prince worth sharing
her bed and life with. It was a fantasy that Toni had extreme doubts
about, but she was not one to give up on dreams. Not entirely
anyway.
Toni thought again how very beautiful her stepsister was. However,
the smile on Jocelyn's face seemed a trifle over-bright for this time
of night or late pre-dawn, to be more exact.
'I wanted to ask what you thought of Noah now you've met him?'
she asked, relaxing across the end of the bed as Toni hitched herself
up on the pillows.
'About the same as before I met him,' Toni answered drily. 'But he's
certainly a macho hunk of a man, if that's what you want to be told.'
Jocelyn gave a laugh that sounded a bit tinny. 'He's total man all
right. He goes after what he wants. Which is more than can be said
for some.' Her eyes flickered with uncertainty. 'He asked a lot of
questions about you, Toni.'
'Just doing his homework on a prickly sister-in-law. And don't
answer any more questions on anything. The less he knows, the
better.' Toni threw her a teasing grin to settle any doubts Jocelyn
might have in her mind about that meeting in the rose-garden.
'He said you had a talk about the take-over and he's going to look
into the problems you raised.' Jocelyn was obviously prompting for
more.
'Yes. I did some spadework. Hopefully something might come of it,'
Toni answered blandly. 'He must think a lot of you, Jocelyn. I doubt
he'd bother otherwise.' [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] - zanotowane.pl
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