A Girl Called Tegi Read Free Page B

shining armour as they did long a go? Dorothy had not got one romantic bone in her body, but she was the kind of girl to meet some nice romantic kind of man who would cherish her for the rest of her life.
    But Dorothy was going after him, wasn’t she? Tegi quivered. She would not know where to begin.
    Dorothy came in that night in the small hours in a whiff of tobacco smoke and perfume. Sitting on the bed, she dropped off one shoe and then the other.
    Tegi opened one sleepy eye. ‘Enjoy yourself?’ she asked on a yawn.
    ‘Not bad, not bad at all. We went to the casino. The decor was very interesting and Tony is quite a boy. G oodness, I’m tired, and this zip is stuck.’
    ‘Let me undo it.’ Tegi pushed herself up in bed. ‘Did he kiss you goodnight ?’
    ‘Who?’
    Tegi pulled down the zip. ‘Tony, of course.’
    ‘What do you think?’
    Tegi did not want to think because her thoughts would agree that Toni Mastroni was exactly what she had thought he was, out for anything but marriage.
    Dorothy would not care because she might even get him around to that way of thinking. Tegi punched her pillow to make a hollow in which to bury her face. She was seeing him again in the sunlight by his machine, throwing back the dark lock of hair from his handsome face, and wished she had looked the other way. The miracle was that he had ever looked at her at all.
    She lay awake long after Dorothy had gone to sleep. Sick with mortification at imagined hurt, she reckoned that all the happenings of the day had been her fault. Hadn’t she been bemoaning the fact that nothing ever happened? Well, all kinds of things had happened today. She had met a dream man, a Renaissance prince on a magnificent machine. But it was only a dream; she alone had tried to make it a reality. From now on she would stick to her dull Saturday afternoons. At least they did not bring heartache like some horrible discord inside her that prevented her from sleep.

 
    CHAPTER TWO
    Something soft was borrowing into the side of her neck. Tegi struggled reluctantly through the blanket of sleep, opened her eyes and lay perfectly still. With her heart threatening to knock a hole into her ribs she cast a slow cautious glance downwards towards her shoulder.
    In that moment shock drenched her like a shower of ice cold water, but the scream gathering strength in her throat was halted at source by the appearance of a small tousled head at the side of her bed.
    Gary was whispering urgently, ‘It’s only Sam. Mum didn’t call you because of wakening Dorothy, s o she asked me to waken you quietly.’
    ‘Quietly?’ Tegi echoed on breath regained as she watched him gather up the small furry bundle from her neck. ‘You’d better make yourself scarce and take that mouse with you!’ She was fully awake now and speaking through her teeth in her anger. ‘Scram, before I beat the living daylights out of you !’
    In one swift fluid movement she was sitting up in bed to aim a pillow at his retreating back. Then in a manner of an engine letting off steam she swung her legs out of bed and reached for her wrap, discharging her anger in an audible sigh.
    Waken Dorothy! she thought exasperatedly. That would be the day! Nothing short of an earthquake would ever get Dorothy out of bed at first attempt. She lay unconscious to the world as Tegi padded across the carpet to the bathroom. In a very short s pace of time Tegi had cleaned her teeth, washed and was soon wriggling into a neat tailored skirt and s triped shirt blouse mated by a black patent belt ar o und her slim waist.
    Her make-up was negligible, a brush was drawn quickly over her gleaming hair and she w as treading in high-heeled sandals in record time. With a half- sm ile she had to admit to herself that Gary’s method of waking her up had results. Normally she would be snoozing again for a further period of time waiting for her mother’s second call.
    Her mother was picking up a breakfast tray from the table already