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she
struggled out of her deep sleep was that the yacht had hit rough weather. Her
whole cabin seemed to be tilting in the storm. Then, fuzzily, she became aware
that the rocking was only caused by Darby shaking her shoulder.
    "Come along, Sister. It's
time to get dressed."
    "Dinner." Teel
forced the word around the cotton wool in her mouth. "Hungry. Forgot
lunch."
    "Forgot? Baloney. No
doubt you'd been tiffing with himself and didn't eat 'cause you was
miffed." Darby ignored her glare. "Now come along. It will soon be
cocktail time.
    "Dinner." Teel
licked her dry lips.
    "Argue with me, will
ya?" Darby's half grin, half growl made his bushy eyebrows go up and down.
"Up you get now," he badgered her before urging her into the
bathroom. "I'll lay out your clothes," he called to her through the
closed door. "Not to worry."
    I'm not worried, Teel thought,
rubbing her hair with one of the exotic shampoos she had found in the stockpile
of emollients on board the Deirdre. She wasn't worried about what to wear, but she was worried
about how soon she could eat. If that bear of a man hadn't made her so mad, she
would have eaten the lovely lunch that Rowan had fixed for her. She ground her
teeth together at the thought of Chazz.
    She was going to yell over the
noise of the shower to tell Darby to lay out jeans for her, then decided that
he wouldn't hear her anyway.
    She padded out of the bathroom
wrapped in a thick bath sheet that hung almost to her toes and stopped dead,
her mouth falling open as she caught sight of the wisp of a dress that Darby
had draped across the bed. Beside it were cobwebby undies and ultra-sheer
stockings. Backless slippers in a sea-green color with medium-high heels lay at
the foot of the bed.
    Teel looked around the room
for her other clothes, or anything else she might wear to tell Darby to find
something for her. But there was nothing but her towel. She balked at leaving
her cabin wrapped in that, afraid she might run into the owner of the Deirdre. She had no wish to
watch Chazz's lion's eyes laser over her, separating her bones from tendons,
muscle and tissue, disassembling her and putting her back together again. And
she didn't like the all-over tingle she felt at the mere thought of him.
    She shrugged and decided to
put on the dress. What difference did it make what she wore as long as she
could eat?
    It wasn't until she had
slipped the sea green silk chiffon dress with the uneven hemline over her head
that she noticed the jeweler's box on one side of the dresser. Curious, she
opened it and gasped. Emeralds! Drop earrings of braided gold interspersed with
emeralds and a matching thin necklace glinted up at her. The ring was a
marquise-shaped emerald that fit perfectly.
    Teel ooohed over
the cache, chuckling to herself as she thought of Darby taking these from
Chazz's safe. He had often described the safe in Chazz's bedroom, where he kept
the valuables. She hoped the gremlin like little man wouldn't get into trouble
because he had tried to give Teel a chance to pretend to be a gem-laden lady.
    She knew she couldn't wear the
jewels and maintain her pose as a nun, but she laughed out loud to think what
her fellow schoolteachers would say. They had never seen their director in
anything so exotic. Teel laughed to herself as well as she twirled in front of
the mirror. A sense of freedom and abandon made her feel lightheaded. She had
no choice but to wear the clothes even though the cut of the dress precluded
wearing a bra and the combination of silky panties and dress plus very sheer
stockings gave a sensuous, naked feeling to her skin. She was surprised to see
that the contrast of the sophisticated dress with her unmadeup, sun warmed skin
gave her a uniquely striking look.
    She gripped the green clutch
bag and left the cabin, feeling like the Queen of the Deirdre, not just a temporary,
unwanted passenger. As she traversed the ship toward the dining area at the
stern, she wondered idly what her host would be