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Regaining a little composure, she hit back.
    'I didn't like the way you were pawing Blanche and I wasn't going to pretend that I did!'
    'My God!' his eyes were hard and scornful, 'you're a fine one to talk! You're scarcely in any position to sit in judgment on me. Your friend Rex Oliver told me too much last night, while you and Blanche were upstairs getting ready.'
    'You talked about me?' Emma's blood ran cold. 'You had a nerve!'
    'It wasn't exactly me who did the talking,' Rick snapped,
    'it was your boy-friend, your lover, the man you want to marry but who is—and he swears you know it— trying to shake you off. Hence the reason why he was deliberately late last night. It had nothing to do with Blanche.'
    Emma felt her cheeks grow white. 'Rex didn't? He couldn't say that!'
    'Oh, come off it, Emma. No need to look so horrified.
    You're no innocent virgin and could be older than you look.
    I've been enlightened. There's no need to put on an act for me. Poor Blanche, no wonder she's been trying to save you from yourself. Rex, I believe, hasn't been the only man.'
    Emma stared and winced. She could do nothing else, yet was puzzled that she didn't denounce Rex and Blanche right away. But her hands were tied, weren't they? If she tried to defend herself there wouldn't be a wedding. It was as simple as that, and the repercussions of such a cancelation would be on her own head. Why not let Rick Conway believe what he had been told? After the wedding she needn't see him again, so what did it matter what he thought of her? It probably wouldn't make any difference to her reputation.
    Plenty of girls slept around these days and no one appeared to think anything of it.
    'I can look after myself,' she said at last, lowering tormented eyes so he wouldn't see her pain.
    'I realise you can, if to begin with you had me fooled,' he returned tightly. 'If Rex hadn't spiled the beans it would have dawned as I danced with you. I knew then you were no prim teenager. The way you moved against me was provocative, to say the least. It had every bone in my body crying for release. If I'd had the chance, there and then you'd have been under me.'
    Infuriated, Emma shot her hand out to slap his leering face hard. 'You're—oh, I can't find words bad enough!' she cried helplessly. 'No man's going to speak to me like that. I could be a—a tramp!'
    'That's the impression I got,' he grinned contemptuously, as he turned on his heel and left her.
    Emma didn't see Rick again before he departed for Australia. For once she was grateful to be left out of the family's social activities. As soon as she heard he was gone she told both her aunt and cousin she had no wish to attend the forthcoming wedding. Hilda, obviously thinking this would mean less expense, replied smoothly that it might be as wel, as someone would have to stay and look after the farm. They couldn't all be away.
    The calculating swiftness with which Hilda provided her with an excuse might, at any other time, have hurt, but Emma was only aware of relief. She had no wish to see Rick Con way married, to her cousin or anyone else— not after all he had said and done! Not only had he treated her badly, he had spoken to her as she suspected no man spoke to a woman for whom he had any respect.
    Every nerve in her body still trembled with resentment each time she remembered. If she had been able to give herself the satisfaction of straightening him out, it might have been worth it, if only to have seen his face. This she had to deny herself, both for Blanche's sake and, Emma was secretly ashamed to admit, her own. To get rid of Blanche, not to have her constantly around with her spiteful tongue and endless commands, was surely worth a little sacrifice of pride and self-respect. Somehow she managed to ignore the whisper inside her which suggested the cost was too great.
    What did she care what an arrogant sugar plantation owner thought of her? She'd be the biggest fool on earth if she did.
    It was just