Darling Enemy Read Online Free PDF Page B

Montana. The board of directors retained an auditing firm from New York to do it.”
    Teddi didn’t like to hear auditors mentioned. Some of her most unpleasant memories were due to one of her aunt’s lovers, who was a very well-paid member of an illustrious New York firm.
    “Is he going to be gone long?” Jenna wondered.
    Mary shrugged. “A day or so, he said. But it’s just the beginning. He may have to bring the dreadful man here as well—you know, to check the rest of the books.” She caught the look on Jenna’s face and laughed. “Yes, I know, this is Canada, but King reinvests some of the profits from the Montana operation into the livestock operation here, and...” She shook her head. “It’s all very confusing. Ask King to explain it to you someday, I have no head for business management.”
    “Blakely does,” Jenna murmured with a wry glance at her mother. “I could ask him.”
    Mary smiled at her. “I like Blakely very much. If you need an ally, my darling, you have one in me.”
    “Thanks, Mom,” the young blonde said with a beaming smile. “It will take two of us to get around King.”
    “Get around King?” Mary paused with her fork in midair and stared at her daughter. “Now, Jenna...”
    “Everything will be all right, I promise,” came the smug reply. “Let’s hurry and eat, Teddi, I want to introduce you to Blakely. You’ll adore him!”
    * * *
    Blakely would have been adorable only to a girl who was in love with him, but he was personable and seemed to know his business. Teddi had to smother a grin at the worshipful look in Jenna’s normally sensible eyes as they followed the thin, dark-eyed man around the property while the two young women were briefed on its operation. Blakely had red hair, so bright that it seemed coppery in the sun, and Teddi couldn’t help but wonder what kind of children Jenna and the livestock foreman would have—blond ones or redheads. It wasn’t going to be an easy thing if they were serious about each other. Jenna would never make King believe that it was she Blakely was interested in, not the millions she stood to inherit.
    King. If only she could stop thinking about him! In view of his contempt for her, she should have detested him in return. But she didn’t. She couldn’t stop her eyes from following him whenever he was near. She felt an attraction toward him that nothing ever daunted, and she was helpless to prevent it.
    She shook herself out of her troubled thoughts as Blakely mumbled something about the growth of the livestock farm.
    “Originally,” he informed the girls, “farms in western Canada were laid out in 65-hectare parcels. And most of the farms are scattered within a 320-kilometer strip along Canada’s southern border. But these days only about 5 percent of the work force is employed in agriculture,” he added sadly. “Although productivity is increasing among those who remain, and mechanization has aided us quite a lot. Did you know,” he continued, blossoming as he elaborated on his favorite subject, “that the average output of one farm worker today provides food for over fifty people?”
    “I’d give that man a raise,” Teddi murmured.
    Blakely stared at her until the words penetrated, then he threw back his head and laughed, delighted at the little joke.
    “Forgive me,” he told her, “I do tend to get carried away about farming. I love it, you see. Not just the land, or working it and working with cattle on it; but the history and heritage behind it all. This was once part of the Northwest Territories,” he said, sweeping his arms around to indicate the lush green valley in its summer splendor, with the tall, sharp peaks of the Rockies in the distance. “Alberta and Saskatchewan were organized out of it in 1905, but French fur traders were here long before then settling the wilderness. It’s an exciting history, the settling of this territory, one I never tire of reading about. Or,” he added sheepishly,