Olivia by V. C. Andrews Page B

and panties. I stood between her and Nelson and handed her clothing to her as quickly as I could.
"Anyone can look at either of you and see you've been in the water," I said after they were both dressed.
"Let's go up to my room and dry our hair," Belinda suggested.
The two of them hurried toward the house, me following behind, feeling like a third wheel. Up in Belinda's room, I watched the two of them dry their hair. Belinda went into the bathroom and put on another pair of panties and a bra.
"Just keep these here for me," he told her handing her his wet underpants. "Until they're dry."
"I can put them in the dryer downstairs," I suggested.
"No problem. I'm fine," he said. He looked at Belinda. Her eyes were dazzling with excitement and laughter. "That was great," he said. "Never thought one of my parents' dinner parties would be this exciting. Thanks."
He turned to me.
"Well, I guess we'd better show our faces and pretend all is well. How do I look?"
"Fine," I said reluctantly.
"I'll be down in a moment," Belinda chimed.
Nelson and I left and started to descend the stairway. We could hear our parents talking loudly in the sitting room.
"You're sister's terrific," he said.
"You don't have to live with her," I replied. He laughed.
"Yeah, I bet she's a handful, huh?"
"A handful is an understatement," I told him. He laughed again.
He was smart enough to see my point. I was sure. But did it matter?
Men were blind. Some, deliberately, I thought.
    5
Going to the Chapel
.
If any of our parents had noticed Nelson and
    Belinda had gone swimming, they made no mention of it before the evening ended. After Belinda came downstairs, she and Nelson were hungry again, probably from their frolicking in the water, and they had dessert and coffee. I just had some coffee. Nelson and I did most of the talking, discussing politics, Cape Cod and business. There was no music after dinner, no entertainment this time, so after we were finished, Colonel Childs declared it was time for him and his family to go. Nelson had to go back to law school early in the morning.
    At the door Nelson told Belinda and me he would look in on us when he returned. Daddy gazed at me with some excitement in his eyes, but I shook my head. After Mother went upstairs with Belinda, Daddy pulled me aside in his office.
"Well? How did they get along?" he asked.
    I thought a moment and then flopped into the leather chair adjacent to his desk.
"Dreadfully, as I expected," I said. "She made a fool of herself as usual."
"What?" Daddy sat behind his desk. "What happened? They seemed to be getting along so well at dinner."
"She wanted to go for that walk on the beach, but she had something else up her sleeve, Daddy. She pulled off her clothes and challenged him to go swimming with her."
"Pulled off her clothes?"
"I was so embarrassed, I thought I would die."
"Oh no," Daddy said, his face, losing its robust color put there from all the wine he had drunk.
"Oh yes. I kept trying to get her to behave, but it was no use. Belinda will always be Belinda, Daddy. We might as well accept it."
He nodded, sadly.
"Well, I tried. I had an idea and I tried." He looked up at me, his eyes glassy. "I'm tired. Let's get some sleep," he said.
"Don't worry, Daddy. You'll figure something out yet," I said. He smiled quickly and patted me on the shoulder.
"Right, right," he said.
"As I suspected, Nelson Childs is looking for a woman of some substance," I added as I left the office. "Belinda just isn't right for him."
"I see," Daddy muttered behind me, but he never suggested or assumed Nelson would be a good prospect for me. His attention was committed solely to Belinda as usual. "However, I'm not about to give up. I have something else up my sleeve," Daddy said.
I turned on the stairway.
"What?"
"Give me a few days to work out the details," he replied cryptically. I thought he meant he was going to come up with some other approach to getting Belinda and Nelson Childs together, but he had an entirely