The Secret Heiress by Judith Gould

rage.
    Suddenly Frans saw her. “Bianca!” he cried excitedly. “Come and join us. This is so much fun!”
    Fun! Who is he kidding? She felt like battering his head with the champagne bottle.
    “Niki gave me a drink with ecstasy in it, and it’s so much fun!” Frans grinned at her, deliriously happy.
    Bianca glared at them, her body still trembling with rage.
    “You bet it’s fun.” Niki giggled. “Come on in. There’s some more ecstasy. Over there on the vanity.”
    Bianca threw the champagne bottle and glasses toward the tile shower. The glasses shattered, but the bottle hit the wall and fell to the floor, rolling back toward her.
    “Oh, Bianca!” Niki cried. “Don’t be a spoilsport!” She shoved her hands underwater and giggled wildly. “Frans has plenty for both of us!”
    Bianca felt bile rise in her throat. She wanted to throw up, but she turned and ran from the cottage.

Chapter Seven

    A riadne wrapped her striped woolen scarf around her neck several times and pulled her wool watch cap down over her ears, then turned the collar on her jacket up. I probably look like Nanook of the North, she thought, but I don’t care. It was extremely cold and windy outside with snow on the ground, and she might have to wait awhile for the bus that would take her within easy walking distance of her dorm on the Williams campus. Set at last, she pushed on the big glass door and stepped out into the already darkening day. She hurried along under the covered walkway that led to the street.
    When she reached the curb, she looked up at the late-afternoon sky. It was the same depressing, uniform gray that it had been when she’d come to the Clark Institute a couple of hours earlier. There’s going to be more snow, she thought. Normally, she wouldn’t mind it too much, and usually she thought the snow falling was beautiful. But today the biting wind and gray sky and descending darkness matched her mood.
    What a lousy day, she thought, reaching the shelter where the bus stopped. She knew why her spirits were so low, but that didn’t help make her feel any better. Kurt had called earlier in the week and asked her to go out to dinner tonight. Then he’d called back this morning and canceled. He couldn’t turn down an invitation to go skiing with a bunch of buddies at a nearby ski resort, could he? She hadn’t been asked—it was a bunch of guys, after all—but she was disappointed that she’d been brushed off, virtually at the last minute. Why am I not surprised? she wondered.
    The first time she’d met Kurt in a class, she’d been drawn to him. He was very good-looking, tall and blond and well built, with a friendly manner and an easy smile. She’d soon discovered to her delight that he also possessed that rare combination of a very sharp intelligence along with his equally great looks. But after dating him for a few months, she’d begun to notice other, less attractive attributes as well. He was sometimes not only arrogant and rude but also self-involved and insensitive.
    She’d gradually come to feel that she was a convenience to him. When he needed help on a difficult paper for a class, he asked her for assistance. When he needed a date for some function, he called her. When his buddies were all busy, and he didn’t want to eat alone, he would ask her to join him. And, of course, when he wanted to get laid, he would try to sweet-talk her into being accommodating in that respect as well. She was “the greatest” or “the best,” never “the greatest lover” or “the love of my life.” Love, in fact, was a word they’d both avoided, as if its utterance would destroy their relationship.
    Tonight—all weekend in fact—she’d turned out to be inconvenient for him. Well, she thought, he can start calling somebody else because I’ve had it.
    While she was angry, she realized in all fairness that he had helped her as well. She’d been seen about campus with a hot-looking man, hadn’t she? Nor did she