" They were still sipping cocktails, with Jed and Jonathon relaxing on the wooden couch and Rooke and Burr in chairs. From the first, Pine had insiste... that Jeb always hear their plottings. "She must grow up, Leonard. And I don't want to ever surprise her."Finally, as they gushed over Jonathon's "langoustine locale", the base for which he somehow contrived to trap in a local spring, Burr charged into the breach. "We've discovered that Roper has not exactly retired from the scene, old chap. To. The hold on her arm loosened and she looked up as the hand over her mouth was removed. She let out a sigh of relief as she saw Jake standing in front of her."Are you trying to give me a heart attack?" His only answer was a cheeky grin, then he stepped closer to her, trapping her between him and the hey bales. She didn't have time to ask him what he was doing before she felt his lips on hers. Her eyes widen in surprise, though it soon dawned on her what was happening and she willingly kissed him. She was no longer his puppet. She needed to relegate some duties to other members of the charity. Ironically it involved a dinner and dance that was to be held in counterpart to the same golf tournament that Martin was to play in that Saturday. But that just made her feel vindicated, that he would not stop her in making that event a success while she quietly left him. She wondered how he would handle attending the dinner without her, the person who had planned and directed the event. After. This allowed him to float along it for longer periods of the night. Several days later, Tuso was working himself toward the eastern bank, as he could see the sky starting to lighten as dawn was approaching. As he was looking for a small stream entering the river to pull out at, he noticed a trail of smoke coming up from the bank downstream. So he quickly kicked his way to shore, and quietly and carefully made his way along the bank, trying to stay out of sight. Tuso found a cut in the bank,.