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her shoulders, and wrenched her away
from the fence and into his arms. She reacted automatically and
violently.
     
    “Ow!”
    “Stop being such a baby.”
    “Dammit, that hurts.” Tony swatted Mari’s
hand away from his forehead.
    “Serves you right,” Mari grumbled as she
plopped the wet rag she’d removed into a bowl of water and handed
him a wetter one to press against the lump on his skull.
    “For the love of God, I was only trying to
help you do well in the test.”
    She lifted her chin “You didn’t have to try
so darned hard. You might have warned me first, anyhow.”
    “You’re a frightening woman, Miss Pottersby,
did you know that?”
    “Fiddlesticks.” Disgruntled, Mari took the
bottle of iodine from Ben, uncorked it, and poured some of its
contents onto a wad of cotton wool. “Here, move that cloth and let
me put some of this on the cut.”
    “What did you hit me with, anyway?”
    “A rock. And it was your own fault. You
shouldn’t have grabbed me like that.”
    “We were doing a test!” Tony sounded
furious.
    In a way, Mari didn’t blame him. In another
way, she did. “How was I supposed to know what to do? I’ve never
done anything like this before!”
    “God.”
    “Mr. Tafft didn’t warn me you were going to
butt in and scare me to death.”
    “For the love of . . . I can’t believe you
really thought I meant to do you harm. The whole thing was being
captured on celluloid!”
    “Hunh.” He was being such a pill, Mari almost
wished she could hit him again. She felt kind of silly, though,
since she ought to have known he was pretending. But she was right,
too. This was all brand new to her, and she wasn’t accustomed to
strange men creeping up on her, looking as if they wanted to
strangle her and then do horrid things to her. Or vice versa.
    He jerked away from her extended hand, giving
her an excuse to snap, “Stop being a baby and let me dab this
iodine on that bump.”
    “A baby! I bet I’ll have a black eye
tomorrow, blast you.”
    “Fiddlesticks. It’s only a little bump.”
    “A little bump? You might have knocked me
out!”
    Mari smirked. “It would have served you
right.”
    Fortunately, Martin rushed up to them,
sparing them both increased hostilities. “Mari! Come on inside.
I’ve seen the test, and I think you’re wonderful.” He slowed down
and grinned at Tony. “You were pretty splendid, too, Tony. You
really did look like you were bent on murder. Want a part in our
next movie?”
    Tony muttered, “God.”
    Mari smirked again. “See? I told you so. You
ought to have said something. Then I wouldn’t have been
frightened.”
    Martin laughed, which went some way toward
dispelling the bad feelings swirling in the air. “Cut it out, you
two. You look great together on film. I’m almost sorry we’ve
already signed Harrowgate to the leading male role.”
    Tony took the hand Martin held out to him.
Although she felt more like giving Tony a big shove from behind
than assisting him, Mari took his other arm and helped him to his
feet. She really had given him a pretty good wallop. She was darned
proud of herself, in fact.
    “When we get inside the inn, maybe I can
rustle up some sticking plaster and gauze,” she offered. “He
probably ought to keep that cut covered, at least until it stops
oozing.”
    “Oozing?” Tony grabbed his arm away from her
as if he suspected her of membership in some demonic cult. “Oozing?
Good God, that sounds as if my brains are leaking out!”
    Mari batted her eyelashes and shrugged, as if
she were silently asking him what he expected.
    “I can walk by myself.” He then let out an
inarticulate growl, yanked his other arm away from Martin, and
stormed off ahead of them to the inn. They watched him in silence
for a moment, then Mari spoke.
    “I didn’t mean to hurt him. I don’t know why
I got so scared.”
    Martin chuckled softly. “I do. You were
already frightened about the test, didn’t know what to expect, and
then