"She's not mine, you know," he said to Ed. "So far as I am concerned, you are welcome to her."
"Oh, that's different," Ed said, relieved.
If Zen's words relieved Ed, they had the opposite effect on Nedra. She opened her mouth to speak to him, then closed it in an apparent effort to bite off words that no lady should use.
Cal laughed. "Ed is mighty touchy about his women. But don't let that stop you. Ask her what she is doing up here?"
"None of your damned business, either of you," Nedra answered.
Zen shrugged and spread his hands in a gesture which said that he hoped Cal would see how it was. Cal nodded. "We'll find out later." His manner indicated there was no question in his mind that he would find out what he wanted to know. "Right now it's time for chow. Jake, get on the job."
Jake turned and walked across the street to another house. Cal bringing up the rear, the others followed Jake. Ed took hold of Nedra's arm and escorted her across the street. Seeing this, Kurt Zen again wished that he had a gun.
[VI]
The meal was beef stew, which Jake prepared in a big pot on an old wood-burning range. They all ate around the kitchen table.