"Levi's widow. I see. You two have talked this over and decided it's for the best?"

"She's having a baby." "Bless her heart. I didn't realize. You and I spoke very little at Levi's funeral as I recall. Shame losing your brother so young like that." He shook his head sadly. "And she's lost her husband. But marrying you is a wise choice to be sure. You're a fine rancher and a good man, as was your father. Even if you don't attend services." He winked.

Noah wasn't sure what he could say to that. "A week from tonight would be good. I'd be obliged if you would come to the Rockin' C to marry us. And obliged if you don't mention the plans to anyone."

"Keeping it small," Preacher Davidson said with a nod. "It would be my pleasure."

The preacher's wife came out with a tray holding cookies and cups of coffee. She set the tray on the round wooden table and offered a cup to Noah.

He didn't reach for it. "Thank you, ma'am, but I can't stay. Reverend." She exchanged a glance with her husband. Noah got up and touched his hat brim briefly, then hurried down the stairs and untied his horse. He swung up onto the saddle and urged the animal into motion. That night as they ate supper, Noah, seated as usual on the far end of the table, told Kate what he'd arranged. "A week from tonight. The preacher will come."

Kate laid down her fork. "That's perfect, isn't it? I want you to be easy with the plans."

Noah had never been easy around anyone except Levi in his entire grown life, so he didn't hold out much hope for next week. But it was the best that could be arranged, so he nodded.

The following day Noah instructed Harper to drive Katherine into town so she could invite her friend

Annie and make arrangements for anything she needed.

Charmaine was present in Annie's shop, sewing seed pearls on an ivory gauze veil. "I've been working on this veil for a month," she told Kate. "I was hoping it would bring me luck. Wayne has mentioned to

friends that he is going to ask me to marry him." She released the veil and shrugged with both palms up.

"So far, he hasn't."

"That's perfectly exciting," Kate told her. "You two make a charming couple."

Charmaine's cheeks blushed prettily. "Why, thank you!"

"Join us for tea." Annie gestured to a chair and brought out a china teapot and delicate cups. "I don't

have any more of your dresses ready yet. Have you decided on some changes?"

"No, this isn't about clothing. I've come to share something." Kate's palms grew damp with nervous anticipation. And now that Charmaine was here, it would be rude not to include her in the invitation. "And to ask you to come out to the Rockin' C next Friday evening." She glanced at each woman. "Both of

you."

"What's the occasion?" Annie asked, handing her a cup.

"Noah and I are going to be married."

The needle stilled in Charmaine's fingers. She

glanced up at Kate with surprise. "Married? You're going to marry him?" Kate nodded. "Are you sure you want to do this?" Charmaine asked. Kate raised her chin a notch, wishing now that Annie's cousin hadn't been present and that she hadn't felt impelled to include her.

"Luke and I will be honored to attend," Annie responded quickly. "Thank you for thinking of us."

Kate smiled with relief at her acceptance and sipped her tea.

"Thank you for the invitation, Kate," Charmaine said, touching Kate's hand. "I will be pleased to come."

Kate turned over her hand to grasp Charmaine's. They looked into each other's eyes a long moment.

"There's obviously something the rest of us don't know about the man," Charmaine said finally. "Because I can tell you're satisfied with this decision."

Incredibly relived at her intuitive understanding, Kate told them, "He's the kindest person I've ever known. He grows roses, can you fancy that? He's been treated unkindly by his stepmother and stared at by strangers and neighbors his whole life. He considers his appearance intolerable to others and avoids people. It's sad, don't you think, to have spent so many years hiding?"

"Yes," Annie agreed. She took a seat beside Kate. "I know what it's like to have people looking at you and thinking you're different."

"Annie's parents kept her in a wheelchair for years," Charmaine told her. "She didn't get to go to school or attend gatherings. It wasn't until she met Luke that she realized she could do more than they had ever allowed her to do. She started walking and had to defy her parents to marry Luke."

After hearing her incredible story, Kate admired Annie all the more. "I feel bad now." Kate set down her cup. "I imagined you'd always had an easy life. But I guess none of us really knows what the other has gone through."

"'Oh, I was spoiled and had an easy life," Annie said. "Too easy. I was so pampered and coddled that I felt like a china doll on a shelf. That's no way to live. I love having a full life. Being a wife and mother and running my shop."

"Her life makes the rest of us yearn for something equal," Charmaine said in her dramatic way. "Luke adores her. He's loved her since she was ten years old and he was fourteen." She proceeded to tell about the way Luke and Annie had met at Annie's tenth birthday party, how Luke had taken her for a ride on his horse, and how Annie's brother had beaten the tar out of him afterward. "Isn't that the most romantic thing you've ever heard?"

"It is indeed." Kate had never heard a story so touching. She couldn't help comparing Luke's devotion to his wife to Levi's abandonment. Annie was fortunate to have a husband who loved her.

"Charmaine, perhaps we shouldn't be reminding Kate of what she's lost," Annie said softly. "She's a widow, after all."

Kate sniffed and Annie found a handkerchief for her. "I'm not one to feel sorry for myself, really I'm not. I'm sorry."

"It's your delicate condition," Charmaine said. "Annie cried at the drop of a hat before Rebecca was born."

Kate couldn't resist a chuckle at their sympathetic words and expressions. She'd never had girlfriends, had never known the pleasure of feminine sympathy or understanding. "Now that I think back and think hard, I'm not so sure how I truly felt about Levi. He promised to take me away from Boulder and my work at the laundry. I think I was in love the idea of escape. I believed I loved him or I wouldn't have married him, would I?"

Kate gathered her courage and spoke the truth. "I hadn't seen him for nearly five months when he was killed."

"What do you mean?" Annie asked.

"He went to look for work and a place to live and didn't return."

"He owned half the Rockin' C?why would he need work and a place to live?" Charmaine asked.

With the truth spelled out so plainly, Kate knew with certainty that Levi's promises had been lies and his plan to find work merely an excuse to leave. If he'd loved her, had wanted her as his wife, he'd have brought her to Rock Ridge. "It was a lie," she replied.

He had wanted to make love with her and she had refused because they weren't married. So he'd married her. After a few weeks, his itch had been scratched and he'd moved on. Her humiliation was a burning ache in her stomach. And now she was entrusting her safety and that of her child's to another man. She tamped down her doubts. Noah was not Levi.

Annie scooted close and wrapped her arm around Kate's shoulders. "Everything's going to be fine now." She patted her back. "You have a home with Noah and he will take care of you and your baby."

"Yes," Kate replied. She returned the hug and they separated. Imagining Noah taking care of her was overwhelming. The whole idea of being married to him was overwhelming. She had so many questions in her head that she had to fix her mind on something else. "I have a newly papered and furnished bedroom and the baby's room is charming. I can't wait to show you."

"You'll show us Friday?" Charmaine asked. "What are you going to wear?"

"One of the dresses Annie made for me is a shimmery pale green. I was thinking I'd wear that one."

"I saw that?it's beautiful." Charmaine reached for the veil she'd set aside. "Kate, I'd like for you to have this."

Kate blinked in surprise. "But that's yours. You were making it for good luck and you've put so much work into it. I couldn't possibly accept something so...so special."

"You're the one with a wedding planned, so perhaps it was good luck, after all." Charmaine grinned. "Maybe Wayne will get an idea when he hears of your wedding. I can always make another."

Kate knew the cost of the materials and seed pearls was more than she'd earned in a month working at the laundry. It was a more generous gift than she'd ever been offered. "It's so beautiful," she said, her throat thick with tears. "I've never had anything as pretty."

Charmaine placed the veil in her hands. "If we apply ourselves for the next hour, we can have the rest of the pearls sewn on."

Kate accepted the gift and the young women's friendship with a hopeful heart. These two accepted her as an equal and had taught her the joy of sharing and the blessing of genuine concern. Preparations for this wedding were as different from her first as night and day.

The day Noah had brought her to Copper Creek had been the most fortunate day of her life. She would remember who she had to thank for changing her existence. She would strive to make certain his life was better because she was here. She would show her appreciation in all the ways she possibly could.

While they worked, Annie helped her with a few ideas for the ceremony and offered to bring a cake. Kate rode back to the ranch feeling good about the plans.

She had no particular duties around the ranch or the house and was chastised at every attempt to help with cleaning or laundry. So by the time the following Friday arrived, she'd had plenty of time to prepare and dress and arrange things just so. She'd also had plenty of time to wonder about their sleeping arrangement and experience a few quivers of apprehension.

Kate descended the stairs in her new pale green dress, her hair carefully arranged and wearing the veil Charmaine had given her. "You are beautiful," Marjorie told Kate when she caught sight of her. She'd been arranging the furniture in the parlor.

Kate blushed. No one had ever told her she was beautiful before.

"Noah left something on the kitchen table for you."

"What is it?"

"Go see."

On the table, she found a delicate bouquet of dog's tooth violets and bloodroot, the stems neatly tied in a

man's handkerchief. Kate's cheeks warmed even more because Noah had remembered her asking if she could carry flowers. She hadn't thought about it again until this very moment. What a surprising thing for him to do.

She picked up the bunch and raised it to her nose, imagining Noah climbing the foothills to gather the stems. Outside, the sounds of a rig caught her attention. Having heard, as well, Marjorie came to her side. "Go on into the parlor. I'll greet your guests."

Luke and Annie Carpenter accompanied by Charmaine arrived first. "Noah has told me you're the local farrier," she said to Annie's dark-haired, blue-eyed husband. "He also says you own only the best rigs and the finest horses."

Luke grinned. "Then it must be so."

"Where is Rebecca this evening?"

"With her aunt Diana."

Dressed in a black suit and a plain white shirt with a string tie, Noah entered by the front door and stood

to the side, unreadable and aloof as always, his hair covering part of one eye. His discomfort was obvious to Kate. She recognized that without his hat or gloves, he was feeling exposed. His sanctuary was being invaded by the very people he avoided. She smiled encouragingly, the bouquet held securely in her gloved hand.

Luke took a long stride toward Noah, shook his hand, then returned to join his wife.

Preacher and Mrs. Davidson arrived next. Tipper came in, followed by Fergie and the other hands.

They'd all cleaned up for the occasion, slicked their hair and donned their best dungarees.

The preacher took control of the party and told people where to stand, then ushered Kate and Noah to

their places and began the ceremony. He read scripture about a man and woman becoming one flesh and another about wives submitting to their husbands and husbands loving their wives as Christ loved the church. He then asked Noah to take her hand.

Noah held himself rigidly and she could tell it was with extreme reluctance that he extended his palm.

Kate glanced at the hand Noah was always careful to conceal, noting the scar across his palm, and placed her fingers so it was hidden. She wished she had never listened to Estelle's talk of propriety and worn gloves. The fabric separating them seemed prophetic somehow, and she had a yearning to yank out of the glove and touch hands more intimately. Her neck and cheeks warmed as though she'd spoken her thoughts out loud.

There was a lamp lit on the wall behind the reverend and in it's golden glow she could see Noah's dark eyes and the discomfort in them. Having folks so close disturbed him, but he was doing this for her. And for Levi's baby. She gave him what she hoped was an encouraging smile.

When the reverend asked her to repeat the vows and asked her if she took Noah as her husband, she did so and replied yes without a qualm. Noah repeated the same vows and agreed to take her as his wife. Just one week before he had used those very same words when asking her to marry him. The words conjured up as much emotion at this moment as they had then.

When Preacher Davidson asked for the ring, Noah released her hand and took a gold band from inside his black suit coat. "Give him your left hand."

"Oh." Caught unprepared, Kate held her hand out and was mortified to realize the ring Levi had given her was still on her finger.

Her face must have shown her distress, because Noah said quietly, so that only she could hear, "It's all right, Katherine."

He slipped the new ring on her finger and pushed it up beside the one his brother had given her.

"By the power granted me by the state of Colorado, I now pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss the bride."

Kate's heart pounded with alarm. She had kissed Noah's bearded cheek once and that's the closest they had come to a kiss. Surely if Noah hadn't wanted to kiss her, he'd have told the preacher to leave that part off. Wouldn't he? But then he probably hadn't thought of it any more than she had.

Someone in the gathering behind them cleared his throat. Noah looked into her eyes. He 'd taken her as his wife. He leaned down and she raised her face to his. Expectantly.