She couldn't tell what Noah replied, but he didn't deny Estelle's claim.

Kate opened her eyes and the light hurt her head. She squinted and oriented herself in her room. Her breasts were painfully full.

In the overstuffed chair, Noah slept with his neck at an awkward angle. He raised his head when she sat up.

"Where's Rose?"

"Downstairs with Estelle."

"She's okay?"

"She's fine."

"No fever?"

"None."

"She hasn't nursed."

"You slept so hard, we gave her goat's milk through the night."

Kate couldn't bear to think Rose didn't need her. "May I see her now?"

Noah got up and left, returning a few minutes later with Rose bundled tightly in the flannel blankets Estelle set store by.

Kate freed the baby's legs and held her close. Rose fretted and rooted for Kate's breast.

Kate opened her gown and grimaced in pain at the first hearty tugs, but then relaxed and drank in her baby with her eyes. She cradled her head and blinked back tears.

"How long have I been like this?"

"Most of a week now. Last night you called Levi's name."

Kate looked up and frowned. She vaguely remembered the nightmares. What had been real and what hadn't? "I heard you talking."

"What?"

"Did Estelle tell you to marry me?"

A guilty expression crossed his face. "She doesn't tell me what to do."

"But she put the idea in your head?"

"She mentioned it."

"Just like she mentioned to me that we weren't legally wed until the marriage was consummated."

A scowl revealed his displeasure, but he said nothing.

"Well, it worked," she said. "The two of you have Rose now. She's what you wanted. You don't want me. I was always the unpleasant means to get to Levi's child. Too bad I survived. I'm still in the way."

"That's not true. The fever is making you talk crazy."

"I want to be alone with my baby."

Noah turned and strode out of the room, closing the door behind him.

Angry voices rose from below, though Kate couldn't make out the words. She had never cried so much in her life. Her downcast state couldn't be good for her baby. She'd never felt so awful, either. Her head still pounded. Kate found her bottle of medicine and swallowed a spoonful.

Later, through a haze of fever, she saw Estelle come for Rose. Kate hadn't even heard her crying.

She woke again during the night. Her arms were empty. Her bed was empty and the cradle was still gone. They had what they wanted. Both of them-all they'd ever wanted was to make sure Levi's baby was here with them.

Neither of them wanted her. She'd just been part and parcel of the package. Until now.

She wasn't thinking clearly, that was a fact, but she knew enough to know when she was in the way.

They loved Rose. Everyone adored her. Rose would be taken care of and provided for. In a daze, Kate

looked around her room. She'd brought nothing with her. None of this. In the whole house she'd provided a few napkins and eight china plates. In all the months she'd been here, she'd contributed nothing.

She'd heard stories of women who ran off and left their children, and she'd never understood. She'd always thought they didn't love their babies. She loved Rose with all her heart, but Rose wasn't old enough to love her back, wasn't old enough to miss her. Rose would be loved and cared for.

Kate felt her way down the stairs and out the front door. She'd never been in the barn and didn't have the vaguest idea how to saddle a horse, so she stumbled away from the house on foot. The cool night air felt good on her heated skin. The breeze ruffled her hair.

She didn't think about where she was going. She was leaving and that was her driving motivation.

Getting away.

Noah woke at dawn and looked at his pocket watch. He'd fallen asleep across the foot of his bed and couldn't remember giving Katherine her medicine.

He washed, changed clothing and made his way to her room. The door was open and he rapped with one knuckle before entering. "Katherine?"

She wasn't in the bed or anywhere else in the room. Had she felt well enough to get up and dress?

He headed down the stairs, lightheartedly anticipating seeing her in the kitchen. Estelle was alone in the kitchen, bathing Rose in an enamel basin.

"Where's Katherine?"

"I have no idea."

"What do you mean? Did you see her this morning?"

"I haven't seen her since last night."

"You didn't check on her when you got up?" Alarmed now, Noah checked the perimeter of the house,

the privy, ran back up and assessed her room more critically. Nothing was missing that he could tell, not even her shoes, which sat just under the edge of the bureau. Her comb and brush lay on top, a ribbon strewn across the mirror. Something was wrong. Panic welled in his chest. He ran down the stairs and out to the bunkhouse where Newt and Harper were just heading out. "What's wrong, boss?" Newt asked. "Katherine's gone. I've looked everywhere." "What about the baby?"

"Estelle has the baby. We have to find Katy."

A hundred images thrummed through his head. He should have stayed right there with her as he'd done the previous nights, but he'd been angry at her accusation that he had only wanted Levi's child and not her. Tired and frustrated, as well, but none of those were reason enough to leave her unprotected.

"Harper, you check the barn and stables and all the outbuildings. Newt, take a couple men and start searching out here. I'll take a couple with me to check the roads."

The hands shot to follow orders. Noah called to Jump and Lucky to saddle horses.

Not knowing where she was or what had happened to her drove knives into his heart. He hadn't heard anything during the night, no sounds of a struggle. He shouldn't have left her alone?he'd known she was ill and not herself. He shouldn't have gotten so defensive when she'd said he only wanted Levi's child.

He'd thought it at one time himself, but had it ever been true? Even from the very start? Something had made him gather her up and pack her off the day he'd met her. He'd convinced himself his concern was for the child, but everything had changed in the time she'd been at the Rockin' C. He couldn't imagine life without her.

She frightened him, yes, because he frightened himseif. He'd lived a carefully constructed, protected life before she'd come, and the man who'd always shut out everything and everyone against the certainty of rejection had been slipping away. He'd been unprepared for the changes in himself.

As his life spun more and more out of control, he'd had to take second looks at the person he'd become

and he didn't like him much.

He looked for signs of travel along the road, not seeing anything out of the ordinary. Jump and Lucky were spread out in the pastures on either side of him, riding slowly.

Ahead in the road, something white fluttered in the wind, catching his attention. Noah urged his horse into a gallop. Getting closer, he made out the form lying still, the hem of her white nightdress billowing around her legs.

"Katy!" He vaulted from his horse and ran to where she lay. "I found her!" Her face, arms, legs and feet were bare to the sun. Blood was caked on the bottom of her feet and her cotton nightdress was dirty. Noah turned her face toward him and her eyelids fluttered, but she didn't open her eyes. A pulse beat at the base of her throat, and he was never so glad to see something. He picked her up and pressed his cheek to her dirty tear-stained one.

Jump and Lucky reined in on either side of him. "She alive, boss?" Lucky asked.

He nodded. "I'm taking her to Doc's. Head on back."

Jump got down and held Katherine while Noah mounted his horse, then he handed the limp woman up

to him.

Her unresponsiveness frightened Noah. Holding her close, he rode toward town.

It was an unusual sight, no doubt, a big bearded man on a horse carrying an unconscious woman in a

nightgown. He was accustomed to stares, but they didn't even register now. All that mattered was getting

his wife to the doctor's. He took the straightest route down Main Street and turned, locating the doctor's little house set back on a street lined with trees. He swung one leg over the horse's back and slid to the ground.

A woman answered the bell. "Oh, goodness, bring her right in."

Doc Martin appeared and ushered Noah into a tiny bedroom. "Lay her down. What happened?"

"Don't know. She wasn't in her room and I found her along the road."

Doc looked her over. "Her feet are cut and bruised. She has a couple of scrapes on her knees. Her

head's fine. The fever is back."

"She seemed better yesterday. I left her alone last night. I shouldn't have."

"This isn't your fault, Noah. A fever causes delirium sometimes. You thought she was better."

He nodded. "She'll be all right?"

"Can't rightly say till she wakes up, but no reason to think she won't."

"Can I stay with her?"

Doc turned a kind gaze his way. "Man has a right to stay with his wife. I'll get these cuts cleaned."

Once Katherine's cuts were washed and bandaged, Noah propped her shoulders while Doc's wife

spooned water between her lips. The silver-haired woman washed Kate's face and hands and arms and

tucked a sheet around her.

"She just needs to rest and fight the fever now," she told him. She picked up a basin and towels and left, closing the door behind her.