Noah moved to sit on the edge of the bed and cradle Katherine's hand. He held her fingers to his lips. "I don't know if you can hear me, Katy," he said softly. "But I'm here. Get better, please?"

He stroked the back of her hand, her fingers where she wore a solitary gold band. His wife, he thought, and his throat closed. He wished now that he'd asked her about it when he'd noticed she had removed Levi's ring. He hadn't let himself think about it after noticing. He'd been afraid of reading too much into it. But the fact that she now wore only his ring had given him secret pleasure.

Had she considered those two rings as often as he had? Could she have known how much it would mean to him, the meaning he would derive from her removing it? If she had, she'd once again been the one to make an effort.

Kate was a doer. She went after what she wanted.

Noah was an avoider. But he needed to do something now. Something to help her. Feeling helpless, he laid his forehead on her hand for a moment and an idea came to him.

"I'll be right back. I promise."

He settled his hat on his head, strode out of the house and mounted his horse. A few people noticed him as he rode toward the church, but he kept going. When he reached the house with roses climbing the arbor, he dismounted, walked the brick path to the door and knocked.

Mrs. Davidson appeared and smiled. "Mr. Cutter, what a surprise this is. Won't you come in?"

Hesitantly he crossed the threshold into her front hallway. Manners dictated he remove his hat, so he did so.

She looked at him with a measure of surprise.

"I need to speak with the reverend, ma'am."

"Certainly. He's in the kitchen, reading the newspaper. Go right in."

Noah hadn't been in another person's house for years, and he couldn't help noticing the women's touches missing from his. He found Reverend Davidson at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee.

"Noah!" he said, looking up in surprise. "What a pleasant surprise."

"I've come to ask a favor."

"What is it?"

"It's for my wife. Katherine. She's sick. Fever. I was wondering if... well..."

"What're you wanting to ask me?"

"It'd mean a lot to her if you came and said a prayer.'"

"It would be my privilege. I'll ride out this afternoon."

"No, she's at Doc Martin's and I think you should come now."

"Very well." He removed his eyeglasses and folded the ear pieces. "Let's go."

Noah believed she'd heard the prayer Reverend Davidson had spoken over her. She'd seemed more

peaceful afterward.

That evening as he sat beside her, he sensed a change. He took her hand and, finding it cooler, touched

her cheek.

He moved to the door and called softly for the doctor.

Doc entered the room.

"She's cool."

Doc touched her head. "So she is. Now we wait for her to wake up."

Mrs. Martin brought Noah a bedroll and he stretched out on the floor. He'd have slept in the chair, but

this would save his back and neck a night of torture. "Get a good night's sleep, Katy," he said. "It's real odd not hearing you talk. I like it, you know, everything you have to say. You always look on the good side of things. You make me stop and see things in a way I never have before. You show me color where I never saw it. That's a rare quality." He thought of the way she talked about the sky and the stars. "When you're better, we'll go out and look at the stars at night. You like that." He got up and knelt beside her bed, reached up and stroked her soft cheek with the back of a knuckle.

"I guess I'd do just about anything to have you well. To see your smile and hear you chatter on like a magpie."

His life had been better and fuller since Katherine had come into it. Her silence frightened him. He

thought of the few things she'd ever asked of him, and instead of hating himself for being unable to change, he made up his mind he was stronger than that. But was he a strong enough man to be the man she wanted him to be?

He'd been lying to himself all along in believing that he wanted Levi's child. He'd come to love Rose, of course, but from the very first it had been Katy he wanted.

"Wake up, Katy," he said against her cheek. "So I can show you I can change."

When the pain finally subsided from Kate's head, her feet and her breasts throbbed. Why in the world did her feet hurt so? She cracked open her eyes. The rose wallpaper and chintz print curtain were unfamiliar. The room was tiny and there was a crack across the plaster ceiling.

This was not her room.

She opened her eyes wide. Fear stole her breath. "Where am I?"

"Doc's place." Noah's voice. "You've been sick."

She looked into his kind eyes and found reassurance. She glanced around again. Moved her sore feet.

Touched her engorged breasts.

"Rose is here, too. She's been waiting for you to wake up." He came to sit on the edge of the bed.

She remembered hearing his voice, his words of encouragement and promise through the haze of her dreamworld. He'd been asking her to wake up. "You were talking to me."

He nodded. "Yes."

"How did I get here?"

He told her what had happened, but she had only a vague recollection, as though it had all been a disjointed dream.

She thought back to the day the doctor had come to the house. "How is Marjorie? She wasn't feeling well, either."

"Tipper stopped by yesterday. Said she was afraid she had a similar ailment, but turns out she's going to have a baby."

"Oh, my." Tipper and Marjorie had been married nearly ten years without a child. "Well.. .well, that's wonderful. I think it's wonderful, anyway. Are they happy?"

"Wore a sappy grin, he did."

She inched up a little on the pillows. "You said Rose is here?" Her baby had been without her all this time. The thought broke her heart. "Who's taking care of her? How long has it been?"

"You've been sick a few days. I had Estelle bring her here. I'll go get her."

At the mention of Estelle, Kate's worries intensified. She hated that the woman had been their only choice to care for the baby during her illness. She didn't want to see her.

Kate didn't have to worry about it right then. Noah carried Rose in to Kate on his own and placed the baby in her arms.

It seemed her child had grown and gained weight while Kate had been unaware. She should be grateful that Estelle had cared for her so well, but instead she felt resentful that they could get by without her. Rose was sleeping and Kate snuggled her close, love and possessiveness rising up in her. At the sweet smell of her baby, her breasts ached.

Noah pulled a straight chair close to the bed and seated himself beside her. "Things are going to be different from now on," he said.

"What do you mean?"

"I'm sending Estelle home again today. I've thanked her for her help, because she did help. But we're not

falling back into letting her interfere."

A wave of relief washed over Kate at his words. "Thank you for that."

"Other things will change, too."

"What things?"

"I was wrong...when I said you'd have to learn to accept me the way I was."

"I was wrong, too?"

"No. You were accepting of me all along. I just didn't let you."

She tried to understand.

"We both want the same thing," he said.

"Rose?"

He tilted his head to acknowledge that was so, but added, "A family."

She knew how much it meant for him to have Levi's daughter. To know that she would inherit a share of the ranch. Kate had no doubt indicated that wish in a dozen ways if not in so many words. But pushing her desires on him wasn't fair. His sense of duty and responsibility would require him to do anything she asked. And that wasn't fair.

"You've given me so much," she told him. "There was a time when I didn't have hope for a good life for Rose."

Kate had always felt that her mother resented her, and her mother had never made it a secret that she'd had no use for Kate's father. She'd drilled it into Kate that her life was hard because of the man and because she'd had to take care of a child alone.

Seeing herself thrust into the very same situation had terrified her. She hadn't want to become a bitter resentful mother. She had grown up without love and acceptance and she didn't want to impose that type of survival on another child.

"What you've provided for us is enough," she told Noah. "I'm not ungrateful."

Her mother hadn't really loved her, not enough to lay down blame and resentment. Kate had thought for a few brief weeks that Levi had loved her, but his interest had been all about the sex.

Kate faced the cold, hard fact that she couldn't make Noah or Estelle love her, either. She had to accept that no one was going to love her. She could live with that. As along as Rose was loved and accepted.

"It's going to work out, Noah."

She would make it so.