him. The heavy wagon tipped to one side and Steven went flying into the water. Leah released her hold on the seat and grabbed two flying reins as Steven released them. The others fell to the side.

"Keep a tight rein!" the man on land shouted. "Control that horse!"

Leah tried to obey him, wrapping the reins around her arm while trying to ease down far enough in the

seat to get the dangling reins.

"Help her, Wes!" the man shouted. "Let that woman drive and help the redhead!"

Leah barely heard the man's shouts as her fingers inched toward the reins. She screamed once, when the frightened horses pulled until her arm nearly came off.

"Leah!" she heard Wesley shout but couldn't understand what he was saying because Kimberly had

started to scream hysterically.

Quick tears of relief blinded Leah for just a second when her fingers tightened over the loose reins. Using

every ounce of her strength she managed to control the frightened horses, pull the wagon to the right past the deepest part of the hole, and inch them toward the far bank.

The stranger from the shore swam toward her. "Good girl. Now hold them steady."

"Steven!" Leah yelled down at him as the horses touched land. Even while the back of the wagon was

still in the water, Leah was pulling off her shoes. She'd always been a strong swimmer and now she

wondered if the others realized Steven had fallen into the river.

"Here!" Leah gasped, tossing the man the reins just before she jumped down from the wagon and into the water.

"What the hell!" the man began and then gave his attention to the horses.

"Where's Leah going?" Wesley demanded of the man.

"She yelled something about Steven."

"He's not here?" Wes said, but was in the water after Leah in seconds.

Leah dived for what seemed to her like hours, but there was no sign of Steven. Wesley and the stranger

joined her after a few minutes, and when she surfaced she told them where she'd already looked.

Near dusk they found him, lying at the bottom at the edge of the river, the side of his head dented from his fall. Wesley pulled him onto land.

Leah stood over him, panting, exhausted from the afternoon's search. After the first hour she'd discarded

her dress, since the long skirt hampered her. Now, in her dripping underwear, she was too cold, too tired

to care about proprieties.

Wesley, seeing Justin looking at Leah, removed his shirt and slipped it over her, concealing her almost to her knees.

"No! No! No!" screamed Kimberly as she came toward them, her eyes on her brother's body.

Wesley moved away from Leah to comfort Kim in her grief and, if possible, Leah's shoulders drooped

even more. Kim and Wes walked away into the growing darkness, Kim's sobs breaking the nighttime stillness.

For a moment neither the stranger nor Leah spoke.

"You ought to get into some dry clothes," the man said softly, watching her.

Leah merely nodded once and stood there, shivering.

The man moved closer to her. "I'm Justin Stark and you're?"

Leah couldn't even answer him as she stared down at Steven's cold, lifeless body. Tears began to roll down her cheeks.

Without another word, Justin swept Leah into his arms.

She tried to pull away, but she was too weak, or perhaps she needed comfort, even from a stranger.

"Go ahead and cry, little girl," Justin whispered. "Anybody as brave as you deserves to cry."

Leah wasn't sure where all the tears came fromor why they camebut she began to cry as she'd never cried before. It was so good to be close to someone, to be held in a man's strong arms.

When the man unbuckled a blanket from his horse, Leah was hardly aware of it. Even when he gently removed her wet clothing she didn't protest. He wrapped her nude, wet body in the blanket, snuggled her against him, and sat with her on a fallen log. At some time he began to rock her and Leah gradually stopped crying, but she clung to him. Even when she fell into a deep sleep, she still clung to him.

"Is she asleep?" Wesley whispered to Justin.

Justin nodded. "You have a bed made up for her?"

Wes glanced at his boot toe. "I only made one for Kim. Leah usually makes her own bed." Justin didn't

say another word and Wes disappeared for several minutes. "It's ready," he said when he returned.

Very carefully Justin stood while holding the sleeping Leah, and as if she were a fragile piece of glass, he laid her on the pallet of blankets Wesley had prepared.

For a moment Justin knelt over her. Then he stood and motioned Wes away into the silence of the forest.

"Who is she?" Justin demanded.

"My* cousin," Wes answered. "What difference does it make who she is?"

Justin looked at Wes as if he were crazy. "Difference? I guess it matters to me because she's the most

magnificent woman I've ever seen. Did you see the way she handled that team? And the way she risked her own life looking for that guy that drowned? I could see you had your hands full with that screaming bit of uselessness. Lord deliver me from women like that! Who is she anyway?"

"The woman I'm going to marry," Wesley said rigidly.

"Oh well* ah* I didn't mean anything," Justin stammered. "It's just that when you see thetwo women together, it makes that blonde seem worthless. No, I didn't mean that exactly.""I think you've said more than enough.""Right," Justin said sheepishly, but quickly raised his head. "Who is she?""Kimberly Shaw. The man who drowned was her brother.""Oh I see. That's why she worked so hard to save him. I wonder if any of my sisters would risk their lives for my dead body. He was a lucky man to have a sister like her."

"No," Wes said softly. "Kimberly is the blonde. Leah is the woman who did the diving."

"And what is her relationship to the dead man?"

"None," Wes answered.

Justin turned away toward the trees. "Your cousin, is she? You were born under a lucky star. She attached to somebody? No, don't tell me. I don't care if she's plannin' to marry somebody. I think I'd go after her no matter how many men stood in my way. How'd you like me for a cousin by marriage?"

"Wait a minute, Justin. You're going too fast. You know nothing about Leah. She's pretty, I grant you, but she's the kind of woman that makes a man feel useless. You spend an hour around her and you'll begin to wonder if men are needed on this earth. There isn't anything she can't do all by herself and she always lets you know she needs nobody else. You marry her and in a year she'll be running your farm and your life and you won't be worth your weight in horse manure to her."

After an astonished moment, Justin began to laugh. He slapped Wesley's shoulder. "You can have allyour pretty little blondes who sit on a wagon and scream while their brothers drown, but for me, I wanta woman."

"You don't know what you're asking for," Wes warned. "Two weeks with Leah and you'll be looking for someone to make you feel like a man."

Justin smiled. "All she has to do is be a woman and that makes me feel like a man. Now I think I'll bed down. Tomorrow I'm going to start courting."

"Courting? But," Wes began.

"Do you have any reason to object?" Justin asked coolly.

Wesley could only shake his head.

"All right then. Let's go to bed. In the morning we'll have a funeral."

Wesley watched Justin lay out a pallet where he could watch Leah in her sleep, then Wes went to where his own bed was. "Poor man," he muttered. He wished there was some way to save Justin from himself.

Chapter 9.

Leah woke early to the sounds of Kimberly's sobbing. Wesley was holding her and trying to comfort her, but Kim seemed inconsolable. With a groan for her aching head, Leah threw back the blanket covering her, then gasped because she was stark naked. With a blush that covered her entire body, she remembered what had happened the night before. A quick glance around the campsite showed that the stranger was not there.

"Wesley," Leah said through a hoarse throat.

Wesley, intent on Kim's problems, didn't hear her.

Leah cleared her throat. "Wesley!" she said urgently.

He looked around, obviously annoyed. "Yes?"

"Could you get me some clothes?" She hated to ask him, but she wasn't going to parade before him

wrapped in a skimpy blanket.

With one eyebrow raised, Wes left Kim to go to the wagon and extract a brown cotton dress for Leah,