She straightened her shoulders because now she faced the ordeal of confronting the others. Both Justin and Kim were going to be very angry with her.

Slowly, reluctantly, she walked back toward the wagons.

The first sight that greeted her was Justin's fist plowing into Wesley's jaw. Quickly John Hammond and Oliver grabbed Wesley's arms.

"You could have told me from the beginning," Justin said loudly. "And putting Leah through hell! She doesn't deserve that. She was your wife, but she had to watch you paw Kimberly for months."

Pausing just below them on the hillside, Leah smiled to herself. It was good to hear someone defend her.

"Leah," Justin shouted, as he ran down the hill toward her. He held her at arms' length and looked into her eyes. "It's true, isn't it?" he whispered. "This is what's been hanging over your head all this time, isn't it? You could have told me."

As he started to pull her into his arms, Wesley's hand clamped on his shoulder. "That's my wife you're handling, Stark, and if you want to keep your face on that side of your head, you'll release her."

Leah stepped between the men before another battle started. "Justin," she said loudly, "legally, he is my husband and he has the right to change his mind as often as he pleases. Today he wants me, tomorrow I may be free again."

"Leah," Wes warned.

"I'm sorry, Justin. I wish I'd had enough courage to tell you before this happened. But I was afraid*" She looked down at the ground, unable to continue.

"I understand, Leah," Justin said. "It's him I blame for this. You don't deserve a woman like her, Stanford."

Wesley put his hand possessively on Leah's shoulder. "Deserve her or not, she's mine and I plan to keep her."

Chapter 14.

Leah trudged along behind Wesley through the silent, roaringly loud forest. Her eyes kept darting this way and that, trying to see behind trees and bushes. A sound in the distance made her jump. Ahead of her, Wesley didn't even turn at Leah's sound.

In the morning he'd turned every time she'd given a little squeal of fright, then smiled smugly and turned back around. Leah swore she'd be quiet from now on, but she broke her vow constantly. Never had she been so far away from people. She'd grown up surrounded by brothers and sisters and the only time she'd left was to live at Wesley's plantation, where there'd been even more people near her. On the trip toward Kentucky, they'd never been out of sight and sound of many people.

Now for the first time in her life she was aloneor at least very close to it. The way she felt now, Wesley didn't count as a human being. Very early that morning they'd loaded goods into packs.

"Which horses do you plan to take?" John Hammond asked.

"We're going where a horse can't go," Wesley answered, slinging the pack on his back.

Refusing to comment or even look at Wesley, she put on her much smaller pack. She was swearing to herself that she'd show no fear.

Kimberly stayed close to John and it was unusual to see her up so early in the morning. Usually she stayed in bed until breakfast was cooked. Leah wasn't sure if Kim wanted to be near John or if he was insisting she stay there. But Leah was too caught up in her own problems to worry about Kim.

"Ready, Mrs. Stanford?" Wes asked.

Leah wouldn't look at him, but when he started walking, she was behind him.

Now they'd been walking for hours. Leah was tired, and long ago they'd left all sights and sounds of

other people. Only she and the buckskin-clad man in front of her seemed to be left on the earth.

"Can you climb up there?" Wes asked, stopping and pointing.

Leah looked up at the steep climb to what seemed to be a cave opening. Curtly she nodded, but she

wouldn't look at Wes.

"Give me your pack."

"I can carry it," she said, starting forward.

Wesley caught her pack and half pulled it from her back. "I told you to give me your pack and that's

what I meant. You give me any more trouble and I'll throw you over my shoulder and carry you."

Still without looking at him, she slipped out of the pack and handed it to him. It wasn't an easy climb, especially in her long skirt, but every time she had difficulty, Wes was there with a hand freeing her skirt edge, steadying her at her waist, and once giving her a boost on her seat.

When she reached the top, she didn't thank him but stood on the ledge, flattened against the stone wall and peering into the blackness that was the cave. "Do you think there are any bears in there?" she whispered.

"Maybe," Wes answered unconcerned as he put their packs on the ground. "I'll have a look."

"Be* be careful," she murmured.

"Worried about me, are you?"

She met his eyes. "I don't want to be left here alone."

"I guess I deserved that," he half grunted, removing a heavy knife from the sheath at his side and a candle

from his pack.

"Shouldn't you take the rifle?" she asked, aghast.

"Rifles are useless in close combat. How about a kiss before I enter?"

"I'm to reward you for putting us in the middle of nowhere in front of a bear's den? Maybe there's a

whole family of bears in there and we'll both die."

His eyes twinkled. "If I could but die with your kiss on my lips*"

"Go on! Get it over with."

Wesley's face turned serious as he disappeared into the cave. "It's bigger than I thought," he said, his

voice sounding hollow. "There're some Indian paintings on the walls and some signs of camp fires."

She could hear him moving in the cave and when he spoke again his voice sounded farther away.

"Doesn't look like there are any signs of bears. A few bones. Looks like lots of people have camped

here."

For a few minutes he said nothing else and Leah began to relax from her rigid stance and took a step

closer to the cave opening. She could hear Wesley walking about and now and then see the flicker of his candle flame.

"Is it safe?" she called.

"Sure," he yelled back. "Clean as a whistle."

In the next few seconds everything happened at once.

Wesley said, "Uh oh," then bellowed, "run, Leah! Hide!"

Instantly, Leah froze right where she was, smack in the middle of the wide cave opening.

In a lightning flash of buckskin fringe, Wesley came tearing out of the cave, and inches behind him was a

big old black bear, its fat rippling as it lumbered after Wesley.

The bear brushed past Leah so closely that her nostrils flared at the smell of it. But she could no more

move than the rock behind her could.

The bear didn't seem to notice her at all in its pursuit of Wes.

Only her eyes able to move, Leah watched Wes tear down the hillside.

"Climb a tree, Leah," he yelled back at her.

Tree, Leah thought. What is a tree? What does it look like?

She was still wondering this when she heard a loud splash to her left.

"Move, Leah," she commanded herself. But nothing happened. "Move!"

When she did move, it was quickly. She ignored Wes's order to climb a tree and took off, running

toward the sound of the splash. She stopped, chest heaving, by a little pool of water that was surrounded by rock. Everything was perfectly quiet. There was no sign of Wesley or the bear. Just the birds singing, the late afternoon sunshine, the smell of grasses.

The next thing she knew her ankle had been grabbed and she was being dragged downward. Instinctively she began to struggle.

"Stop kicking!" Wes's voice hissedhis voice alone, because Leah still saw no one.

When she paused in her struggles, Wes jerked her into the water.

"What?" She gasped just as Wes put his hand on the top of her head and pushed her underwater.

Her breath held, furious, she saw him submerge and she glared at him through the clear water.