Two days later he asked her to marry him."

"Marry him? This is my brother Abe you're talking about? No mistake? Abe never loved anyone but himself in his whole life."

"He does now. Pass me the potatoes, Cal," Wes said. "You boys don't know how lucky you were to get

anything to eat."

"What's the rest of it?" Leah asked. "There's something you're not telling me about my brother. What's Caroline Tucker like?"

Wes nearly choked on a piece of ham. "Describe her, will you, Bud?"

"'Bout my size," was all Bud answered.

Leah digested this. "My brother fell in love with a woman the size of one of you?" she asked in disbelief.

"Shorter than us," Cal said.

"Wesley!" Leah threatened.

"I wasn't there but Oliver said that your brother arrived in town, took one look at the* ah, very

large Miss Tucker, and fell in love. He said something to Oliver about she'd never been hungry and I guess he liked that idea. He followed her around town until she asked him to dinner with her parents and sometime during the meal he stood up and asked for Caroline's hand in marriage. He told them he had been a thief and had done some bad things in his life but with Caroline's help, he was going to become a new man."

"Gracious!" was all Leah could answer, completely astonished by this news.

They finished their meal, Wesley removed pipes from a wall cabinet, took one, and handed the other two to Bud and Cal. As Leah cleaned up, she thought of how pleasant this moment was. She still glowed from Wesley's lovemaking and behind her were people she cared about. After Bud and Cal left, Leah and Wes gave each other baths out of basins of hot water, and ended up making love in a leisurely manner on the floor before the fireplace.

When they went to bed, it was to snuggle comfortably in each other's arms.

Hours before daylight the next morning, Wesley was up and out of bed while Leah started the day's chores and had her first real look at the outside of her new home.

The number of animals on the farm was impressive. About a dozen geese lived under the porch and set up a racket whenever anyone walked past them. Thirty ducks waddled around the yard. Behind the house was a well-built, completely fenced chicken house, and Leah went inside, her apron full of crushed corn. To her left she could hear hogs grunting and behind her was the bleating of sheep.

"Wool," she said, smiling. Wool to be spun for weaving on her precious loom.

Still smiling, she left the chicken yard but her smile disappeared instantly. Wesley was coming toward her and in his arms was the unmistakable form of Mrs. John HammondKimberly.

Chapter 25.

"I think she's fainted," Wesley said with concern.

"Did you ask her to?"

"Leah," Wes warned. "I'm taking her into the house. She may need help."

"I'm sure she does," Leah said under her breath, but she followed him.

"Just put her on the bed," Leah directed, "and you can go back to work. I'll take care of her."

"She scares me to death when she does that," Wes said with a frown. "You think I should get a doctor?"

"She'll be fine, now please go."

Reluctantly Wesley obeyed her.

"He's gone," Leah said. "You can open your eyes now."

With a bouncy little smile Kim sat up on the bed. "How nice! A featherbed. You look so pretty, Leah."

Her face changed. "I don't have time anymore to look pretty. Just look at my hair. Dull as mud."

"What do you want, Kimberly?" Leah asked flatly. "What did you think your fainting was going to get you from Wesley?"

She looked up at Leah with sad eyes. "I never intended to faint, but Wesley always did love it so. John

just hates for me to faint. He says such awful things to me that I've just about stopped."

"Chalk one up for John," Leah murmured.

"But Wesley just loves fainting women. Have you fainted for him?"

"No, Kimberly," Leah said patiently. "I really need to get to work. I have breakfast to cook and other

chores to do and."

Kim suddenly buried her face in her hands and began to cry. "Oh Leah," she wailed, "you aren't even glad to see me. After the way you ruined my whole life I'd think you could spare a little sympathy for me. I got married and you haven't even asked me about it and you're really the best girlfriend I ever had."

Waves of guilt spread over Leah as she sat on the bed and took Kim into her arms.

"How was your wedding, Kim?"

Kim began to sniff. "Just awful! Just dreadful, awful, terrible, that's how it was. The only people there were an old skinny man named Lester and his wife and John and me. No one else came to see my pretty dress, no one even wished us happiness."

She looked up at Leah. "It was the dress I would have worn to marry Wesley if you hadn't taken him away from me. Oh Leah, I still don't understand why you did that. Wesley was all I had except Steven, and he never liked me."

"Kimberly," Leah began, not knowing what to say.

Kim moved off the bed to stand before Leah. "Look at this awful dress. It's brown! Did you ever see me wearing brown before? John says it's better for all the chores he makes me do. And look at my hands! They're red and raw. Oh how I wish you'd never taken Wesley away from me."

"If you had Wesley, you'd still have to work. I don't have any servants and right now I have to cook." Sweeping past Kim, she left the bedroom to go to the fireplace.

Kim followed her. "But at least Wesley wouldn't make me do the things at night that John does."

Leah gave a quick glance skyward. "All men expect 'night things' and Wesley is no exception."

"But is Wesley so* forceful?"

"Yes! Here, sit down and peel this potato."

"I can do that," Kim said brightly, taking the potato and a chair. "Are you mad at me, Leah?" she asked after a moment.

"What do you care?" she snapped, then calmed. "Kim, I'm trying to be patient. I'm sorry Wes felt he had to marry me. I certainly never set out to harm anyone and if you'll remember, Wesley is the one who decided we should stay together so maybe you should be angry with him."

"Oh well, men," Kim said blandly, peeling the potato. "Wesley liked you better because you're so exciting. All sorts of things happen around you. I'm sure Steven was drowned because he was showing off for you, and Justin fell in love with you, then Wesley decided you are more interesting than I am. And you are, Leah. The only interesting thing I do is faint and my husband doesn't even like for me to do that. So, see, it really was all your fault. Do you plan to keep Wesley or can I have him back someday?"

"Kimberly," Leah said slowly, "you're talking about dissolving two marriages. You can't do that very easily."

"I don't know. Wesley's friend, Clay, was married to Nicole, then married to someone else, then married to Nicole again. I really truly don't like John much."

"Then why did you marry him?"

She paused in her peeling. "It was the oddest thing, but after Wesley chose you over me, I felt as if I weren't pretty anymore. I know that's silly, but I almost felt ugly and then John asked me to marry him and that made me feel pretty again so I said yes. I just didn't realize men could be so different. Wesley was always so nice to me."

"But John is mean because he makes you work and do things in bed?" Leah had almost cooked a whole meal while Kim was peeling one potato.

"More or less," Kim said, but before she could say more, the geese outside set up a racket, the door opened, and in came Wesley, followed by Oliver and the Macalister twins.

"I think I forgot to tell you that the hands eat breakfast with us since they've already put in a few hours' work."

Leah only had time to shake her head at him before she began throwing more eggs and ham into skillets.

Kimberly acted as if all the men had come to see her; she preened under the twins' flirting with her and prettily complained to Oliver that his brother Justin was quite unpleasant to her.

"Oh, that was nice," Kim purred when she and Leah were alone again. "It's never nice like that at my house. Leah, John's going to be gone all day. Could I stay with you? I'll help you do what you need to do and later maybe you can put something on my hair to make it nice and shiny like yours."

Leah knew Kim would be a nuisance all day, but she didn't have the heart to refuse her request.

"You may stay," Leah said and was rewarded with Kim's arms about her neck.

"Thank you so much, Leah. It's so good to have a friend."

They spent the day together, Kim chattering constantly about her former life of dances and handsome young men while slowly doing the chores Leah gave her. She didn't complain anymore about Leah's "taking" Wesley from her, nor did she again mention her husband John.

Surprisingly for Leah, Kim turned out to be good company. She was slow at doing things, but once she understood what was to be done she was willing enough, and in the afternoon they laughed a lot together while Leah washed Kim's thick blonde hair.

Toward evening when Kim had to leave there were tears in her eyes. "No other woman has ever been nice to me," she cried softly. "They were all like Regan, so unkind, always mean to me."

Leah was silent, accepting the compliment but not trying to explain exactly why women disliked Kim so much. Perhaps it was the way she treated women, as if they didn't or shouldn't exist. "Please come again," she said sincerely when Kim left. "I enjoyed myself."

At supper Wesley calmly announced that in the morning Leah, Bud, and Cal were going into Sweetbriar with him.

Three faces suddenly showed fear.

"It's just a quiet little town," Wes said with some disgust. "Nothing's going to hurt you. Except for what Abe's told people, no one knows what happened in the mountains. Neither Justin nor Oliver nor John has said a word so you're all safe."

"What about the woman who Revis shot?" Leah asked quietly. "He told all those people who I was and where I lived. I've had one safe day here, but it won't last if I go into town."

"That's absurd, Leah!" Wes said explosively, then clenched his jaw. "And what about you two?"

Bud looked at Cal. "We will stay here with Leah," Cal said softly.

"Damn all of you!" Wes shouted, jumping up and knocking over his chair. "I'll not live with a bunch of

cowards. You're going with me in the morning even if I have to drag you."

No one laughed at the idea of Wes or any man trying to drag Bud or Cal someplace, but the three of them looked into their coffee cups and nodded.

"That's better," Wes said. "I have to see to the cows." He left the cabin, obviously still angry.

"We did not like Revis," Cal said, "but we liked staying away from people. People are afraid of us."

Leah didn't want to think of all the things that could happen tomorrow. Wesley could cause trouble with

this man who Revis had said was the DancerDevon Macalister; Bud and Cal could be laughed