For a moment, Kim didn't say a word. "How will we travel?"

"Leah will be my cousin and you my intended."

Kim gave another glance to Leah. "Couldn't the marriage be dissolved just as well here in Virginia?"

A very slight frown crossed Wesley's brow. "I'm sure it could, but legally Leah is my wife and I have a

responsibility toward her. If I left her here the gossips would kill her."

"Of course, Wesley dear," Kim said tiredly, fluttering her lashes. "Can you ever forgive me for being so

insensitive? Oh dear! I seem to be suddenly quite chilled. Would you please get me a shawl? I do hate to be a bother."

"You could never be a bother," Wes said before leaving them.

When they heard his footsteps on the stairs, Kim opened her eyes, sat up, and gave Leah a wide-eyed

look. "Are you really, truly going to give up Wesley?"

"Are you all right?" Leah asked, still shocked at Kim's fainting.

"Oh yes, perfectly. I would love some more brandy though. Brandy makes me feel so good. I always feel

brandy is my reward for pleasing Wesley. He so loves for me to faint. Leah, I just knew you were going

to be a kind person. I knew it when you agreed to let me travel with you to Kentucky. I've heard how you used to run that dreadful farm of yours and I know you'll be so handy on this trip. I can't cook or lift heavy things and horses terrify me. I just know you'll be wonderful to have around and we'll become great friends. Uh-oh, here comes Wes." She hurriedly put the empty glass on the tray, slid down on the bench, and resumed her helpless look.

"Here you are, dear," Wes said tenderly, wrapping the shawl about Kim.

Bewildered, Leah stepped back and watched as Kim allowed Wes to treat her as a helpless invalid. No one noticed when Leah left to return the tray to the kitchen. Leah wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry at the situation. Kim's "Wesley so loves for me to faint" made her want to laugh, but the idea of any woman playacting to attract a man disgusted her, and Leah vowed she'd never allow herself to faint, no matter how much it pleased a man.

Leah managed to avoid Wesley for the next few days, although she caught glimpses of him now and then through a window or from around a building. She dressed carefully each morning until she realized that she wanted him to notice her. The night of his arrival she put on her prettiest nightgownjust in casebut her husband stayed away from her. He was distantly polite when he saw her but nothing more. And as Leah went about her work of preparing for the journey ahead, her pride began to take over. She refused to allow Wesley's rejection to hurt her.

The day they were to leave dawned clear. The wagon was loaded high and Travis had tied a piece of canvas across the top. Wesley already sat on the seat, reins in hand. A cage of chickens was fastened to the back; a milk cow on a lead rope trailed behind.

"We'll miss you," Regan said, hugging Leah. "Tell Wesley what you want to say and he'll write it for you, but don't lose contact with us." She leaned forward to whisper. "I'm going to have a baby in the fall."

"Congratulations!" Leah laughed, hugging her again. "I hope it's a little boy just like Travis. Goodbye, Jennifer," she called, hugged Travis once again, and then was lifted onto the seat beside Wesley.

As Leah turned and waved, Wesley clucked to the horses and they started the journey.

As soon as she was alone with Wesley, Leah felt uncomfortable. She began studying her fingernails, but quit, tucked her hands under her, and sat on them. "We're to meet the Shaws at their place?" she asked, but when Wesley merely nodded she said no more.

They drove past the tavern where Bess worked and Leah wished she could stop and say good-bye to her sister, but one glance at the tautness in Wesley's profile and she knew she wouldn't ask him for a thing. She straightened her back and looked ahead.

The sun was barely up when they reached the plantation where Steven and Kimberly were staying. It was a tiny place compared to Clay's, and some of the outbuildings looked as if they needed repair. But what caught and held Leah's attention was the utter chaos surrounding a half-packed wagon. From out of the jumble of voices, boxes and animals, Kim came running toward Wes.

"Oh, Wesley, dearest," she called, "you have to help us. Steven is refusing to take all of my clothes and all of the beautiful things I have for our house. Please, you must talk to him."

Wesley jumped from the wagon, gave Kim a quick, reassuring caress with the back of his hand, then went toward the wagon. Leah was left to help herself down. When she reached the wagon it was easy to see what was wrong, yet even as she circled the mess she couldn't believe her eyes. None of the goods loaded on the wagon had been packed with any sense of order. A small, fragile hatbox was crushed under two fifty-pound bags of seed. A steel-bound trunk teetered atop the arms of a gilded chair.

"You can see there's no more room," came a man's voice from the opposite side.

Leah bent her knees and peeked through the arms of the chair to get her first glimpse of Steven Shaw. He was as lovely as Kimberlyblond, blue-eyed, cleft chinperfect.

"Wesley, dear," Kim was saying, "you must find a way. I can't possibly leave anything behind. You wouldn't want me to be unhappy, would you?"

Heaven forbid that catastrophe, Leah thought as she began untying the ropes across the goods in the wagon. If it was repacked from the floor up, they'd probably be able to get everything on.

When Wesley walked to the side where Leah was untying the ropes he gave her a look of surprise; then there was just a hint of disgust. He looked away. "Can you climb to the top of this mess and hand me that trunk?"

"Of course," Leah said, smiling to herself. Maybe he did realize his precious Kimberly was little more than an ornament.

"Somehow I was sure you could," Wesley said under his breath in a way that puzzled Leah.

Leah and Wesley worked well together, unloading then repacking the wagon, while Steven and Kim squabbled. Kim cried over her crushed hat while Steven complained about Kim's lack of help.

A couple of times Leah felt Steven watching her, but he looked away just as she turned.

When they finished Leah looked to Wesley, in truth expecting some sort of thanks, but all he did was grunt. "You can ride with Steven," he said as he tied the last rope.

Stunned, Leah watched him walk away. "With pleasure," she called after him and fought down the urge to throw a rock at the back of his head. Maybe she should set fire to the fringe on his buckskins.

A hand touched her arm and she looked up into Steven Shaw's dancing blue eyes. "May I?" he asked, nodding toward the wagon seat.

Instantly, Leah didn't trust him. When she was a girl her two older brothers used to bring men home and sometimes they had looks in their eyes such as the one Steven now had. Of course, she told herself, she was wrong.

Wesley and Kim pulled out onto the road first. No one came from the house to say good-bye and suddenly Leah felt very aloneamong strangers, traveling to more strangers.

"Will you miss your friends?" she asked Steven, but all she got was a sidelong look from him that made her stop talking.

They traveled west for hours, and Leah didn't try again to talk to Steven. They stopped for an hour to eat sandwiches Regan had sent, and Wesley hovered over Kim, who cooled herself with a sequined fan and unbuttoned the top buttons of her pale blue silk dress. Wesley was appreciative and Kim rolled her eyes in modesty.

"That Wesley's a lover," Steven said to Leah. "Only he can't have both of you." He gave Leah a look from head to toe.

Frowning, she moved away from him.

In the afternoon as they neared a cluster of houses four men rode toward them. Wesley shouted and

Steven halted the wagon.

"Send Leah up here!" Wesley bellowed back.

Leah froze in place. She had no intention of obeying this man who ignored her all day yet ordered her

about when it was convenient for him.

Steven gave one look at her face and chuckled. "She wants none of you, Stanford," Steven shouted.

"Better leave her here with me."

With a curse Wesley bounded from the wagon. "They're coming to greet the newlyweds," he said tightly,

looking up at her. "Unless you want all of Virginia to find out about us, you'd better come to the wagonwith me.""What do I care about Virginia? It's your name that needs saving."

"Damn you!" Wesley gasped as he grabbed her arm and pulled.

Leah wasn't expecting violence and so was unprepared for his strength. With a gasp she went flying into Wesley's arms just as the four riders reached them.

"Can't keep your hands off of her, can you, Wes?" said one man, laughing.

"Just lookin' at you, ma'am, I can see why Wes grabbed you off the church steps."

"Put me down!" Leah hissed at Wes, who was holding her as if she weighed nothing at all.

"We planned a little goin' away party and you're the guest of honor. We'd be pleased if you'd honor us

with some of your time."

The fourth man was gawking at Leah. "Who'd think that one of those Simmonses would clean up to look like that?"

One of the men glared at him. "Excuse him, ma'am. Vern never did have no manners. We got everythin'

waitin' at the inn. Bess Simmons is there.""Sure, of course we'll be there," Wesley said."See you then!" they called as they turned to ride away."Now will you put me down?" Leah demanded.Wesley turned back to his wife in his arms and for the first time he seemed to look at herbut the glance was broken after only seconds.

"Oh Wesley," Kim began to cry. "That was so humiliating to me. I should have been in your arms. Theyshould be giving us this party."Wes nearly dropped Leah as he ran to comfort Kim. As Leah steadied herself against the wagon Steven, above her on the seat, laughed nastily. "Haven't you learned how to fight with tears? My sister's an expert

at it."

Leah ignored him as she walked to the back of the wagon to check on the animals. It was there that Wes found her.

"I think you better ride with me," he said tightly.

She glared at him. "If you're trying to save my reputation, you needn't bother. I'm sure your friends will be prepared for anything when a Simmons is involved."

She turned away toward the cow, but Wesley grabbed her arm and pulled her to face him. "I don't give a damn if you don't care for your own reputation but I'll not have it said that Kimberly has broken us up. She's innocent in all this and I'll not have her name dirtied further."

She jerked away from his grasp. "I should have known that you were concerned only for your dearest Kimberly. So for your Kimberly I'm to play your wife for the night? The idea repulses me!"

He gave her a hard look as his voice lowered. "I will tell you this only once: Don't you ever again say anything against Kimberly. She has suffered a great deal because of you and if our spending one evening together will help keep her name clean you'll do it if I have to break some of your little bones. Tonight we'll be a loving couple, do you understand that?"

"Perfectly," she said through clenched teeth.

Wesley turned on his heel and left her, and as Leah looked up, in the distance stood Kimberly, smiling prettily and confidently before she swept away in a swirl of silk, Wesley trotting along after her.

"Damn, damn, damn!" Leah cursed under her breath as she angrily adjusted the cow's harness.

"My little sister does have a way of getting men," Steven said from behind her.

Leah ignored his ingratiating tone and blinked back tears. She would not cry!

"But then you have your own way of interesting a man," Steven said as he touched her arm. "Those friends of Wesley's were surprised to see a Simmons looking like you. Ol' Wes was lucky that night when you climbed in bed with him. Of course he wasn't so lucky when he had to marry you. Men marry women like my sister but women like you were made for only one thinglove. Now I could give you."

He didn't finish his sentence because Leah grabbed the cow's feed bag and slammed it into the side of Steven Shaw's smirking face.

"Bitch!" he yelled, rubbing his face, but Leah was already running to the front wagon where Wesley sat waiting for her. Without a word, she climbed into the seat.

Damn them, she thought. Damn each and every one of them. Steven thought she was a whore, Wesleythreatened her with violence if she didn't obey him, and Kimberly smiled and drank brandy like a sailor.I'll do what Wesley wants, she seethed to herself. Tonight I'll be the most loving wife this side of themountains. We'll leave Virginia with everyone thinking we're so in love that Kimberly couldn't comebetween us. I'll save Miss Shaw's reputation, but I wonder if she's going to like the process.