River Lady

by Jude Deveraux

  While Leah cleaned up from the meal, Kim announced that it was time for Leah to ride with Steven and from now on she’d be Wesley’s fiancée and Leah his cousin. She seemed to think there’d be some protest, but there was none.

  Leah climbed onto the wagon beside Steven. He made one comment about how he’d be glad to replace Wes if she felt any urges, but when he got no response from Leah, he took the reins and shut up.

  At night, while Leah prepared supper, Wes rode to the nearest inn, and when he returned he reported that the place was too filthy to inhabit and they’d camp with the wagons. Kim sniffed about how she needed a bath, so Wes hauled buckets of water, heated them, hung a blanket screen, and prepared a bath for Kim. She conveniently lit a lamp behind the blanket so everyone around was treated to a silhouette of Kim’s languorous bath.

  “No screams of jealousy?” Steven said to Leah under his breath as Wes watched Kim in obvious rapture.

  Leah didn’t bother to answer as she cleared the supper dishes.

  The next morning dawned hot, and Leah unbuttoned the top of her dress.

  “Is that for me or him?” Steven asked. “If it’s for Stanford you may as well close it. All he’s interested in is my sister and she’s an expert at keeping a man tailing after her. You ought to learn something from her. Never be too honest, at least not with gentlemen like Stanford. He’d rather look at a woman from behind a blanket. But you and me,” he said with a chuckle, “we like skin.”

  He clucked to the horses and they were off.

  Leah tried to still her trembling. She prayed she was not like Steven Shaw.

  Toward noon they had to ford a river. The water, heavy with spring melts, was over the hub of the wheels.

  “If we take it slowly we’ll be able to make it,” Wes informed Steven as they all stood on the bank.

  “I’m frightened, Wesley,” Kim said, clutching his arm.

  “Don’t be.” He smiled. “We’ll come through this. What about you, Leah, scared?”

  “No,” she said flatly. “I think we’ll make it. Others have before us.”

  “I knew you’d feel that way,” Wes said before turning away.

  “Hallo!” came a man’s voice from across the water. A tall, slim man in buckskins similar to Wesley’s waved at them.

  “It’s Justin Stark,” Wes said, smiling. “He’ll be traveling with us.”

  Leah paid no attention to the man waiting on the far side but turned back to the wagons.

  Wesley eased his wagon and horses into the water with utmost care. The horses shied, but Wes controlled them.

  “He’s afraid!” Steven said contemptuously. “He’s scared to risk his hide. Hiyah!” he called to the horses, cracking his whip over their heads.

  “No!” Leah said. “Wait until they’re across.”

  “I’m not spendin’ all day here and I’ll not let that Stark fellow think I’m a coward.”

  Steven whipped the horses forward into the deep water.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Wesley bellowed back at them.

  “Not eatin’ your mud,” Steven called as he pulled alongside Wes’s wagon.

  “Keep to the right! Keep to the right!” the man on the land shouted at them.

  Leah, hanging onto the seat with both hands, repeated the man’s instructions to Steven, but Steven ignored her as he cracked the whip again.

  The right front horse stepped into an underwater nothingness, screamed, and pulled the other horses after 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 from—or why they came—but 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 the two 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 all your pretty little blondes who sit on a wagon and scream while their brothers drown, but for me, I want a 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, not bothering with her underwear. “You certainly do make an impression on a man when he first meets you,” he said, eyeing her bare shoulders.

  Leah snatched the dress from him. “Go back to your Kimberly,” she said angrily, just as Kim let out a loud wail.

  With resignation Leah dressed under the covers, rose, and gathered the water buckets. On her way to the river she saw Justin, the man who had recently joined them, stripped to the waist, digging a grave.

  “Good morning,” he called to her, his eyes alight.

  Leah could barely murmur a reply because she ducked her head in embarrassment at the memory of being undressed by this man.

  Immediately Justin was beside her, taking the buckets away from her. “Sleep well?” He laughed when she merely nodded, still not looking at him. “You’re not going to let a little thing like a lack of clothes come between friends, are you? Why I’ve undressed hundreds of women.”

  She looked up at him, eyes wide.

  “Maybe not hundreds.” He smiled, his eyes almost eating her. “And certainly none as pretty as you. Don’t turn away. Are you always so shy?”

  She lifted her chin and looked at him. “I don’t think I’m ever shy, but now I am…” She wanted to change the subject. “You’ll be traveling with us?”

  “All the way into Kaintuck.” They were at the river and he took the buckets from her to fill them. “I grew up in the town where Wes bought his farm. All winter he worked like a demon on that place. I guess he was trying to get it ready for Miss Shaw.”

  “I guess so. Do you also farm?”

  “Sure, and a little huntin’ on the side. No, I’ll carry them,” he said when Leah reached for the full buckets.

  “I can take care of my own jobs, thank you,” she said stiffly.

  Justin smiled at her, and his already handsome face looked even better. “I have no doubt you could carry a hundred buckets, but would you be so cruel as to deny me the pleasure of carrying them for you?”

  For a moment, Leah didn’t answer, but then she smiled. “I would hate to be called cruel. By all means, Mr. Stark, carry the water.”

  “Justin,” he said with a laugh. “All my ladies call me Justin.”

  “All of them?” She laughed in return and felt better than she had in weeks.

  “You two certainly seem to have forgotten what happened yesterday,” Wesley said, glowering down at them. “I’d think you’d at least have a little respect for Kimberly’s grief.”

  Justin’s face lost its smile. He was a smaller man than Wes, but he didn’t back down. “I think Leah showed a great deal of respect when she nearly drowned searching for a man who isn’t even related to her. Just because that woman of yours cries loud doesn’t mean she’s willing to risk anything except tears.”

  Leah glanced up at the two furious men and excused herself because she was afraid of letting them see her smile. Justin’s words made her want to smile all over. With a lightened heart she set about her chores of tending the animals, cooking breakfast, and readying the wagon for the day’s journey. She didn’t know if Wes and Justin continued to argue, but when they all gathered at the grave site, the two men seemed to have come to terms. Kim leaned heavily on Wesley’s arm while he talked about what a good man Steven Shaw had been.

  After the service, such as it was, Kim allowed Wes to help her inside the wagon where she lay down.

  Justin tossed his pack and saddle in the second wagon, tied his horse behind, and climbed on the seat beside Leah, taking the reins from her. “I don’t know if that woman and I are going to get along at all.”

  In spite of Leah’s denial that she was shy, she really didn’t know what to say to Justin. But she needn’t have worried. Justin told her about his hometown of Sweetbriar, about his three sisters and four brothers, about his nieces and nephews. He told stories about w
ho was in love with whom in the town and about how pretty Miranda Macalister was driving all the single men crazy.

  “You included?” she asked timidly.

  “I’ve looked at her a few times, but I’ve always had an idea of what the woman I wanted was like.”

  “And?” Leah encouraged.

  “She’s like you, Leah,” he said softly, looking away only when the lead horse stepped into a rut.

  Leah felt a wave of fear go through her. This man knew nothing about her, that she was a Simmons from the Virginia swamps, that she had a whore for a sister and her father had been crazy. It was a while before she talked, and then it was only in monosyllables about her weaving.

  They stopped briefly to eat cold meat and potatoes, and Kim didn’t leave the wagon. At night Leah made dinner over a fire she’d built. She watered and fed the animals. Justin cut firewood while Wes tended to Kim, who was distraught and incapacitated by her grief over her brother.

  For days they traveled west with Justin beside Leah, talking to her, asking her questions, and each day Leah’s sense of guilt grew. Regan and Nicole had been kind to her in spite of the fact that she came from the swamps. But they’d always known about her. She felt she was leading Justin on, lying to this man who was so nice to her. If he knew what she was really like, where she was from, he would probably treat her as Wesley did.

  A week passed and Kimberly’s grief did not subside. Leah began taking Kim’s meals to her in the wagon, where Kim clung to Leah and cried.

  “Don’t,” Justin said one evening, putting his hand on Leah’s arm as she filled a plate for Kim. He turned to Wes. “Isn’t it about time she stopped being a princess? Leah isn’t her waiting woman.”

  “Kim’s still grieving for her brother,” Wes said stubbornly.

  “Then you wait on her. Not Leah!” He grabbed the plate from Leah and thrust it at Wes.