“Wesley,” she cried as her body convulsed against his.
He held her so close she felt as if she might break.
Then suddenly he pushed her off him. “You certainly changed your tune. Are you sure you wouldn’t rather be with your lover instead of your husband?”
With a deep sigh, Leah rolled away. “Why is it that men are so agreeable when their male member is standing upright and so disagreeable at other times?”
Wesley made a noise that was half laughter, half shock. “Where are you off to? Back to Revis? What’s he like when his male member—?” He stopped because Leah swung around to glare at him, and since her beautiful nude body was still a highly unusual sight to him, all he could do was gape.
“Just because I’m a Simmons and you’re a lordly Stanford doesn’t mean I jump into bed with every man who asks me, and if you ever again insinuate that I’ve been to bed with Revis, of all people, I’ll never speak to you again. Or let you make love to me. Is that clear?”
He stood, catching her shoulder just as she reached her clothes on the bank. “I’m sorry, Leah. I guess I was just mad about today. The boys told me how you’ve kept away from Revis. But why the hell did you turn me down this morning? If Revis knew you were mine he’d think twice about touching you. Now I can’t protect you, at least not openly. Your little stunt of dumping cornmeal on me cost us a lot.”
“I knew you wouldn’t understand,” she said heavily. “I refused Revis because he’s a thief and I’m a married woman, so how would it look if you, another thief, walked in and I fell into your arms? Wouldn’t he be suspicious?”
“Well, I am…” Wesley said.
“You’re what?” she demanded. “My husband? We don’t want Revis to know that, do we?”
“No, I meant I’m…I’m a lot better looking than Revis and it would make sense that you’d want me and not him.”
“Oh Wesley,” she exclaimed, beginning to laugh.
“You don’t think so?” He was indignant.
Still laughing, she put her arms around him. “Yes, I do think so. I honestly believe you’re the best-looking man I’ve ever seen.”
He held back from her. “Better than Revis?”
“Much.”
“And my brother Travis?”
“By far.”
He grinned at her for a moment before beginning to kiss her.
As difficult as it was, she pulled away from him. “We can’t stay. Revis will want to know where I am. If we’re both gone he’ll suspect something.”
“I can handle Revis. I’ll tell him the better man won the lady.”
“No,” she said as her fingers played along the muscles on his chest. “Please don’t do that. You don’t know him. He’s evil. One night you’ll be sleeping and he’ll slip a knife into you. Please,” she begged.
With a little frown, he caressed her cheek. “What happened to the little cat who was spitting at me on the way up this mountain? Where’s the woman vowing to never give me anything but what I took?”
She pushed away from him. The last thing she wanted to do was tell him she loved him. When and if they ever got off this mountaintop and he abandoned her, she wanted to have some of her pride left. And when he walked out she wanted to be able to tell him she didn’t care, that he’d given her a few hours of bed pleasure and that was all she’d wanted.
She twisted away from him. “Of the two of you, you’re safer. If I stayed with Revis I might end up like Verity, and besides, you said you and your money could get me off from the murder charges.”
“Is that all I mean to you, Leah?” he asked quietly. “I’m someone whose money you can use?”
She tried to keep her voice from shaking. What was she supposed to say, that she thought she might lie down and die if anything happened to him? “We were married because you thought we had to be. I was nearly unconscious. I wanted to end the marriage but you refused to oblige me, so legally we’re still attached and because of that and because it was my brother who shot you, I joined Revis’s gang in order to protect you. After all this is over I think my duty to you is finished.”
“Duty?” he said. “And what about this?” His eyes roamed down her nude body.
She gave him a lusty grin. “We Simmons women enjoy a tussle with a handsome man. I wouldn’t bed Revis because I think he may be a man who likes pain.”
He moved away from her. “God, but you’re a cold-blooded woman, Leah. I guess I should feel privileged that you didn’t leave me to bleed to death after your brother shot me.”
She wouldn’t answer him because all her concentration was on not crying. How much she wanted to tell him she loved him and have him tell her the same thing. But if she told him, he’d probably only laugh at her and say that of course someone of her class would love someone of his high station in life. No, it was better to keep her pride, if not her heart.
“I have to go now,” she said, turning and beginning to pull on her clothes.
“Yes, do go,” he said as he walked away from her.
Leah gave way to silent tears then. The fragile bond between them had been broken.
Chapter 22
Leah didn’t sleep much that night, but she cried some, hugged Verity some, and was generally miserable. She wished with all her might that she’d never even met Wesley Stanford. If she’d only listened to her sister and not walked out after him that night at the tavern and leaped on him like a starved animal, she wouldn’t now be in the midst of a den of thieves. Or be walking off the end of tree branches without any clothes on and making a fool of herself. Or spending hours in the strong arms of the man she loved.
“Damn!” she said aloud as she tossed the blanket off and rolled away from Verity.
“It’s time to get up,” she said. “And today you’re going to help me cook,” she said on impulse. Perhaps work could give Verity a little of her self-respect back.
While she was cooking breakfast Wesley entered the cabin, but he didn’t speak to her. In fact he was so cool there was a definite chill in the air.
“Would you like some breakfast, Mr. Armstrong?” she asked.
“Not from you,” Wesley snapped just as Revis entered the cabin.
Leah saw the scowl on Revis’s dark face and knew he was considering Wes’s attitude. “This one’s not as smart as you, Revis,” Leah said smoothly, setting a platter of bacon on the table. “He thought he could have me for the asking and he doesn’t take kindly to being told no. Breakfast is ready.”
Twice during the meal Leah saw Revis watching Wesley, and to distract him she leaned over his shoulder as she set dishes on the table. Revis must hate someone else coming into his territory and he would hate Wes more if he thought the newcomer was succeeding where he’d failed.
“When is this job of yours, Armstrong?” Revis asked.
“Tomorrow morning. They’ll be four miles down the mountain by then.”
“And what makes you so sure about how fast they’re traveling?”
“I have my ways,” was all Wesley would answer.
It was later, as Leah and Verity were clearing the table, that Abe came to his sister.
“You two have a lovers’ quarrel?” he hissed into her ear.
“Revis and me?” she asked, pretending not to understand.
“You and that Stanford fella. You two was lookin’ sparks at each other all mornin’.”
“I never looked at him,” she protested.
“Not when he was lookin’ at you. And he watched you ever’ minute. Leah, you two lovebirds is gonna ruin ever’thin’. I ain’t never gonna be respectable if you two get killed. And Revis’ll kill you both when he finds out you’re playin’ him for a fool.”
“What did Wesley promise you if you helped him?”
“None of your business. Me and him got a business deal goin’. As soon as he finds out about the Dancer we’re leavin’. All of us. That is, if he’ll still have you. You oughta watch yourself, Leah. You ain’t never gonna get a hu
sband like that again.”
“I thought you hated all the Stanfords.”
He gave her his rotten-toothed grin. “I don’t hate anybody what promises to share his money with me.” He leaned closer to her. “You don’t think he’s lyin’, do you? He’ll do what he says, won’t he?”
“Yes, I’m sure he will.”
Later at the noon meal Wesley didn’t appear, and when Leah could, she asked Cal where he was. After telling Cal where she was going, she again asked him to keep Revis away. With a sackful of food she trudged up the hill to where Wesley was chopping wood.
For a moment she stood watching him, looking at the sweat gleaming on his muscular back, and found that her own palms were sweaty. But all lust within her died when Wes turned and saw her, his face angry.
“I brought you something to eat,” she said with a dry throat.
Slowly he put down the ax and came toward her.
Instinctively she backed away.
“I’m not going to attack you if that’s what you’re afraid of.”
“I’m not. I came to tell you something. Abe said that you and I…this morning…I mean, he was afraid that Revis might begin to suspect something about us.”
“Such as that you and I were rolling about in the bushes and then we had a quarrel?”
She looked up at him for a moment, watching as he took a seat on a tree stump. “Did you want Revis to believe that?”
“Of course. Why else would I have been acting sulky and angry?”
“Acting?” She sat down on the ground, not far from his feet. “I don’t understand anything.”
“Something I learned from my brother was that it’s best not to let women in on your plans. I was hoping, after I learned you had stupidly returned to Revis’s camp”—he gave her a look of reproach—“that you’d do the sensible thing and pretend to fall madly in love with me at first sight, but I knew that’d be too much to ask from a woman. Especially you, Leah. You have the most contrary mind I ever saw. Every time I give you what you want, you change your mind. You wanted to marry me and when I did, you changed your mind.”
She started to defend herself, but he waved her words aside.
“That’s neither here nor there except that I wanted you safe in Sweetbriar and when you wouldn’t go there I hoped to be able to protect you here. But you always seem to know exactly how to do the opposite of what I want.”
“I couldn’t go with you when I’d turned Revis down. He would have—”
“If you tell me again that Revis would kill me, I may strangle you. Leah,” he said, calming himself, “do you think I am so little of a man that you have to use your own sweet little body to protect me? I’ve told you I wasn’t going to let you control things and damned if you don’t just keep on trying to control everything and everybody. If I tell you to walk left, you walk right. Not only do I have to concern myself with Revis and the Dancer, but I have to worry about what you’re going to do next because you think you’re the only smart one in the world. Except for Revis,” he added with a hurt look in his eyes. “For some reason you think this Revis is so smart he could kill me without me even knowing about it.”
“It’s not that he’s so smart, but he’s so evil. You’re not. You’re good and kind and—”
He was looking at her with his head to one side, a hunk of cornbread halfway to his mouth. “Last night you said I was the best-looking man you’d ever seen and today I’m good and kind. Are you falling in love with me, Leah?”
“Never!” she exclaimed, but her face turned pink.
“Too bad,” he muttered.
“What kind of plans do you have?” she asked quickly, to cover her confusion.
“To be honest, Leah, I’m afraid to tell you the truth. If I told you what I want to do you might decide it was too dangerous for me and do something that would be the opposite. Of course I could tell you the opposite of my plans and then by sheer accident you might end up helping me.”
“Why you—!” she spat at him as she rose.
He caught her thigh in his hand and pulled her to him, her mouth near his. “How come you said all those mean things to me last night when you really think I’m good and kind?”
“How come you only believe the good I say about you and not the bad? Have you ever listened to me?”
Releasing her, he looked back into the bag of food. “Not much I don’t, because to tell the truth, Leah, you don’t make much sense to me. You’re always leaping—or diving—into my arms and then saying the damnedest mean things to me. It just seems to me that if you really didn’t like me you wouldn’t be taking off your clothes in front of me as often as you do.”
Leah had absolutely no reply to his words. Quietly she sat down again. “What plans do you have for Revis?” she whispered.
“I want to make him mad,” Wesley replied simply.
“And you’re using me to make him mad?”
“I was planning to, but now it’s so hard because you fight me all the time. I have this fear of coming to a showdown with Revis, telling you to get behind me and you throwing yourself between us saying something real dumb like, ‘You’ll have to shoot me first.’ That gives me nightmares, Leah. I wonder if maybe if I said, ‘Get between us, Leah,’ you’d stand behind me. But I’m not sure that’d work either. Lord, but you are a problem.”
“So how have you changed your plans?” she asked meekly.
“I’ve just had to be calm. I’m afraid to provoke Revis and get him to talking because I’m afraid of what you’ll do. Bud and Cal have tried to get you away a couple of times but you stick beside either Revis or me, like you’ve got to protect both of us. Or maybe it’s just to protect me from Revis since you seem to think he’s perfectly able to protect himself and I’m not.”
“I didn’t mean…” she began. “Have I really been awful?”
“Worse. Have you ever even heard the word obey? Did you maybe learn that it meant do-the-opposite?”
When she looked up at him she saw he was smiling at her. “Maybe I could learn.”
“That’s what Bud and Cal said, but I think you’ve got a head made of iron and the last thing I want to do is risk that pretty little head.”
“So I’ve fouled up your plans and made it impossible for you to find out who the Dancer is, and also maybe put your life in jeopardy because I might interfere with your protecting yourself.”
“That’s about it.” He was now eating a piece of peach pie. “But you sure have made the last few days interesting. You pour cornbread batter in my face, you dive stark naked into my baths, you yell at me so furiously all the best parts of your body start bouncing. I just wish I had time to enjoy all this properly without worrying about Revis.”
She turned away to hide her pink face. “So now what do you plan to do?”
“I’m trying to figure it out. I tried to talk the boys into carrying you away, but they agreed that all you had to do was mention something like strawberry pie to them and they’d do whatever you asked.”
She started to laugh. “What if I swear to obey you? Would that help?”
“You swore before a preacher to obey me, but it went in one ear and out the other.”
“But this is important!”
“And being married to me isn’t?” he snapped.
She wasn’t going to answer that. Obviously if she told him it was he who hadn’t wanted their marriage, he’d never listen to her. Or probably he’d twist it around and hear her saying something good—or maybe he’d only watch the “best” parts of her bounce. “I promise that I’ll listen and obey. If it’s a good plan,” she added.
“Not good enough,” he said, licking his fingers. “I want total obedience and I’ll take nothing less. I don’t care if you think my plan is stupid, dangerous, or what. Either you agree to obey or I’ll leave you in the woods tied to a tree.”
“You wouldn’t,” she half laughed.
His eyes were deadly serious. “Try me.”
“I
don’t think I shall,” she said with some nervousness. “I swear to you that I’ll obey your orders. Now will you tell me?”
Wesley was still reluctant to tell her and she found that what he really wanted were kisses of persuasion. Leah, for all her seeming abandonment of the night before, was shy with him. He was and he wasn’t her husband. He was hers only as long as they stayed hidden in the woods.
He told her his plan and she was astonished by it. Wesley had contacted Justin and Oliver Stark and John Hammond to ask for their help. They were to load two of Wesley’s wagons with valuable goods and Revis was to steal from them.
“You’ll be stealing what you already own,” Leah said.
“Better that than some innocent victim. I hope that once Revis knows I’m an actual thief, he’ll trust me more.”
“Wesley,” she said, pushing out of his arms, “how did you know the Dancer has a daughter and how did you know about his house?”
“I didn’t. I just guessed. Revis likes to think women want him so I played on his vanity.”
“Wasn’t that a little dangerous? Suppose he was testing you too?”
“He has no reason to suspect me and he’s never been out from under the watch of Bud or Cal so he couldn’t have contacted the Dancer. Now stop worrying and give me another kiss.”
Later, as Leah was rolling out pie crust, she thought over her conversation with Wes. For all his bragging, Wes still might need help tomorrow. But how in the world was she going to persuade him to let her go with him?
Revis solved her problem. At supper he said either Leah went too or there would be no raid.
“What the hell do we want with a damn woman?” Wesley exploded.
“I don’t trust her. I won’t leave her here unguarded. She sneaks around these woods too much as it is.”
“So what? Let her go. Maybe these wagons will have more women. You can pick one of them. Surely one of them will like you more than this one does.”