River Lady

by Jude Deveraux

  Nicole helped Leah to bed, and in the morning Clay asked that she come to his office.

  “I thought you might like to have this,” he said, handing her a large book bound in blue leather.

  “But I can’t—,” she began.

  “Open it.”

  She saw that the pages were blank and she looked at him, puzzled.

  Clay stood beside her. “On the cover it says, Arundel Hall, and every year I have several of the books bound to use for permanent records. Nicole told me of your loom patterns so I thought you might like to record them in this. You could take it to Kentucky with you.”

  To Clay’s complete bewilderment, Leah collapsed in a chair, the book held close to her, and she began to cry. “Did I do something wrong?” he asked. “Don’t you like the book?”

  “Everyone is so kind,” Leah cried. “I know it’s because of Wesley but still—.”

  Clay knelt before her, put his fingers under her chin, and lifted her face. “I want you to listen to me and believe what I’m saying. At first we did take you in because you’d married Wes, but we forgot about him months ago. Nicole and I and our children have come to love you. Remember how the boys came down with the measles at Christmas and you stayed up with them? Your kindness, the love you’ve given us, have more than repaid us for what little we’ve done for you.”

  “But all of you are so easy to love,” she answered through tears, “and you’ve given me the world. I’ve done so little for you.”

  Standing, Clay laughed. “All right, we’re equal then. I just don’t want to hear any more about what we’ve done for you. Now I need to go back to work.”

  Leah stood and on impulse threw her arms around Clay. “Thank you so much for everything.”

  He hugged her back. “If I’d known I’d get this kind of reward I would have deeded you the plantation. Now go on back to your looms.”

  Smiling, she left the office.

  In February, Regan and Travis came to fetch her.

  “You’ve had her long enough,” Travis said to Clay while grinning at Leah. Regan had said, with some disgust, that Travis had quickly forgiven Leah for trapping his little brother after Travis saw how pretty Leah’d turned out to be.

  With tears in her eyes, Leah hugged all the Armstrong family good-bye.

  “Oh yes,” Clay said, eyes dancing, “I thought you might like to have this.” He nodded toward a wooden crate standing with several others on the wharf.

  Puzzled, Leah walked toward the box. Behind it was a loom, a beautiful piece of work in cherry with brass fittings.

  As Leah gaped soundlessly, Clay put his arm around her. “It breaks down for packing and you can take it to Kentucky with you. If you start crying again I’ll keep it,” he warned.

  Again Leah hugged him as Travis said he’d send someone to get the loom. Leah, hating to part with the loom for even a few days, grabbed the long comblike reed and clutched it. As Travis lifted her into the little sloop, she held the reed and waved as long as she could see the Armstrongs on the dock.

  On the sail back to Stanford Plantation, Regan asked Leah hundreds of questions and at the same time noticed the many changes in Leah. She held herself erectly, looked people in the eye, and her movements were unconsciously graceful.

  As they walked from the dock to the house, Regan was thinking that Leah was ready for anything—until she looked up at the house. Standing on the porch, one hand delicately poised on the iron railing, was Kimberly Shaw, her blonde hair drawn back from her lovely face, rings of curls down her neck. Her fragile prettiness was set off by a silk gown and matching cloak of deep pink.

  “Is she Wesley’s Kimberly?” Leah asked in a whisper.

  “You are Wesley’s wife, remember that, Leah,” Regan said under her breath as Kimberly walked down the stairs and toward them.

  “Kimberly!” Travis said, pleased. “It’s been so long since we’ve seen you.” He caught her shoulders and kissed her cheek. “Have you met Leah, my sister-in-law?”

  “Only briefly,” Kimberly said in a pretty, soft voice as she held out her hand. “I am Kimberly Shaw.”

  To Regan’s disgust, she could see Leah weakening before Kim. Kim had a way about her of apparent sweetness that made people want to do her bidding.

  “I am very happy to meet you,” Leah said softly.

  “If you ladies will excuse me,” Travis said, “I have to get back to work.”

  When he was gone, Regan invited Kim in for tea.

  “If it’s not too much trouble,” Kim said. “I do have some news I want to tell.”

  “About Wesley?” Leah asked eagerly, following Kim up the stairs.

  “You haven’t heard from him?” Kim asked, eyebrows raised in speculation.

  “Have you?” Regan interrupted, leading the way into the small parlor as she ordered tea from a servant.

  “Not often,” Kim said modestly. When they were seated, she spoke again. “I want to be honest about everything and I was, to say the least, very upset at what happened last year. I couldn’t bring myself to even hear Wesley’s name for months afterward.”

  Leah toyed with her fingers in her lap. She had given so little thought to how this woman must have felt at losing the man she loved.

  “As you know,” Kim continued, “it was planned that Wesley and I, with my brother Steven, would travel to Kentucky together and I’d looked forward to going to a new state with…with…” She stopped as the tea was brought in.

  When the servant was gone, Regan spoke. “You didn’t come here to tell us about last year’s plans, so why are you here?”

  Big fat tears clouded Kim’s pretty eyes. “Since that day in church my life has been awful, just dreadful. Regan, you really can’t imagine what it’s been like. I’m laughed at constantly. Every time I go to church someone makes a remark about how I was…jilted.” She glanced at Leah, who was still looking at her hands. “Even the children are making up rhymes about what happened.”

  She buried her face in her hands. “It’s too awful. I can’t bear it any longer.”

  In spite of herself, Regan felt her heart go out to the woman. “Kim, what can we do? Maybe Travis could talk to the people or—.”

  “No,” Kim said. “The only way is to leave. Leah,” she said, pleadingly, and Leah met her eyes. “You don’t know me, but I want to ask you to do something for me, something that will save my life.”

  “What can I do?” Leah asked seriously.

  “In Wes’s last letter to me, he said he was returning at the end of March, then the two of you and my brother would start the journey to Kentucky.”

  A month! Leah thought. In just a month Wesley would be home and she would really be his wife.

  “Let me go with you,” Kimberly was saying. “I could travel with Steven and the four of us could go somewhere where no one knows what’s been done to me. Please, Leah, I have no right to ask anything of you, I know, but it was because of you that—.”

  Regan stood and cut off Kim’s words. “I think you’re asking too much of Leah and I don’t think she should—.”

  “Please, Leah,” Kim asked. “Maybe I can find a husband in Kentucky. Here everyone laughs at me. It’s miserable, really miserable and you already have Wesley, the one man I’ve ever loved and—.”

  “Yes,” Leah said firmly. “Of course you may go with us.”

  “Leah,” Regan said, “I think we should discuss this.”

  “No,” Leah said, looking at Kim. “It’s my fault that this has happened to you and I’ll do what I can to give you back some of what you’ve lost.”

  “That’s not your responsibility,” Regan began, but Leah gave her a look she’d never seen before.

  “Would you pour?” Leah said to Regan, and Regan sat down and obeyed her.

  Chapter 5

  Leah put the last stitches in the border of the coverlet, a blue and white Irish chain pattern, and smoothed it in her lap. She looked up at Janie’s laugh.

  “Is it
my imagination or are your hands shaking?”

  Leah returned her smile. “I think they are a bit.” She paused. “Was that the bell?”

  Janie laughed harder. “I’m afraid not.”

  “You don’t think they’d forget to ring it, do you? I mean, they wouldn’t let Wesley arrive and not tell me.”

  “Leah,” Janie said, her hand on her shoulder, “Travis and Regan are waiting to see him too. The minute he’s sighted, they’ll ring the bell.”

  At that moment came the loud, excited clang of the bell by the wharf.

  Leah didn’t move but her face drained of color.

  “Don’t look so scared,” Janie said with a laugh. “Come on, let’s greet him.”

  Slowly, Leah rose, looking down in doubt at her dress. She wore a deep rust-colored silk twill that brought out the auburn in her hair, and the high waist was trimmed with black silk ribbons, with more ribbons entwined in her hair, which was piled on her head in a mass of glossy curls.

  “You look beautiful,” Janie was saying as Regan rushed into the room.

  “Are you going to stay here all day?” Regan demanded. “Don’t you want to see him?”

  “Yes!” Leah gasped. “Oh yes!” And together the three of them left the loom house at a run.

  Two weeks before, Travis had received news from Wesley saying that he and Steven were returning around the second of April; today was the third. Travis had sent someone upriver to watch for the men, and the moment they were seen the big wharf bell was to be rung so everyone could come to greet the returning men.

  Now, as Leah was running, she touched the gold coin pinned to the inside of her pocket, the coin Wesley had given her so long ago. Would he be pleased with the way she’d changed? As they drew near the wharf and she could see Travis talking to someone, she stopped running. I will make you the best wife in all the world, my Wesley, she vowed. You’ll never regret having lost your Kimberly.

  Leah was behind the gathering crowd as everyone pushed to greet the returning men, but as people moved about, Leah had her first glimpse of him. He’d put on some size while he’d been gone and now stood as big as Travis; covering his broad shoulders was an outrageous costume of pale leather, fringed about the shoulders and down the sides of his pants legs. Criss-crossing his shoulders were straps to a couple of pouches, one decorated with an intricate design of tiny beads. On his head was a broad-brimmed hat that looked as if it’d made the journey back and forth to Kentucky tied to the bottom of a wagon wheel.

  Leah looked at him and felt her heart begin to beat faster, her throat closing in anticipation. She’d waited for this moment for years and years.

  “Here she is,” Travis was saying, slapping his brother’s shoulder.

  As he said the words, Leah saw Wesley’s face turn from the joy of greeting to one of coldness, and she hesitated.

  Regan came forward and took Leah’s arm. “Come on. He doesn’t even recognize you.”

  Hesitantly, shyly, Leah stepped toward her husband.

  “She’s changed some, hasn’t she?” Travis was saying with pride. “Could have knocked me over with a feather when she cleaned up so pretty.”

  Blushing, but very pleased, Leah looked up through her lashes at Wesley. He was looking toward the fields over her head.

  “You have to tell me how last year’s crops were,” Wes was saying. “And I’ll need some seed to take back with me. Ah!” He smiled. “Is that Jennifer?” he called to Travis and Regan’s five-year-old daughter who was running toward her uncle. “Excuse me,” Wesley said and made his way through the crowd to greet the child.

  For a moment everyone was too embarrassed to speak, but as they cast looks of sympathy toward Leah, the crowd began to break apart.

  Leah, stunned at Wes’s lack of greeting, watched as he and Jennifer walked toward the house.

  “That bastard—!” Travis began, but Regan put her hand on his shoulder and shook her head. “I think I’ll talk to him,” Travis said and left Leah and Regan alone on the wharf.

  “Leah—,” Regan began.

  “Leave me alone,” Leah snapped. “I don’t need sympathy from anyone. I was stupid to think there could ever be anything between us. I’m just a poor girl from the swamp of the river with a whore for a sister, so why should he even bother to look at me?”

  “Stop it!” Regan commanded. “Wesley isn’t like that. Maybe he was shocked when you were so pretty. After all, he’s never seen you looking as you do now.”

  Leah gave her a look of contempt. “I am not quite that stupid.”

  “Let’s go to the house,” Regan urged. “Travis will talk to him and find out what’s wrong.” She took Leah’s arm. “Please,” she pleaded.

  Leah allowed herself to be pulled along by Regan, but she held her head high as everyone they passed gave her a look of pity.

  They were barely inside the house when the sound of shouting came to them, and both women stood paralyzed at what they heard.

  “You expect me to stop hating her merely because she cleaned up pretty?” Wesley was shouting. “I’ve hated her from the moment I married her, ever since she made it impossible for me to have the woman I loved. All winter I worked long, long days trying to sweat out my hatred of her, but I couldn’t. I wouldn’t even sleep in the house knowing that the slut was going to be living in it. She’s ruined my life and now you expect me to fall all over myself merely because she’s washed her face?”

  Regan didn’t allow Leah to hear any more, except for a few crashes as a fight between the brothers seemed to break out, before she shoved Leah up the stairs to the room Leah was to have shared with her husband. Regan leaned against the door, so shocked and hurt that she couldn’t move.

  Not so Leah, who went to the wardrobe where her new dresses mixed with Wesley’s suits. “I won’t take much,” Leah was saying. “But I’ll need a few clothes. Perhaps you can sell what’s left and the money will help repay what you’ve given me.”

  Regan took a moment to react to Leah’s words. “What are you talking about?”

  Leah folded two dresses, her hands and body shaking. “I’ll go back to the farm. I worked it before and I can certainly work it enough to support myself. Maybe I can still have the loom Clay gave me and sell some weaving.”

  “You’re running away?” Regan gasped.

  The face Leah turned to her was filled with fury. “All of you may think I’m nothing, that because I grew up without the finer things of life that I’m not worth much, but I have my pride and I’ll not stay here where I’m hated.”

  “How dare you!” Regan seethed, her teeth clenched. “No one before today has treated you with anything but respect and how dare you insinuate that we have!”

  The women were practically nose to nose before Leah turned away. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “Please forgive me.”

  “Leah,” Regan said softly. “Don’t do anything you’ll regret. I wish you hadn’t heard what Wes said, but I’m sure something can be worked out.”

  “Such as?” Leah whirled. “Should I go to live in that house with him? My father always hated me, but he hated everyone else too. There was nothing personal in it. But now my…my husband hates me and only me. I never wanted to impose myself on him. I wish my father’d shot me rather than come to this.” She went back to the wardrobe to take out a straw bonnet.

  “Leah, you can’t go back to that farm. That place is nothing but a breeding ground for mosquitoes and Travis said the roof fell in on the house this winter. You can’t—.”

  “What are the alternatives? And don’t say that I should stay here with you. I’ve never been an object of charity before and I won’t be now.”

  “Damn that Wesley!” Regan said. “I thought that in a year he’d come to his senses. If he’d just open his eyes he’d see that Kimberly is—.” She broke off, her eyes wide as she stared at Leah. “Leah,” she said quietly. “If you go back to the farm and Wes returns to Kentucky with Steven and Kimberly, what are people going
to say?”

  Leah gave an exasperated sigh. “People from my class have never had the luxury of wondering what people will say. When your own father drags you, pregnant, into a church with a gun held to your head, there isn’t much worse that can happen to you in your lifetime. People will just say I’m another Simmons whore and that they knew so all along.”

  “Is that what you want? Do you like the idea of walking into a store or the church and having people whisper about you?”

  “As a Simmons, I’ve never had any choice in the matter.”

  “You aren’t a Simmons. You’re a Stanford. Did you forget that?”

  “No one need worry. I’ll give Wesley a divorce or an annulment or whatever he wants. There’s no child, so he has no further obligation to me.”

  “Leah,” Regan said and took her hands. “Sit down here and talk to me. You can’t go running away from every adversity. Once I tried to run away from my problems rather than staying and trying to work them out. I put myself through a great deal of needless pain. You have to think of yourself and not sacrifice yourself because of one stupid man.”

  For the first time Leah realized Regan was angry at Wesley.

  “Oh yes, I’m angry at him,” Regan answered the unasked question. “Wesley has no idea what he’s been saved from. I knew for a long time what his precious Kimberly was like and I took a chance that you weren’t like her. You’ve lived with us for nearly a year and we’ve all, Clay and Nicole included, come to love you, and damn Wesley! I’m so angry at him I think he almost deserves Kimberly.”

  Suddenly Regan stopped. “That’s it!” She gasped. “That’s it!” She stood and walked a few feet away. “I know how to solve everything. We—,” she broke off to laugh. “We are going to give Wes just what he thinks he wants—Kimberly.”

  “Good,” Leah said tiredly, gathering her clothes in her arms. “I’m sure they’ll be very happy together. Now, if you don’t mind, I think I’ll go.”

  “Leah, no,” Regan said, halting her. “Listen to me.”