Leah had no idea how long she sat there because time seemed to have no meaning. Her thoughts wandered to the fact that the fireplace needed cleaning. The sun was beginning to rise when she stiffly got up from the chair and began the filthy task of cleaning it and as much of the chimney as she could reach.
Behind her the door burst open.
Slowly, disinterestedly, Leah turned to see Kim, her eyes bright, her hair tumbled about her shoulders, her muslin dress grass-stained.
“Oh Leah,” Kim said breathlessly. “It was heavenly, absolutely heavenly. It was the most wonderful experience of my life. What in the world are you doing? Leah, look at you! You’ve absolutely ruined that beautiful dress.”
Kim went forward, but as she reached Leah she pulled back. “I don’t think I’ll touch you. Stand up right now and get that dress off. And while you’re washing I’ll tell you about the most wonderful night of my life.”
Kimberly gave Leah cold water to wash in because Kim wasn’t about to lay a fire in Leah’s bare fireplace. “Wash your ears, too,” Kim commanded as Leah stood in her underwear. “It was so silly of you to ruin your dress. Oh well, that’s enough about that. Leah,” she said slowly, “Justin and I made love last night.”
That was the first thing that had gotten through to Leah. She paused in her washing. “You and Justin?”
“Isn’t it so hard to believe? It seems that Justin has hated me from the first moment he saw me. Men don’t usually hate me, but Justin did, and last night he was just furious, but later…Oh Leah, it was sheer heaven.”
“Kim,” Leah said. “Tell me everything from the beginning. Where did you get the brooch you gave me?”
“Well, that,” Kim said with a sigh. “I guess things started a long time before last night.”
“I have all day,” Leah said firmly. “Would you like some breakfast?”
“Breakfast? I guess so even though it’s afternoon, but lovemaking does make you hungry.”
Minutes later Leah was washed, dressed, and cooking. “Start,” she ordered Kim.
“I guess it started with Steven. He said there were two kinds of women: ladies who didn’t enjoy it and women who did.”
“Kim, why don’t you tell me about the brooch?”
“I will, but everything’s tied together. Oh Leah, you have to swear you won’t hate me when I tell you all this. You’re the best friend I’ve ever had and some of the things I’ve done—.”
“I swear I won’t hate you unless you keep delaying the story.”
“As I said, Steven made me think that ladies had to behave all the time so when Wesley and I fell in love—and I really did love him—I never let Wes kiss me very much. You see, I very much liked Wesley’s kisses, but I was afraid that if I showed him that I liked them he would think I wasn’t a lady and wouldn’t marry me. Oh Leah, it was hard at times to push him away. Wesley’s kisses are so nice. They’re—.”
“Could we skip this part of the story?”
“I guess so. Leah, this is the part I don’t like. When Wesley told me he was going to stay married to you, I was very, very angry. Actually, I was furious. It seemed so unfair because I’d always been holding back and being a lady while you and Wesley sneaked out at night and delivered food—oh yes, I knew about that. And, too, you’d wrestled in the mud. You hadn’t been a lady at all but you’d won the man.”
Pausing, she looked at Leah pleadingly. “I was so angry that I stuck a hatpin in the horse and made the wagon fall down the hill. I thought you were inside. Oh Leah,” she wailed, burying her face in her hands. “I hated you so much I wanted to kill you.”
Leah put her arm around Kim’s shoulders. “I had a sudden call of nature and left the wagon, so you didn’t hurt me. Maybe in your place I’d have done something similar. Here, now, eat your eggs and tell me what happened next.”
“John Hammond saw me stick the pin in the horse and when I fainted—it’s the one and only time I ever really did faint—he told me he wouldn’t tell anyone. But later…”
She took a big drink of milk. “He really is a dreadful man, Leah. He said he’d tell everyone what I’d done if I didn’t marry him.”
“He blackmailed you?” Leah asked, aghast, as she sat down across from Kim. “But why? Why would he want to force you to marry him? He must have known you’d resent him.”
“I asked myself that over and over. I didn’t like him much for making me marry him and I did everything I could to make him regret marrying me.” She smiled at a chunk of buttered bread. “You want to know a secret, Leah? I can cook. I never let Wesley know because Steven said real ladies didn’t cook and when we were traveling you always seemed to want to do everything by yourself.”
“I made you feel useless?” Leah asked softly.
“You could probably make any six people feel useless, but anyway, to punish John I refused to do anything at all. He was…very unpleasant at night and I didn’t really know about lovemaking until Justin—.”
“What about the brooch? Doesn’t that come before Justin?”
“Oh yes. It was very boring in John’s house, what with him gone all day, and since I refused to do anything I was supposed to do, I had trouble occupying myself. Except that John has this study, which he keeps locked, and right after our marriage he told me never, never, never was I to go in there.”