“Can she spin, Wes?” a man asked, laughing.
Leah suddenly became aware of who she was and where she was and she looked down at the uneaten apple tart on her plate. “I’m afraid I’ve overstepped myself,” she said softly.
To her surprise, Wesley put his arm around her. “To tell you the truth, I haven’t been married long enough to know whether she can spin or not.”
Astonished, Leah looked up at her husband. His eyes were bright and he seemed almost proud of her.
“Go ahead and kiss her, Mr. Wesley,” Bess said from across the table. “You look like you’re dyin’ to, and we’d all like a little proof that you love her. Isn’t that right, men?”
To Leah’s anger, Wesley gave a glance to Kim.
He was not going to humiliate her. “I don’t need much encouragement to kiss my own husband,” she said seductively as she slid her arms around Wes’s neck.
The moment her lips touched his, she began to regret her actions. She wanted to prove something to the strangers around her, show them she really was good enough to be loved by a man of Wesley’s stature, but she forgot any sensible reasons for kissing him. For a year she’d lived with couples who loved each other passionately, and until she began to kiss Wesley she was unaware how this had affected her. She very much wanted to be touched, wanted a release for her passion.
At first Wesley was cool, but he felt Leah’s excitement, felt the commitment in her kiss, and he responded. He forgot the people around them as he kissed her deeply, hotly, searingly. His hand covered her head, his fingers demolishing the ordered curls there.
“Wesley,” someone said with some embarrassment, “maybe you should wait until later.”
Leah was helpless in Wesley’s arms, as helpless as she’d been on the one other occasion when he’d touched her.
A hand touched Wesley’s shoulder just as he was beginning to seek the soft curve of Leah’s breast. The man’s hand tightened. “Wes!”
Gradually Wes began to surface, and when he broke away from Leah his eyes took a moment to focus.
For seconds, Leah lay back on Wesley’s arm, her eyes closed, her dark hair streaming over his buckskins. When she opened her eyes and became aware of where she was, she sat up abruptly and her face turned several shades of red. Her one glance at Wes showed him to be looking at her with puzzlement, and a vein in his throat pulsed rapidly.
“I…” she began, pulling away from him. A hand on her head showed her hair to have fallen. “Excuse me, I must…” she didn’t finish as she turned and fled through the room and up the stairs to her bedchamber.
She was barely inside when Bess burst in. “I have never seen a kiss like that. Not in all my born days have I seen somebody get kissed like that. That Wesley is some man! Not only is he the best-lookin’ thing this side of the mountains, he’s also the best lover.”
“Will you please stop talking?” Leah half cried. “How can I face any of them again? They’ll never believe I’m a lady now. I wanted to leave Virginia with the people saying I’d become a lady, but what do I do but act like a Simmons whore.” She paused, then gasped. “Oh Bess, I am sorry.”
“You haven’t hurt my feelings, and those men down there are going to dream about you tonight.”
“Just what I wanted,” Leah said as she sat down heavily on the bed. “Do you think I could slip out the back door and never see anyone again?”
Bess chuckled. “Let me fix your hair and then you
will go downstairs again. You should have seen that Kimberly’s face. She was spittin’ nails.”
“I was under the impression you thought Miss Shaw was the perfect example of a lady.”
“Hold still!” Bess commanded, her hands in Leah’s hair. “I thought that before my own sister was transformed into the most beautiful, elegant lady that Virginia has ever seen.”
“Bess,” Leah said, turning, “go with us. I need a friend. I’ll teach you how to weave and you can go into business with me.”
“And leave my nice warm tavern and my nice warm men for a clackety ol’ loom? Those Stanfords didn’t teach you any sense, did they? You take your Wesley and live on your farm and milk hundreds of cows every day, but not me. I want a life of ease. There, you’re all prim and proper again. Now go down and smile. You’ve got Kimberly on the run.”
Leah laughed. “I will miss you so much. Kim will run straight into Wesley’s arms as soon as this night is over and he’ll kiss her so well it’ll make our kiss—.” She paused, remembering. “Our kiss will mean nothing,” she finished quietly. “All right, I’m as ready as I can be. If my husband can playact a kiss I can at least recognize it as such.”
“That was no playacting,” Bess called behind her sister, but Leah either didn’t hear or ignored her.
Chapter 8
It took all Leah’s courage to face the people downstairs once again. She was so sure they’d treat her as if she were a whore that she wasn’t prepared for the warm welcome. Three men had arrived while she was upstairs, two with fiddles, one with a banjo, and they were already beginning to play.
Before Leah had a thought she was shoved into Wesley’s arms and he led her in the first minuet.