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.”