“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?”