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  Something Borrowed

  By

  Rebecca Hagan Lee

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  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty- Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty- Four

  Epilogue

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  HIGHEST PRAISE FOR DIAMOND HOMESPUN ROMANCES:

  "In all of the Homespuns I've read and reviewed I've been very taken with the loving rendering of colorful small town people doing small town things and bringing 5 STAR and GOLD 5 STAR rankings to the readers. This series should be selling off the bookshelves within hours! Never have I given a series an overall review, but I feel this one, thus far, deserves it! Continue the excellent choices in authors and editors! It's working for this reviewer!"

  —Heartland Critiques

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  We at Diamond Books are thrilled by the enthusiastic critical acclaim that the Homespun Romances are receiving. We would like to thank you, the readers and fans of this wonderful series, for making it the success that it is. It is our pleasure to bring you the highest quality of romance writing in these breathtaking tales of love and family in the Heartland of America.

  And now, sit back and enjoy this delightful new Homespun Romance…

  Something Borrowed

  by National Bestselling Author Rebecca Hagan Lee

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  Praise for her previous Diamond Homespun Romances, Harvest Moon and the award-winning Golden Chances:

  "Delightful, warm, well-written… [A] 'don't miss' read!" —Romantic Times

  "A clever plot, true-to-life characters… a story that will touch your heart." —Rendezvous

  "The characters are vibrant and so alive that I feel they could walk right off the pages." —Heartland Critiques

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  Also by Rebecca Hagan Lee

  GOLDEN CHANCES HARVEST MOON

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  If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that

  this book is stolen property. It was reported as"unsold and destroyed"

  to the publisher, and neither the author nor thepublisher has received

  any payment for this "stripped book."

  This book is a Diamond original edition, and has never been previously published.

  SOMETHING BORROWED

  A Diamond Book / published by arrangement with the author

  PRINTING HISTORY

  Diamond edition / February 1995

  All rights reserved.

  Copyright © 1995 by Rebecca Hagan Lee.

  Cover applique illustration by Kathy Lengyel.

  This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by mimeograph or any other means, without permission.

  For information address: The Berkley Publishing Group,

  200 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016.

  ISBN: 0-7865-0073-5

  Diamond Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group,

  200 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016.

  DIAMOND and the "D" design are trademarks belonging to Charter Communications, Inc.

  PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

  10 987654321

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  Dedication

  For women of vision and courage everywhere.

  Especially my women of vision and courage.

  And, ladies, you all know who you are.

  With love.

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  Prologue

  Peaceable,Wyoming Territory December 1872

  Tessa Roarke Alexander snuggled closer to her husband, David, and burrowed farther beneath the stack of thick quilts until only her face remained uncovered. She listened to the clock chiming on the chest of drawers and realized they had been married a whole eight hours.

  "David?"

  "Hmm?"

  "I can't stop thinking about the wedding. And I can't help thinking it was a shame Liam Kincaid couldn't stay a bit longer after the ceremony."

  "I don't recall anyone missing him very much after he left the reception." David leaned over and kissed her. Lee Kincaid was one of David's oldest and dearest friends—one of the first friends he had made after being recruited by Allan Pinkerton to work as a spy for General McClellan and the Union army. But as recently as three days ago, Lee Kincaid had publicly announced his intentions to marry Tessa, and although Tessa hadn't taken Lee's proposal seriously, David wasn't quite ready to forgive and forget… yet.

  Tessa pulled her left hand from underneath the covers, making sure that the thin gold band that had joined the sapphire and diamond engagement ring she wore was still there. Tessa smiled to herself and said, "I think Mary did."

  "Mary what?"

  "Missed Liam." Only Tessa called Lee Kincaid by his Irish given name.

  "My sister, Mary?" David laughed. "The same Mary who, three days ago, demanded that I break Lee's too-perfect nose?"

  "The same. And I think Mary is really glad you didn't break Liam's nose," Tessa told him. "You should have seen how disappointed she seemed when I told her Liam had left for Baltimore on a mission for me. I could have sworn she was jealous, until I explained that I had hired him to locate the little girl who was supposed to be yours and Caroline Millen's." She paused for a moment and stared at her husband, suddenly not quite certain she had done the right thing in hiring Liam to try to find the child whose conception had ruined David's Washington career—the illegitimate granddaughter of the powerful Senator Warner Millen. "David, tell me the truth, did I do the right thing? If you don't want Lily Catherine to become part of our family, I'll tell Liam to forget about the search. I mean, you told me you'd had people looking for her, so I assumed that meant you wanted us to adopt her. Maybe I should have asked you first. Maybe I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions and involved Liam in your private affairs. Maybe I should have—"

  David stopped Tessa's flow of words with another kiss. "You did exactly the right thing," he told her. "I do want Lily Catherine to be a part of our family. It isn't right for Senator Millen to hide her. She's an innocent. Her mother made a mistake, but that doesn't mean that Lily Catherine and I have to continue to pay for it. I want to right this wrong, and I don't care what other people think. I don't care who fathered Lily Catherine, or why her mother chose to name me. I only care about finding her. Senator Millen doesn't want anyone to know about his granddaughter, and while he might have cared about his daughter, as far as he's concerned, the scandal died along with Caroline. But I know Lily Catherine exists. And I know that whatever her reason, Caroline Millen gave her child my family name— Alexander. I barely knew Caroline, and I certainly didn't love her. I couldn't let the senator force me into marrying his daughter just because he thought I had seduced her. I couldn't be the father of Caroline's child, and I refused to marry her and be her husband. But I can be a father to Lily Catherine now…
I want to be a father to her. And"—he smiled at Tessa—"I want you to be her mother. We want her, Tessa. Nobody else does. That's what important."

  Tessa hugged her husband tightly. "Then, I'll pray Liam finds her soon."

  "Me, too," David admitted.

  "And I'll be sure to ask him for frequent reports."

  "Lee won't always have anything to report," David warned. "You'll be disappointed."

  "Maybe so," Tessa said. "But Mary won't be. Not as long as Liam stays in contact with us and the Trail T."

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  Chapter One

  Trail T Ranch, Wyoming Territory April 1873

  "Mary, Mrs. Russo is here for your fitting."

  Mary Alexander turned from the simple fractions she was copying on the blackboard to find her mother, Sarah, standing at the back entrance to the small one-room schoolhouse. "I'll be there shortly. Let me finish this assignment and dismiss the children."

  Sarah nodded, then turned and walked back down the path around Mary's cabin to the main house of the ranch.

  The Trail T ranch had been purchased and the main house built by Mary's uncle, Benjamin Jordan, her cousin Reese's father, back in 1862. Reese, his wife, Faith, and their girls, Joy and Hope, lived in the main house now. Legally, Reese was the owner of the huge spread, having inherited the vast acreage and a fortune to operate it, from his father, but the Trail T was a family operation. Cabins around the main ranch housed Mary, her parents, Charlie & Sarah, and her younger brother Sam along with Mary and Reese's mutual grandparents, Duncan and Elizabeth Alexander. The Trail T was also home to Joe, a cousin by marriage, his children, Jimmy and Kate, and his second wife, Ruth, and her son, Daniel. Mary's older brother, David, lived with his bride of four months, Tessa, and their adopted son, nine-year-old Coalie, several miles away in the small railroad town of Peaceable, Wyoming, where David practiced law.

  She finished copying the last fraction, then walked to the open door and watched as her mother made her way back to the big house. Mary would miss having family nearby all the time. She would miss sharing the happy, noisy communal family meals with her parents and grandparents, and Reese and Faith—miss the ranch talk and Reese's discussions of business. But she would miss teaching the children most of all.

  Mary walked back into the classroom and faced her pupils—Joy, Jimmy, Kate, Daniel, and Coalie, who was spending the week at the ranch along with Tessa and David.

  She lifted a wooden ruler from the top of her desk and gripped it tightly for strength. "Class," she addressed her students, "as all of you know, I'll be getting married Tuesday morning. This is my last day as your teacher."

  The children groaned.

  Kate raised her hand. "Aren't you coming back after you get married?"

  "No," Mary answered. "I'll be living in Cheyenne. Faith will continue your lessons until the end of the term."

  "Can't you come back to the ranch to teach us?" Kate's fifteen-year-old twin brother, Jimmy, asked. "We're not that far from Cheyenne."

  "I'd like to," Mary admitted. "But my husband doesn't want me to continue my teaching."

  "Why not?" nine-year-old Joy demanded. "Doesn't your husband want you to be happy?"

  Out of the mouths of babes. Mary stared at Joy, marvelling at the little girl's perception. "Of course Mr. Cosgrove wants me to be happy, Joy. What makes you think he doesn't?"

  Joy shrugged. "Reese says that we should encourage the people we care about to do the things they love so they'll be happy. And you always tell us how much you love teaching us. So I thought Mr. Cosgrove would want you to keep on doing what you love to do."

  "Ideally," Mary agreed, "that would be the case, but Mr. Cosgrove is a banker at the Cheyenne Stockholders' Bank, and his position in society demands quite a bit of entertaining. He needs his wife to be free to socialize—to serve on women's committees and host teas and receptions for prospective customers. Mr. Cosgrove feels that, in order for me to be the kind of partner he needs, I'll have to devote the majority of my day to those kinds of things. He doesn't think I'll have the time to entertain and continue to come to the ranch and teach." Mary did her best to explain the situation without casting a bad light on her future husband. The children wouldn't understand the fact that Mr. Pelham Eveihardt Cosgrove III felt that teaching the children on the ranch paled in comparison to being his wife.

  "I don't understand," Coalie told her. "Tessa is learning to read and write so she can clerk in David's law office, and David's real proud of her. We both are," he added.

  "And Faith runs the ranch house, orders all the supplies, helps Reese with the business accounts, and still has time to take care of Hope and Reese and me," Joy reminded Mary. "And she's real happy."

  "My mother gets paid for cleaning the main house and doing the washing for everybody on the ranch," Daniel contributed. "She earns money just like Joe does. She's proud that she can work and still to be a good wife to Joe and a mother to Jimmy, Kate, and me."

  "And Aunt Sarah cooks for all of us," Kate said.

  "And she and Faith and Tessa serve on almost every women's committee in Cheyenne," Jimmy added. "Why can't you keep teaching us?"

  "I'd like to," Mary told them, trying hard to keep from crying. "I really would. But sometimes we have to compromise. Sometimes we have to give up things we'd rather not give up for the sake of the people we care about."

  "But this is Wyoming," Coalie announced. "This is a territory where women have just as many rights as men. David says so."

  "My future husband doesn't want me to work and, well, in spite of the rights that the territory of Wyoming gives me, I feel I have a personal, marital, and moral duty to try to please my new husband…" She let her words trail off. At least in the beginning, she promised herself, until she could convince Pelham that she would be a better, happier wife if she continued to teach.

  "Why don't you marry someone else?" Joy asked. "Someone who wouldn't mind your coming out to the ranch to teach us."

  "Yeah," Daniel agreed.

  Mary managed a small smile. "I can't marry anyone else. I've given my promise to Mr. Cosgrove. And even if I hadn't promised Mr. Cosgrove," she reminded them, "I couldn't marry anyone here on the ranch, and I don't know any other eligible gentlemen."

  "What about Detective Kincaid?" Coalie asked.

  Mary stopped suddenly and felt the blood rush to her face at the mention of Pinkerton detective Lee Kincaid. Her voice came out in a high-pitched squeak when she focused her attention on Coalie. "What about him?"

  Coalie ran a hand through his hair, then shrugged his shoulders in a nonchalant gesture. "He seemed to like you back in Peaceable."

  Four months earlier, Mary had come face to face with the devilishly handsome detective in her brother David's law office. She remembered his thick blond hair, his broad shoulders, the way his mustache framed his sensuous mouth, and the humor sparkling in the depths of his deep gray eyes. There had been a definite spark of something between them, but it hadn't been like. It was more dislike—Intense dislike. She and Lee Kincaid simply rubbed each other the wrong way. And it was a shame really, when Mary thought about it, because Detective Lee Kincaid was definitely the most handsome and exciting man she had ever met.

  She shook her head and faced Coalie's intense green-eyed gaze. "Oh, no, Coalie, you're mistaken. Detective Kincaid isn't interested in me. And even if he were," she paused, her expression wistful. "He leads such an adventurous life, he would probably be bored to tears with the slow pace of life on the Trail T."

  "Mr. Kincaid didn't dance with anyone except you at David and Tessa's wedding party," Kate pointed out. "I thought it most romantic."

  Mary frowned. At fifteen, Kate found everything romantic. "Mr. Kincaid only danced one dance because he left for Baltimore on business immediately after he danced with me. He simply couldn't spare the time for further dances."

  "But still, he danced with you," Kate persisted.

  "Nevertheless," Mary struggled to dismiss the foolish romant
ic notions Kate brought to mind. "It's all neither here nor there. I'm engaged to marry Mr. Cosgrove on Tuesday, and that's the end of it."

  "So you don't really want to continue teaching us?" Joy asked, on the verge of tears.

  "Oh, no, Joy. It's not that I don't want to continue to teach you. I love you all." Mary rushed to console her favorite pupil. "It's just that…" She gripped the ruler tighter and felt its sharp edge dig into the tender flesh of her palm as she fought to keep the tears burning in her eyes at bay.

  "She loves Mr. Cosgrove," Kate tried to explain.

  "No, I—" Mary hesitated as she stared down at the two halves of the ruler that had snapped in her hands. She hid the pieces of the ruler in the folds of her skirt. "I'm sorry to disappoint you. I had hoped to be your teacher at the end-of-term celebration. I'll miss you all." She cleared her throat and took a deep breath before continuing in her most professional schoolteacher voice. "It has been my pleasure and my privilege to teach you. Thank you all. Class dismissed."

  Minutes later, Mary Alexander stood on a box in the bedroom of her tiny cabin near the schoolhouse and gazed at her reflection in the full-length mirror. The face staring back at her showed the strain of the last few days and the look in her brown eyes expressed her sense of foreboding. Several times during the last few days, she had been tempted to cry off. But her cowardice stopped her. Pelham Cosgrove was the only man who had ever thought to offer her marriage, and Mary was very much afraid no one else ever would because she was part Cherokee Indian. She knew it wasn't the best reason to marry, but it was reason enough. After all, Pelham didn't love her any more than she loved him.