"Oh, no. I'm not interested in getting married. You're a fine woman, but marriage…"
     Rachel held up her hands, as if in anguish. Words began to pour from her lips at a rapid rate. "The wagon train will not accept Becky and me unless one of us is married. I thought if you married me, we could get it annulled as soon as we reached Oregon. It wouldn't be forever. Just a couple of months."
     "One little slip and those months could turn into years. We'd be stuck with one another."
     "There will be no slip, Mr. Ketchum," Rachel assured him, her tone indignant at the very suggestion.
    Frustrated, Wade tossed her an icy glare. "Just what do you have against my name? You want me to marry you, yet you can't even call me Wade."
    Rachel stared at him, clearly embarrassed. She stammered, "I…don't know. It seems to fit you."
    "It should; it's my name. Find someone else to get hog-tied to. I'm not getting married for any reason."
    She looked crestfallen. She wrung her hands in desperation. "I must find someone, or we're going to be stuck in this fort. What kind of life could I provide for us here?"
    "Could you at least help me find someone?" she pleaded.
    Wade bristled. She wanted him to help her find another man to marry?
    "I'm not going to help you go through with this foolhardy plan of yours," he responded angrily. "What if I talk to the wagon train's leader? Maybe I could convince him."
    Rachel laughed a derisive sound. "I don't think so. He was adamant against single females. And if he did change his mind, it wouldn't take Becky long to convince him he'd made a mistake."
    "Could you hire someone?"
    "No. He said hired men had been known to leave when the trail became too rough."
    They were standing just inside the palisades; the guard tower loomed over them. Wade stared past the tower, toward Laramie Peak. He was broke. He would have to sell one of his horses, find a job or…
    He grabbed Rachel by the arm and spun her around to face him. "I have an idea."
    She pulled back in fear, but he gently placed her arm in his and proceeded to stroll along the inside of the fence, as if they were a couple out courting. "What if you hire me to see you to Oregon for six hundred dollars and we pretend we're married?"

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