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"Me, too" She nodded

"You nervous?" he asked

She lied "No"

"Me neither," he said, but she figured he was probably telling the truth He didn’t look nervous He looked like a ot there His two large leather cases still dangled, one at the end of each hand; and his guns ainst his forearms when he walked, but he wore them anyway, as casually as a lady would wear a brooch

Mercy asked, "How far will you ride?"

He glanced at her quickly, as if the question startled hioes all the way out to Tacoh But it stops a bunch of times between here and there"

He said, "Ah," and his eyes snapped back to thesooner Reuely Suddenly he turned to her, and he set one of his cases by his feet so he could take her arht "Mrs Lynch," he said, and his breath arm on her skin

"Mr Korman!"

"Please," he said softly "I can bet old Greeley told you ht, and brought his face so close to her ear that she could feel the tickle of his ainst her cheekbone "And I’d appreciate it if you’d keep that infor a Union train, I’ll have trouble enough on board as a Texian They don’t need to know the rest"

She drew back, understanding "Of course," she said, nodding but not retreating any farther "I won’t say a word"

The press and flow of the crowd shifted closer to the cars upon hearing so up under his arm and took Mercy’s hand "Will you acco two of a kind, and allor, at least, two folks of similar sentiments"

"I suppose I could," she said, but he was already leading her against a current of people waving their bags and reading their tickets instead of watching their steps

The ranger drew his duster forward over his guns, and adjusted his bag He took Mercy’s envelope of tickets and receipts as boldly as he’d taken her hand Together they reached the steps to the second car, which was being watched by a man in a crisp unifor But he was an arers with the same steady eye

A porter stood to the other side of the steps, his gloved hand out and ready

Horatio Korman handed over his own ticket as well as Mercy’s Once they’d been examined, he reclaimed both stamped items and returned the nurse’s to her envelope, and the envelope to her hand Then he picked up his bags once more and led the way inside

Mercy followed, aware of the implication and a little annoyed, but a little coer’s appropriation of her presence He hadn’t wanted to speak with her; he’d wanted her company the way he’d wanted to draw his overcoat forward to cover his firearms He’d selected her as a reasonably respectable woman of a similar social class, in order to draw less scrutiny as he boarded the train; and because she was a southern girl, he figured he could trust her not to open her big ht

She stood at the entrance to the passenger car’s door, blocking the way She looked back over the platform and the assembled people there, and forward into the car Horatio Korht, alo without her

On the terrible engine, a whistle the size of a shtened chain, inhaled, and screamed out a note that could be heard for a h the station like a threat or a dare, holding its tune for fifteen seconds that felt like fifteen years

Even after it’d stopped, it rang in Mercy’s ears, loud as a gong