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Mercy said, "You’re daft!" but she was already getting excited about the plan

"I’ And I require your medical" She almost didn’t say it, but in the transparent hope that flattery et her someplace, she finished with, "expertise"

"Oh, for the love of God"

"Please, Mrs Lynch The repairmen are finished with the rear coine and the broken s in the first car We won’t be here more than another hour"

Mercy said, "Fine," folded her satchel up, and left it on her seat She rose and adjusted the gunbelt she noore more often than not and draped her cloak over her shoulders without raising the hood

As she followed Theodora Clay out of their passenger car and onto the next one, she did not ainst time She did not tell her coine that had ridden a northwestern track in order to bring those meat-​baskets up to the plains and unleash theht She did notto the Texian, and that he believed the Shenandoah was still following, tracking to the south and east, but closing ground, despite its defeat If he was lucky, Horatio Korram that would inform him of how correct his suspicions were And if they were all lucky, it would say that the Shenandoah had given up, turned around, and headed back down to Dallas

Meanwhile, the engine halted in Denver for only a few hours when it ought to have stayed overnight for an inspection; because a telegra in Denver, no doubt warning of precisely this sa haste in any repair work

While the train sat there, grounded and undergoing the i the next thousand miles, Mercy Lynch followed Theodora Clay to the spot between the last passenger car and the caboose It was strange to stand on the junction without the wind putting up a fight, but no stranger than watching Miss Clay scale the external ladder with casual quietness and then, froe Mercy to join her

When she reached the top rung, Miss Clay whispered, "Move slowly and be quiet Discretion is the better part of valor in this instance If we make too much noise, they’ll hear us inside"

"Sure," said Mercy, who then pulled herself up on top of the steel-​and-​tin roof, sliding on her belly like a seal and then cli to an all-​fours position Her skirts loves kept the worst of the frigid surface’s chill froers But even with the thick layers of clothes, she could feel the cold seeping up through the fabric, and onto her shins, and into her palray, smoky place under the best of circu addressed in its station, a layer of dirty snow hung over everything It blurred the edges between buildings, sidewalks, streets, and interchanges, and it made the air feel somehow colder Atop the caboose, which they very slowly traversed in inches that were gained in calculated shifts, slides, and steps, there was little snow except what had fallen since they’d stopped This snoas a funny color,than shaved ice It collected between her fingers and soaked along her legs and elbohere it met her body heat

Around the train, men hurried back and forth--lass and soldering equipe Mercy could also spy a station er with stacks of envelopes, folders, ticket stubs, and telegraph reports

All she could do was pray that no one looked up

Even if the woh to the caboose could likely stand on tiptoe and see what they were doing The craas torturous and ti, but in what felt like hours (but was surely only ten minutes) they had traversed the car and were prepared to lower themselves back down onto the next platform, the one between the caboose and the final car

On her way down the ladder, Theodora Clay hissed, "Mind your step And stay clear of the "

Mercy had every intention of following these suggestions to the letter She slowly traced Miss Clay’s steps down the ladder, across the pass, and then up the next ladder, approxi a ball dress On her way to the top of the final car, she looked over her shoulder to peek through the caboose here she saw the back of Malverne Purdue’s head bobbing and jiggling She thought heto someone she couldn’t see, and hoped that she wasn’t in the other speaker’s line of sight

By the time she was situated and stable, Theodora Clay was already prodding at the edges of the eency hatch, or ventilation hatch, or whatever the portal’s original purpose ht have been Mercy crept to her side and used the back of her hand to brush the s, she spotted a latch

Mercy angled her arave the latch a heave and a pull, which Theodora Clay assisted hen the nurse’s progress wasn’t fast enough to suit her Between them, they forced the handle around and then heard the seal pop, its rubber fittings gasping open

Theodora Clay asked, "Why would they seal it with rubber, like a canning jar?"

Mercy was already rocking back on her knees, her hand to her face "To keep the cold in Orgood God To keep the sh," she said, lacking a ith the appropriate heft and reaching instead for a gagging noise