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know.
    â€œHow long has it been empty do you think?”
    She stood huddled in the middle of the floor, her arms wrapped tight around herself, her knees knocking together, determined not to utter a single complaint, as if admitting to the cold was a weakness. Strange woman.
    A growing puddle formed around her. Her hair had mostly come loose from the rubber band and was starting to curl just the tiniest bit.
    â€œPerhaps from the time they put in the highway some five years ago. This is the old county road. No one travels it anymore which is, I presume, the reason this particular station closed up.”
    â€œThe road must still lead somewhere though, to a house or two.”
    â€œNo doubt, but we won’t be finding any help in this storm. You’re the picture of misery, half-frozen and too tired to budge. Time to get as dry as possible.” He looked at her, saw her staring back wide-eyed, and added, “That means removing your ridiculous costume.”
    She froze in the process of rubbing her arms, sluicing off more water. “Is that the only tune you know? All right, damn it, I lied. I wouldn’t have let them shoot you, not if I could help it. But I knew if they thought I cared, they’d think we were together. I wanted them to take you and forget about me.”
    Well, that was brutal honesty of a sort. Not quite what he’d had in mind, but… “Believe it or not, Charlie, it was my wish as well.” He found a crate, tested it for sturdiness and sat down with a deep groan of pleasure. “I had no desire to be responsible for you, and in fact I could have defused this entire situation if you hadn’t screwed things up.”
    â€œIt was you—”
    He held up a hand. “No more bickering. And no more ridiculous modesty. Your belated concern for my safety has nothing to do with anything. I don’t want to be lugging a half-dead woman back to town tomorrow, and that’s what you’ll be if you don’t make some effort to warm yourself. It has nothing to do with my curiosity over your precious body parts.”
    â€œYou have only my welfare in mind?”
    â€œQuit sneering.” He felt a smile tug at his lips and firmly repressed the urge to grin at her. “Come now, you must be in your mid-twenties at least. Surely you can’t claim all that much modesty. I promise not to be impressed no matter what you unveil.”
    She looked ready to strike him, so he quickly added, “I’ll make the grand sacrifice. My coat is still fairly dry on the inside, given that it’s made for this weather and waterrepellent. You can wrap up in it after you’ve gotten out of your wet clothes.”
    She chewed her lips, thinking of heaven knew what, and finally shaking her head. More hair slipped free and clung to her forehead and cheeks. She didn’t look like a boy now; she looked like a drowned rat. A wide-eyed, nervous rat. “No.”
    â€œWhat if I insist?”
    She went stiff as a poker. “Insist all you want! I’m not taking anything off and I’m not—” Her voice dwindled into a very ratlike squeak when he started toward her. “Don’t you dare touch me!”
    â€œYou’re being unreasonable, Charlie. I hadn’t thought you the type to submit to hysterics, but what else can it be? You can’t be comfortable and if there was enough light to see, I have no doubt you’d be a pale shade of blue.” He caught her arm and she tried to jerk away. He easily caught the neck of her jacket and stripped it off her, despite her efforts and the volume of her rank curses. The woman had the vocabulary of a sailor. “It’s too dark in here for close observation anyway. What exactly do you suppose I’ll see?”
    â€œYou’ll see nothing because you’re going to take your hands off me right now.”
    That calm tone of hers should have given him a warning, but he was too intent on