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strong hand held my back up and kept me steady as if I sat in my very own throne in the forest.
    If I asked questions, I bet I could hear the rumble of his voice against the side of my cheek. “How did you and Doc meet?”
    “Doc didn’t tell you? I was shot up. Not as bad as you but bad enough and he patched me. I repaid the favor by fixing up his cabin and repairing some old furniture pieces he’d inherited from his mother.”
    “Where’d you learn wood work?”
    “My Da and brothers are handy with it. We always built the houses we lived in when I was younger. We moved around a lot so I got good at fixing things.”
    “Who shot you?”
    “Hunters.”
    I waited for him to elaborate but his eyes had cooled and rested on the road. “Where do you sleep at nights?”
    “Why, would you rather me share your tiny bed?”
    Heat ran the gauntlet up my cheeks. “N-no,” I stammered. “That’s not at all what I was implying.”
    The deepened laugh lines around his mouth said he was teasing me. Again. I’d never met a man who enjoyed baffling a woman more.
    “I sleep outside.”
    “Don’t you have a home?”
    “I do.”
    I arched my eyebrows and waited. Getting any personal information from the man was like catching a slick pig with buttered fingers. “Where?”
    “I’m taking you there. A boat ride, a train ride, and a carriage ride are all that stand between you and my home.”
    I relaxed into the tense and immovable crook of his elbow. “Tell me about it.”
    A wisp of a smile brushed his lips and I watched them mold around velvet words as he talked. He’d grown his beard, to shield the scar he’d said, and the short, dark whiskers made his eyes look bluer and fiercer. His white teeth were a stark, bright contrast to the dark hair. I wonder if it would tickle to kiss a man with whiskers.
    “You all right, there?” he asked.
    “Uuh.” I cleared my throat and tried to expel the foggy sensation sitting so near him was causing. What had he been talking about? “Yes, your home. Go on.”
    “It’s a small town but one you could easily get lost in. There’s lots of land out there and I live on a homestead with my two brothers, Jeremiah and Luke. Or at least I did before the War Between the States. I haven’t seen my family in years. They’ll be mighty surprised when I show up with a woman, that’s for sure and for certain.”
    “It sounds like you loved it there. Why’d you leave?”
    His nostrils flared slightly and he jerked his head to the side before pulling the horse from the road and into the surrounding woods. “Quiet now. Someone’s coming.”
    Through the brush that hid us, a charcoal gray carriage with a two horse team rattled by, in a hurry for something. Minutes after they’d passed, Gable steered us to the road once again.
    “What if someone recognizes me in Liverpool?” My heart was only just slowing down its pounding rampage. Hiding would always bring back memories of that night in the fog.
    “You’ll have to keep your face down. Your lady will seep through your filthy dress from your posture and the angle of your chin. Slouch, look down, don’t meet anyone’s eyes, stay behind me. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
    I don’t know what it was that inspired my utter belief in his words. Maybe it was that he’d been so good at killing all those men without so much as a pistol in his hand. Or maybe it was his unerring confidence on what would happen and when. Whatever it was, I didn’t want to lose this belief that everything would work out somehow.
    Another cold chill ran through me at the thought of losing that confidence on a boat for six weeks all by myself. How would he keep me safe then?
    His eyes were narrowed and studying me. “What’re you worryin’ over now?”
    “Everything.”
    “Mmm. Well, stop. You’re going to spook the horse.”

Chapter Five
    Gable
     
    Northwich had a seedy underbelly like every town with any size to it did. That’s where we wanted.