“But it will still be dangerous. People might die, innocent ones. I’ll try my best to keep them from harm, and I firmly believe I have a better chance against Miles than the constables would. I realize that you are studying to be an attorney and a judge, and that your training mandates you should go to the authorities. Considering my plans, and my promises, will you refrain and help me instead?”

“Yes.”

Harmony, he thought. She trusts me. Too much, probably. He reached up, squaring off a box of notes. “This is your part.”

“I won’t be in the train car with you?” She sounded worried.

“No,” Waxillium said. “You and Wayne will watch from the hilltop.”

“You’ll be alone.”

“I will.”

She fell silent. “You knew what I was thinking of you. What are you thinking of me, Lord Waxillium?”

He smiled. “If the game is to work the same way, I can’t tell you my thoughts. You need to guess them.”

“You are thinking about how young I am,” she said. “And you’re worried about having me involved, lest I be hurt.”

“Hardly a difficult guess. So far, I’ve given you what… three opportunities to abandon this course and seek safety?”

“You’re also thinking,” she said, “that you’re glad I insist on staying, because I will be useful. Life has taught you to use the resources you have.”

“Better,” he said.

“You think I’m clever, as you have stated. But you also worry that I get flustered too easily, and worry it will be used against you.”

“Do those records you’ve read talk about Paclo the Dusty?”

“Sure. He was one of your deputies before you met Wayne.”

“He was a good friend,” Waxillium said. “And a solid lawman. But I’ve never met a man who was as easy to startle as Paclo. A softly closed door could make him yelp.”

She frowned.

“I assume the records didn’t talk about that,” Waxillium said.

“They depict him as very brave.”

“He was brave, Lady Marasi. You see, many people mistake startlement for cowardice. Yes, a gunshot would make Paclo jump. Then he’d run to see what had caused it. I once saw him stare down six men with guns trained on him, and he didn’t break a sweat.”

He turned to her. “You are inexperienced. So was I, once. So is every man. The measure of a person is not how much they have lived. It is not how easily they jump at a noise or how quick they are to show emotion. It’s in how they make use of what life has shown them.”

Her blush deepened. “I’m also thinking that you like to lecture.”

“It comes with the lawman’s badge.”

“You don’t… wear that anymore.”

“A man can take it off, Lady Marasi. But he can never stop wearing it.”

He met her gaze. She looked up with eyes that were deep, reflective, like the water of an unexpected spring in the Roughs. He steeled himself. He would be bad for her. Very bad. He’d thought the same of Lessie, and he had been right.