Rebecca’s reaction to this was peculiar, to say the least. She reared back, looking almost panicked. She was the one so good with words, but now she was stammering and stumbling like her tongue was tangled up.

“I think you’re supposed to say you love me too,” he said finally. “Just so you know, for next time.”

“I do,” she said, her cheeks bright with embarrassment. “I do love you.” She said it quick, but it was still too late.

After an awkward silence, Han cleared his throat. “So, Rebecca,” he said, “what’s your story? Why did you disappear from Oden’s Ford? And who were those riders and why were they after you? Was it because you saw them murder Captain Byrne and they didn’t want you telling tales?”

Rebecca took a deep breath, seeming to brace herself. “Micah Bayar kidnapped me from Oden’s Ford,” she said. “He said he’d kill me if I didn’t go along.”

“Bayar,” Han murmured. It confirmed what he had suspected all along. “I knew it. Do you…did it have to do with the fact that we’d been walking out?”

Rebecca shook her head, looking surprised. “No. It’s…it’s a long story, but it’s something between me and Micah. Nothing to do with you.”

“Something between you and Bayar?” Rebecca nodded. Han didn’t much like that. “Then who were the riders who came after you?”

“They were renegade members of the Queen’s Guard,” she said. “One of them, at least, you know. Sergeant Gillen.”

Han frowned, puzzled. “I don’t remember seeing Gillen.…”

“I killed him myself,” she said. “When I escaped from them the first time.”

Right. They’d said as much, there in the canyon. He’d known she had starch—he’d known it since she’d rescued the Raggers from the Southbridge Guardhouse. But still.

“I was the one they were really after,” Rebecca went on. “They killed Captain Byrne—they killed everyone to get to me.”

“Why would they be after you?” Han said, mystified. “I mean, they went to a lot of trouble, didn’t they? There couldn’t be much swag in it. They didn’t even spoil the bodies, not that I could tell.”

“My real name is not Rebecca Morley,” she said, lifting her chin and looking him straight in the eye, almost defiantly. “The first time I ever used that name was the day we met, at Southbridge Temple. I had gone down there to see Speaker Jemson about providing funds for his ministry. Amon—Corporal Byrne—suggested that if I were going to walk through Ragmarket and Southbridge, I should do so in disguise.”

Han was a long step behind. “You were going to give money to the Temple School? Since when does a tutor make that kind of iron?”

“I lied to you when I told you I was a tutor,” Rebecca said.