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doing?’
    Victoria sputtered and yanked at Alex’s sleeve. Alex rolled out of her grasp.
    â€˜I think he’s making cheese.’
    â€˜Leave me be,’ Alex snapped when Victoria kept coming for her.
    â€˜I mean it, Alexandra Barratt, you get those clothes off this instant.’
    â€˜We have to find a wagon and a group to join, you madwoman,’ Alex shrieked, as Victoria pulled on the straps of her overalls. ‘You don’t honestly think people are going to do business with two women?’
    â€˜We have Adam.’
    â€˜The moon is made of cheese.’ Adam’s dreamy voice stopped Victoria in her tracks. As Alex watched, the anger drained from her face and she slid to the bed, the battered hat dropping from her fingers.
    â€˜It’s the only way, Vicky,’ Alex said carefully, bending to retrieve the hat. ‘The Gradys will be looking for a man and two women. We didn’t use our names when we checked into the hotel, and I told that man down there that our name was Alexander. There’s no reason they’ll ever find us.’
    â€˜What if they see us?’
    â€˜If they see you, just tell them you haven’t seen me since the night of the fire. They’ll think I ran off with the money.’
    â€˜That doesn’t explain why Adam and I are heading out west,’ Victoria said sourly.
    â€˜Sure it does. Our home is burned to the ground, you have very little money, and you have a brother in Oregon. Where else would you go?’
    â€˜Oh Alex, why is this happening to us?’
    Alex’s heart ached to see her sister’s despair. If she had those Gradys here, in front of her, she would kill them with her bare hands, just see if she wouldn’t.
    â€˜Stop worrying and go to sleep,’ she soothed, even as she enjoyed her murderous fancies. ‘Everything will seem better in the morning.’
    â€˜You keep saying that,’ Victoria grumbled, ‘but it never does.’
    Alex heard the clang of tin in the courtyard and moved to the window. Below, in the silver moonlight, she could see Luke Slater emptying his bath. She couldn’t believe he could lift it – filled with water it must weigh as much as he did.
    Even fully dressed he looked magnificent.
    â€˜You’re blocking the moon,’ Adam complained, and reluctantly she tore her gaze away and left the window.
    He’d said there was room in his travelling party, she mused dreamily, indulging in fantasies of spending months at his side. Then she caught sight of her reflection in the mirror. Alex wasn’t usually vain, but right then she wished with all her heart that she hadn’t cut off her beautiful hair. She scowled at the scruffy boy in the mirror, and he scowled right back at her.

Five
    Luke was a reasonable man. He didn’t pick fights. But neither did he back down from them.
    â€˜Who are you calling a cheat?’ he asked calmly, holding the stranger’s gaze.
    The man and his brother had been losing steadily to Luke. The more they lost, the more they drank. The higher the neat stacks of bills and coins in front of Luke grew, the blacker their scowls became. Luke had guessed they’d be trouble almost from the moment he sat down. He kept trying to catch Dolly’s eye, hoping one of her girls would be available and he’d have an excuse to fold the game, but she was rushed off her feet all night.
    â€˜No honest man wins eight games in a row.’
    â€˜I believe Mr O’Brien won the hand before last,’ Luke corrected, careful to keep his voice neutral.
    Ned O’Brien, a bookish, buttoned-up easterner, shifted nervously in his seat.
    â€˜One hand,’ the man sneered, not sparing O’Brien a glance.
    â€˜Roll up your sleeves,’ his brother demanded, ‘so we can see what you’ve got stashed up there.’
    â€˜Don’t be a sore loser.’
    â€˜Loser!’
    Fortunately, Luke saw the punch coming and