Chapter 4

He checked the view from the window as soon as he entered her bedroom, drawing his gun to examine the angle of the shot. Eliza was left to wonder if he planned to keep a vigil in the room, shooting Corbett on sight, but she didn’t ask for clarification.

“John will be up in a moment with your hot water. There’s a mirror”—she pointed to the small, oval-shaped mirror on the wall—”if you want to shave.”

Ford stood in the middle of the room, looking impossibly tall. Everything seemed to shrink around him as he dominated the space, made it his own, pushed her aside. Eliza swallowed hard, backing out of the room as gracefully and quickly as she could. “If you need anything else, just call…”

He nodded, already pulling the suspenders from his shoulders. Dust billowed around him. She realized that he might look like a completely different man when he emerged from her bedroom, freshly shaven, in her husband’s old clothes.