Amanda's aversion to guns aside, having a six-shooter on your hip can be a good deterrent to eager gentlemen. Kate's freer with her smiles out here, but they're sharper and deadlier, full of barbs and the sinful whisper of danger. Some men like that.

Most don't.

She turns to offer her sympathies to the other woman, mouth hitching.



How — ?



She blinks, uncomfortably thrown off-guard for the longest half-second of her life, before gasping the familiar appellation.

"Miss Amanda?"