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Claudia was known for many things, but a cool head and a penchant for well thought-out decision making were not among them. There was the time she dressed down the Mayor in public for spending an amorous night in the company of Liza, the Rusty Gear's resident Lady of the Night, and stiffing her...

Claudia had never considered herself to be particularly brave, though her steely resolve (not to mention her impulsiveness) sometimes came across that way. It was resolution, not bravery, that saw her flee family, comfort and respectability in Boston. It was her conviction that no one should...

Claudia raised an eyebrow and allowed her gaze to travel over first one man then the other, unsure which looked most likely to keel over on the spot. It certainly has been a day of surprises, she thought, and it's not even noon yet. Nick and Billy both turned to her, obviously awaiting her...

Claudia took Nick's proffered hand--by now she was unable to control the shaking of her own--and slid down from the horse, her knees buckling slightly as she hit the ground. "Son of a bitch," she murmured, wrapping an arm around her stomach and breathing deeply to try to slow her heartbeat...

Claudia felt the blood drain from her face as she watched what was left of Sheriff Milton shoveled onto a stretcher. She'd seen plenty of gunshot wounds, plenty of limbs crushed under horses, the odd finger taken clean off by a careless encounter with heavy machinery. She'd blotted and bandaged...

Riding side-saddle behind someone else was terribly awkward, and Claudia dearly wished Nick would just loan her the horse while she took care of this little...issue. And not just because of the riding arrangements, either. But she supposed it was a bit much to ask a stranger to let her ride off...

Late at night when Edgar detected some unusual sound--a settling of the floorboards or a scurrying outside--he sat up, body rigid, ears pricked, every spring taut as he prepared to defend his home and his mistress from danger. Claudia felt that same sort of alert tightening in her own body as...

"Well he didn't know," Claudia said, taking Edgar in her arms and gently nuzzling his face with her cheek, "until you told him." She narrowed her eyes at Tinka but couldn't keep the corners of her mouth from turning up in a smile. She let her gaze travel over the stranger as she decided just...

The pounding reverberated through the wooden door, the smaller bits of machinery and Claudia's head, still a bit achy from lack of sleep. Tinka was face-first in a box of parts, muttering to herself, so with a slight wince at the continued banging Claudia made her way back to the door. Everyone...

Claudia ran an index finger absentmindedly down the stack of the toy train. "Well," she said, pretending to be occupied with swirling the sticky granules of fairy floss residue between her fingers, "I thought about asking Uncle Buck, but I'm not sure he'd be eager to lend me a horse...on...

Claudia had long ago discovered the joys of heavy curtains for a girl who worked nights. Unfortunately even heavy curtains don't do much good when you forget to close them, so Claudia woke still drowsy, grumbling at the sun, with whale bones cutting into her side after only a couple hours of...

Claudia gave her friend a good-natured eye roll and reached out to squeeze her hand. "All right, all right. I'll try to be more like you and less like me...at least until the sun comes up." She slid off her chair and stretched both arms overhead, feeling the tension of a long night's work...

The look from Tinka was the only thing that kept Claudia in her seat. She was a dear friend, her only true friend West of the Mississippi unless you counted an obsolete mechanical cat held together with a hope, a prayer and Tinka's screwdriver. And Tinka had stood between her and the...

Claudia snorted. "You know I don't have friends," she said with a wink. "These two are on their own." She turned a cold, appraising eye on the man in the cream suit. Anti-Sanguinist, she thought. Might have known. The sight of his badge, and particularly the way he flashed it...

Thank God for Tinka, Claudia thought, watching as her friend fiddled with keys for the two strangers. She threw her hands in the air and shot Tinka a look that said, "Can you believe this?" One who'll likely bleed to death by morning and another who's likely to be a pain in my ass until he gets...

Claudia was not having this. She was not having any of it. "CHRIST ALMIGHTY!" she shouted at the smartly dressed dandy waving a paper in front of her face. "Do you not see I'm trying to save a man's life here? It's the middle of the bloody night! We're CLOSED, for fuck's sake. So you can...

Claudia's hand went automatically to the small revolver tucked into her garter. She was no fool--anyone stumbling into a closed saloon in the darkest hour of the night in this lonely, wind-swept place was unlikely to be possessed of a noble purpose. She jumped to her feet, shivering (from the...

Claudia sank into a chair with a quiet groan, crumpling into poof of emerald satin and black tulle that threatened to swallow her. She propped her boots on the table, dropped her head back and closed her eyes. Her feet were tired. Her back ached. She thought the muscles in her face might never...

Genevieve turned away for a moment, afraid she might be sick as Blott's bird pecked at Trent's wounds. Despite all she had seen, the gypsy never could get over her weak stomach. She raised a hand to cover her mouth and willed herself not to think about it. The sounds of the crow fluttering back...

Genevieve beamed at Fitz and swept into a grand curtsy. "Nothing would give me greater pleasure, Altamonte Fitzgerald," she said with a wink. Several red petals from the dahlia tucked behind her ear fluttered to the ground and landed at her feet. "I'll have to find something to wear. I'm not...