around the next curve. A man dropped to his knees beside her and slid his arms under her. He brushed her hair back from her face. “Are you all right?”
In her scrambled state, Alice was afraid for a second it was the fighting man and he was going to take a swing at her. She risked a look at this face.
Nate’s dark eyes stared into hers and his hand was gentle on her cheek. He must have jumped off the train right after I did.
“If I close my eyes, can I pretend nothing happened?” Alice asked.
She heard Nate’s low laughter. “That’s my job, finding a way to gloss this over.”
He helped her sit up and continued to kneel next to her. “Your dress...” he said, gesturing to a long tear starting from the hem and going halfway up her thigh.
Alice grabbed the edges of the fabric and held them together. Her rose-colored shift was destroyed. She just hoped the rest of it was still decent. Nate took a handkerchief from his suit pocket and dabbed at scratches on Alice’s neck and shoulder. “Superficial, but I bet they sting like crazy,” he said. He handed her the cloth. “Do you think anything is broken?”
“The heel off one of my shoes,” she said as she glanced down and realized her favorite pumps were ruined, “and my personal pride will never be the same.”
“First time jumping off a train?” he asked.
She nodded and found a smile, despite the unexpected twist of the themed wedding.
“We’re not alone,” Nate said. One of the fighting men was walking toward them along the tracks. Nate stood and put himself between Alice and the stranger.
“Stop right there,” Nate said. “The police will be here in just a minute, and I will personally make sure you answer for this.”
Nate took off his suit jacket and handed it behind him to Alice. “Use my phone and call Henry to let him know what’s coming on the train.”
Alice found his phone in the pocket of his coat, which was still warm and smelled like Nate—a damp forest smell that reminded her he loved the outdoors. A memory of a camping trip they’d gone on flashed over her. As they’d sat by a fire watching the flames, he’d shared some of his grief over his mother’s passing and she’d felt as if she really knew him for the first time. But when the campfire died, he was back to pretending he was fine.
Alice pushed aside the memory and called Henry. She gave him a quick warning and told him to make sure the Starlight Point police officers knew the description of the person they were looking for.
Alice struggled to her feet and swayed a little. She put a hand to her forehead, reminding herself to take a deep breath and assess the actual damage. Nate slid an arm around her and held her against his chest while he kept an eye on the other man. He didn’t look at her, just held her as if she were a pillow or a bag of groceries.
Two Starlight Point police officers came through the trees and bushes separating the train tracks from the rear parking lot of the Lake Breeze Hotel.
“There’s your man,” Nate said. The officers walked over to the assailant. The fight had apparently gone out of him with his wild swing and fall from the train. His shoulders slumped and he kept his hands up in surrender. One of the officers cuffed him anyway.
“Got two cars in the hotel lot. I’ll take him to the station,” an officer said. “You two can ride in the other car and we’ll write up the report.”
Nate bent to pick up his suitcoat from the ground. One of the sleeves was torn. He put the coat over Alice’s shoulders.
“I’m not cold,” she protested.
“You need to look decent in case anyone’s watching.”
Despite his cool tone, he kept an arm around her as they picked through the bushes and trees to the waiting police cars.
Nate held open the front passenger side door of the police car and closed it after Alice got in. She took Nate’s coat and laid it across her lap to cover the lengthy exposure of leg under her ripped dress. It was bad enough Nate had seen it; she didn’t want to feel exposed and vulnerable in front of anyone else, especially the cop, who was several years younger than she was.
After he got in the back seat, Nate leaned forward. “If any cell phone video of that fracas emerges on social media, I’m going to claim it was staged to make an authentic Wild West–themed wedding train even more exciting.”
Alice laughed, amused and horrified at the same time.
The young police officer got in the driver’s seat. “Do you two need medical attention? I could run you past first aid on the way to the police station.”
“I’m fine,” Nate said from the back seat, “but Alice may need someone to take a look at her.”
She shook her head. “I’m fine. I’d like to get back to the wedding.”
The officer raised an eyebrow. Of course she’d get cleaned up and changed first. She knew she probably didn’t look anywhere close to being presentable. “Might be a while,” he said. “I heard on the radio they’re bringing in a man and a woman they picked off the train at the Wonderful West station. Might be a lovers’ spat we have to sort out and decide who’s pressing charges where.”
“A crime of passion,” Nate said softly from the back seat. “Those make good stories, just not what we need at Starlight Point.”
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