I HAD THOUGHT the Blind Widow Woman would be one of my best disguises. It transpired it was my worst.

I was sitting in the Territorial Legislature on a podium beside the Governor in view of all of Carson City. My sock bosoms had migrated north. My corset made it hard to breathe.

Now I had spotted the man I had come to shadow, and he was looking right back at me.

Beside me, Governor James W. Nye was describing the glorious victories of the Union against the “miserable and treasonous” Confederate Rebels. He used so many big words that I did not understand half of it. But I guess other people did, for three spectators left the gallery, stomping out one after another, each slamming the door loudly behind. I guessed they were Southerners who objected to Nye calling their side “treasonous.”

Although Jace was also a Southerner, he did not leave. Instead, he started to move forward. Unlike me, Jace has a way with people. The throng of those standing at the back melted before him like shadows in sunshine, without murmur or protest. I noticed some of the women in the crowd looking at him. Women always look at Jace.

The Governor had moved on to the topic of a Famous New Railroad.

“With the construction of a transcontinental railroad,” he proclaimed, “a new era dawns upon the commercial history of the world.”

Jace emerged at the front of the crowd & stood right up against the waist-high rail that divided the people from the legislators. Tall & slim with broad shoulders and narrow hips, he was dressed as usual in speckless black trowsers & a black frock coat. For once he was not wearing his favorite flat-crowned black hat and I could see his dark hair was longer than usual.

Now the Governor was talking about Toll Roads. This caused an excited buzz in the gallery.

Jace seemed unmoved, and as always, his face showed no expression. But because he was not wearing his hat, I could see his dark eyes looking straight at me.

Had he seen through my disguise?

I tried to imagine what I might look like to Jace: a slender, sallow-complected young widow woman in a black bombazine dress, holding a shawl about her upper person, with blue spectacles & black ringlets beneath a black poke bonnet, sitting very still & straight with her feet unmoving beneath her hoopskirt & her white cane leaning against the side of the table.

Now the Governor was talking about Corporations.

“In the last session of our Legislature,” cried the Governor, “an effort was made to enact a law under which Corporations could be created within our Territory. This effort was unsuccessful.”

This statement caused angry murmurs from the spectators.

As I gazed at Jace through the tunnel of my poke bonnet I saw him turn to look down at a woman beside him. She had slipped her lace-gloved hand through his arm and was smiling up at him. She was petite, with a wasp waist & a puffy dress & a tall bonnet that did not hide her pretty face but framed it. Even through my blue-tinted spectacles I could see her long eyelashes and pouty mouth.

As I watched, the woman in the puffy skirt tugged Jace’s arm and he inclined his head to hear her better. I ought to have been relieved that he was not looking at me anymore but I felt an uneasy prickling of the little hairs on the back of my neck.

Jace was still leaning down to listen to the petite woman in the tall bonnet. Suddenly she caught his black cravat & pulled his head even farther down & turned his face with a lace-gloved hand. Everybody was facing our way so I reckon those of us at the table were about the only ones who saw the Lady in the tall bonnet kiss Jace full on the lips.

Opal Blossom had been right! Jace was Playing her False, and with a wasp-waisted beauty in a lighthouse bonnet! I felt dizzy.

“Corporations should be formed,” said the Governor, “in a way that will secure a successful development of our resources and the profitable working of our mines.”

Without moving my head, I let my eyes slide sideways to look at the Governor’s speech. He had been talking for nearly a half hour and he was hardly a sixth of the way through it!

I slid my eyes back to Jace. The Lady was still kissing him.

Now I felt sick as well as dizzy.

Dang this blinkering, muffling bonnet & wig!

Dang these lumpy, migrating socks!

Dang this pinching corset!

All of a sudden, the big, crowded, smoky room sped away from me like a runaway stagecoach until finally it overturned & the Governor’s voice faded & everything got blacker than the inside of a buffalo on a moonless prairie night.