GALLANT (The Innerworld Affairs Series, Book 3) by Marilyn Campbell Page B

southeastern part of the United States. After that, I hitched my way across the country."
    While she told him of that journey, the places she saw, people she met, their game continued. Occasionally he would stop her with a question then encourage her to continue.
    Several hours later, they had each won two games and Cherry was getting hoarse from talking. She was fairly sure she had touched on every aspect of life in the United States as well as her personal history.
    "We have to play one more game to break the tie," Gallant told her. "I think you're ready for a wager."
    "Now you want to make a bet?"
    He grinned at her. "I didn't want to take advantage—"
    "Ha! Where have I heard that before?"
    "Well, we do seem to be evenly matched now."
    "Okay. How much?"
    "Not credits. I don't take promise payments."
    Cherry narrowed her brows at him as she drew her own conclusion about what he was leading up to, but she wanted to hear him say it out loud before she told him off.
    Gallant's instincts still told him that sharing confidences was the quickest route to establishing a bond between them. By telling her about his mission, he had already told her more than he should have. Now it was her turn. Unfortunately, she was a very open person. Her childhood had been the only subject she seemed somewhat secretive about, so he honed in on that. "If I win," he said slowly, "you tell me about the first half of your life. I noticed that you carefully avoided talking about those years."
    That was far from the forfeit she had expected him to demand. With a shrug she said, "Only because there's nothing interesting to tell." She considered her chances of winning rather than losing. "Okay, and if I win, you explain why you wear that patch over your eye."
    He hesitated only a second before nodding his agreement and passing her the cubes. As she made her initial toss, his fingers casually closed over the front edges of his vest and slid downward. A moment later his special set of cubes was in his left palm, ready to be exchanged for the honest ones on the table. She was going to share a confidence with him even if he had to cheat to force it out of her.
    Cherry was amazed at how quickly he won the final game. The odds against rolling three quads of different colors on three initial throws had to be astronomical but Gallant hardly blinked over his unusual good luck.
    As agreed, Cherry told him the tale of her dismal youth and described the ramshackle farm she had grown up on. "My parents truly believed that it was God's will that they have ten children and spend their lives struggling to exist. If Pa had put as much effort into that farm as he did trying to beat the devil out of us kids, we might have been fairly well off."
    Cherry's voice retained its joking quality in spite of the bitterness her words suggested.
    "You were beaten by your own father?" Gallant asked with surprise.
    Cherry waved her hand at him. "Oh, it was no big deal. Outerworld Earth is a far cry from Norona and Innerworld, you know. Lots of parents treat their kids worse than mine did. Anyway, I turned out okay." Smiling, she winked at him and added, "As long as I always get to be the center of attention."
    Gallant tried to return her smile but her light-hearted attitude failed to hide the pain he sensed beneath it. He had known only love and kindness from the Noronian couple who had raised him and experienced only comfort in their home. Cherry's story made him remember how very different his life would have been had someone not tampered with it.
    Though it would have been more comfortable to change the subject, his perverse emotions made him ask for more. "Don't you miss your brothers and sisters? Even with so many, there must have been at least one you were close to."
    Cherry started to give him another flip answer but something about the way he was looking at her cut it off. She was always the one who cheered up everyone else, quickly shrugging off any offer of sympathy in