If I specify a border & use just the 'top' as a horizontal rule with the idea to have it appear only on either side of a line of text, there isn't an option to do that or for the shading to knock-out the 'border' or have one in front of the other so it would be handy to be able to specify that one is on top of the other & the option to knock it out or a gap size. I've achieved the desired effect in the 2nd image with a white stroke but that doesn't work well if there is a 2nd line of text - as it starts to white out the top line & then you can't get enough of a gap between the first & last words on that line.