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Page 129
it herself after stoking the fire, drawing water from the stream.
Then, if she wanted breakfastwhich she rarely did at homethere would be mush. Or porridge, as they called it here.
As to facilities, she'd made the acquaintance of the outhouse and had gotten used to holding her breath upon entering.
The one thing she hadn't found a substitute for yet was a shower. She'd made good use of the washbasin. But maybe she could bathe in the stream sometime when she went for water.
Not now, though. After her experience with the Indian the day before, she couldn't imagine going to the stream alone again. She most certainly didn't want René as an audience. Or Thorn.
Definitely not Thorn.
Although she wondered what he would look like
Ridiculous. Turning her thoughts in a less dangerous direction, she smiled as she realized that she didn't have to wear that same pink dress that day. She took the clean brown one from the clothes tree and put it on. it fit perfectly.
Why wasn't she surprised? That interfering twit Pierce had thought of everything.
But how had he known her size?
And where was he? If the fiver rats hadn't lied, Pierce was somewhere here, in the past. If she ever met up with him again, she'd have the truth from him about why she was here. She'd wring his ancient, scrawny neck to get it, if she had to.
She put on an apron and glanced down. She even looked like a serving wench. Mariah checked her notes from the night before, placed everything carefully beneath the mattress, stuffed a handkerchief into her pocket and left the room.
One good thing about being here, she thought as she hurried past the stabled horses a short while later, was that she didn't have to worry about makeup. Even if she had some, she probably wouldn't dare put it on. Weren't the only

 
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