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Page 37
Pittsborough? That was how Pierce had mispronounced the name.
Mariah looked about her and let out an involuntary gasp. Perhaps, she thought, I should have my head examined.
Where the Fort Pitt Museum should have been, there was a ditch, and beyond that, a jutting earthen embankment in the shape of the pointed museum walls. All the bridges had disappeared, and she couldn't see the tops of the tall skyscrapers. Across the river, the hills to which apartments and other structures had clung were covered with trees. A few log buildings huddled in the foreground.
Her light-headedness returning, Mariah forced herself to inhale and exhale slowly. The air smelled sweeter, fresher, with no evidence of car fumes.
She noticed the noise, thenor the lack of it. No vehicles thundered on roadways into and out of town. Instead, she heard a breeze rustling through the trees, and the songs of several birds. Dimly, she was aware of raised voices in the distance and the clumping of feet marching in unison.
She must be on location somewhere in a spot designed to resemble the Pittsburgh of long ago.
A lovely spot. A countrylike haven, full of classic charm. Welcoming, if she ignored the actors she'd encountered.
But a place whose appearance was more than enigmatic.
She looked around for her purse. It wasn't there. She always had her purse with her, with pen and paper for jotting down production notes. And where was her camera? Had she been robbed on top of everything else?
She took a few steps on the unpaved ground and nearly tripped in the coarse, laced boots she wore. The building constructed to represent the Blockhouse was certainly authentic-looking. Stumbling a little, her head spinning, she walked along the top of the ditch in the direction in which the men had gone. The trench was, she presumed, the moat she'd read about on the rampart plaque, but it was dry. Strange that Angela hadn't had it filled for authenticity. But maybe she'd do that only when it was time to film the scenes across from the fort.
Soon, near the river, Mariah came to an earthen barrier.

 
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