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Page 337
She was furious with him for not listening to reason.
But she couldn't let him die.
Mariah looked up, praying for a miracle, but she didn't find it in the weather. Though clouds still scudded across the sky, a brilliant blue shone between them. Dampness hung in the air in the mud-lined spot where the rivers met at the Point, but the heavens no longer wept.
And Mariahhow could she keep herself from needing to cry, much too soon?
She tried to recall something, anything, from the screenplay to use to keep Will from proceeding with this travesty. "Will, what if I told you that, if you kill Thorn now, your soldiering career will be over?"
That hadn't been clear from the script, for the story ended right after the duel. It had been implied, however.
"It won't. Ainsley said he would protect me, if necessary. And others will understand, too, that I have to avenge my mother."
Ainsley again.
As if he'd heard her, he appeared in the distance with Thorn, on the path along the Monongahela. He carried a rectangular wooden box.
It had to contain Thorn's weapons of choice.
Why hadn't Will been there to observe the selection? He couldn't trust Thorn to pick something satisfactory.
Did he trust Ainsley?
But Ainsley was Thorn's friend.
She watched silently for minutes that passed in an instant as the two men hurried forward, proceeding much more quickly than she had done with Will.
Coming here, toward the Point. Toward the inevitable duel.
Mariah grasped for something to stop it, finally recalling what Will had last said. "How, Billy? How can Ainsley protect you?" She knew she sounded desperate now.
"He will make certain the captain understands. He has influence, you see."
"If he has so much influence," Mariah asked, "why is it he is only a sergeant?"

 
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