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"Left here, fool!" Samuel shouted eventually from the front. "Do you not see that sandbar?" |
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Mariah was startled from her nearly somnolent state. Till then, Samuel and John had been unfailingly polite, not only to her but also to each other. |
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But there was something more. Samuel's words had been familiar. |
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Mariah had read them in Josiah Pierce's screenplay. |
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"I see nothing from back here," John grumbled. "Let me take the lead." |
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They switched places, rocking the boat so violently that Mariah was afraid they'd capsize. But her fear resulted from more than a concern about being dunked. |
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She'd recalled a scene in the script. In it, the Matilda character had arrived in Fort Pitt-era Pittsburgh from the east and had to go down the Ohio River to meet a relative who waited for her. She'd met Porter, who'd spoken those terrifying words to herwords Mariah had heard from Pierce: "You must right a grievous wrong." |
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But Pierce had added the strange twist of "my daughter," and Porter hadn't. Matilda had bought passage from a couple of men heading downriver. But the men had turned out to be ruffians, and they had attacked her. |
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Mariah's situation was, of course, different. Matilda's men had been described as common, trappers, perhaps. Roughlooking. Nevertheless, foolishly, she'd hired them. |
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John and Samuel, well dressed, seemingly cultured men, had claimed to have been asked by Pierce to take her to him. She hadn't remembered Matilda's predicament in the screenplay when she'd agreed to go with them, and even if she had, she wouldn't have equated Matilda's coarse attackers with these men. |
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But they no longer appeared so genteel. Their neat clothing was rumpled and sweat-stained. They'd stopped acting polite. |
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Were they about to attack her, just as Matilda had been set upon in the script? |
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Mariah wasn't sure why. If her purse was in the bags, John and Samuel could have stolen it before Mariah even knew |
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