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Page 356
Or was he Pierce, the man Mariah had been speaking of since the time she had come to his inn?
If her story were to be believedand he had, amazingly, come to believe itthe man had brought her here from the past. "To right a grievous wrong," she'd said. She thought it was the duel she had foretold between Will and himself. The one that had nearly come to pass.
The episode that had resulted in Ainsley's death.
"Damn it, man," he spoke aloud, wondering if the person he'd believed his friend could somehow hear him. "Why did you never tell me? Maybe I could have . . . " What? He didn't know.
But he'd have done all he could to prevent the horror that had occurred.
Now Ainsley was gone.
And so was Mariah. With that Pierce. Thorn had known, even as he had done it, that his search would be fruitless. Pierce had probably sent her back to her own time. Her purpose here had been accomplished.
Had she given any thought to remaining?
But why should she? She had told him of the wondrous conveniences of her time. Seeing a shadow on the muddy brown water, he looked into the sky as a golden eagle soared and dipped overhead. In Mariah's time, there would also be mechanical things she had called "airplanes" that carried people more swiftly than he could even imagine. There was indoor plumbing and instant cookery of packaged and purchased foodall that he could not ever hope to offer her here.
Not that he had tried. He had taken her to bed, foolishly declared his lovethen argued with her, when all she wished was to save his worthless hide.
He hadn't deserved her. And now she was gone.
Where was the stony barrier against pain he had built around himself? It had disappeared just when he needed it mostto help him live with the agony of losing Mariah.
Eventually, the current took him across from the pier he had built into the river. He rowed to it and tied up the pirogue.

 
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