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witch trials, superstition still had to be rampant. They might not bum what they didn't understand, but she didn't want to find out what they would do. |
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To change the subject, she said with a rueful smile, "I blew it again, didn't I? I got up too late to help you with breakfast." |
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"Blew?" The short Frenchman glanced toward the fire and the unlit candies on the wooden mantel shelf. |
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She was really making a mess of things this morning! "II mean, I made another mistake." |
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René shrugged his massive shoulders and gave his broad, toadlike grin. "It is nothing, mademoiselle. I am used to making the breakfast. But if you wish, you may redeem yourself. I saw yesterday there were gooseberries ripening near the stream. Come, you can gather them while I fish." |
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That sounded like funparticularly since René would be there. She'd no interest in wandering into the woods on her own. |
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As they walked across the compound, René carried a rope net fled to a wooden frame and a bucket. Mariah held a couple of empty buckets for the fruit. She stepped into the dark confines of the forest and began picking her way along the well-heaten path, over the undergrowth and between trees. There was no breeze that morning. The air was fresh and verdant, and she inhaled deeply, loving the smell. Surprisingly, loving this place. |
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If only she didn't feel so nervous about its dangers, she might believe she'd found somewhere she could call home. |
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She gave a quick, amazed shake of her head. Where had that thought come from? Give her someplace cosmopolitan in her own time, not this primitive, perilous backwood, despite its beauty. |
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She followed René, who made no effort to be silent in his tromping through the underbrush. When she heard a rustling off to one side, she stopped to listen, but the sound soon ceased without revealing the forest creature who'd made it. |
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Several birds began to warble, and Mariah found herself smiling at the cheerful songs. Surely there could be nothing |
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