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Page 291
bing her own habitat with the same vigor she used in the inn. The play was not beneath the bed. Among the bed clothes?
He found something under the mattress. Not the play, but the piece of paper he had tom from his ledger. On it was tiny writing, as though Mariah had tried to conserve its every inch, in the untidy hand he had seen before.
And several ink blots. He closed his eyes, forcing himself not to recollect the night he had tried to teach Mariah to avoid blotting.
He brought the paper beneath the window, into the waning light of day, to read what was upon it.
"My screenplay recollections," it said. "First were the river rats, though they were grungy" Thoro wondered at that word's meaning. "in the script and dressed like proper Revolutionary gentlemen in Pgh." Revolutionary? What did she mean? And ''Pgh"was that Pittsborough? "Matilda was a fool for going with such slime balls." That was a descriptive word, thought Thorn. "And I was tricked by their clothes and their mention of Pierce, the son of a"
She had not finished the phraseperhaps to save paper, for Mariah was not one to avoid cursing. Thorn again found his lips twisting in a bittersweet smile.
The page went on to mention him. "Matilda's Thorn appeared from nowhere and helped her; the real thing had to have his arm twistedor at least his rifle grabbed."
"Damn!" Thorn breathed aloud, forcing himself not to crush the fragile paper in his hand. Even here, he could not escape his own unreliability. It had followed him from England all the way to Fort Pitt, and to his own inn. He made himself swallow his pain and continue to read.
Mariah described Matilda's attack by wolves: "Again both Thorns came through, despite their differences in attitude." Next, an Indian at the inn: "Conflicts with the script; the real guy was definitely no ally of Thorn's."
At that point, Mariah had written: "Above happened already; following are to come." From that he could tell when she had written her notes. She next listed the incident in

 
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