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Page 82
her legs straight while the ache in her knees subsided. She clasped her hands together.
Somehow, impossibly, she was trapped in the past.
But why?
Oh, yes. How could she have forgotten, even for a moment, those awful words that had haunted her forever? The words Pierce had thrown at her as he'd bewitched her and sent her back to the past. "You must right a grievous wrong."
What did it mean? She still didn't know.
Pierce had added two more words that made the command even more unnerving: "my daughter." Was she related to that horrible man who'd put her into this predicament?
And if he'd done this on purpose, why hadn't he written the screenplay so it would follow real life here?
Why was this Thorn so different?
She took a deep breath to calm herself, though she heard the quiver as she exhaled. The cool evening air smelled clean, fresh. Her chest muscles remained so taut that she kept shuddering. But she knew she'd do herself no good if she gave in to hysterics. She'd force herself somehow to be patient, to see what happened. To manage her life here as best she could. It shouldn't be too difficult, if she recalled the episodes in the screenplay.
Of course, even if her memory were perfectwhich it wasn'tshe had learned already that things here didn't follow the script exactly. Plus, the screenplay, as all screenplays, had been a series of connected scenes, not a moment-by-moment replica of its characters' lives. A lot went on here that wasn't contemplated by the sketchy writing.
Still, since some things happened as written, whatever she recalled would help her survive. Maybe she'd even discover a way to leave this primitive time and return to her own.
She'd left the paper, pen and ink in the kitchen, darn it! Well, she'd caught her breath. She was calmer nowat least a little. She'd get those objects, then go back to her room and jot down all she could recall.
Except, after she rose and started back in the direction in

 
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