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To Mariah's dismay, Thorn did not immediately decline. Eventually, he agreed. |
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In a flurry of activity, Ainsley's men finished setting up the remaining spiked logs around the compound. Thorn had already made the gate, and they helped him hang it. |
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Mariah's fear grew as quickly as the palisade. She prayed the gate's bolt was sturdy enough to keep anyone out. |
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She wasn't pleased to find that few troops would be left behind, the most senior a corporal junior to Maitland named Whisby. |
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WillBillywould remain, too. That didn't provide Mariah with any more confidence. |
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Standing beside Holly and René behind the gate, clasping her poor, sore hands behind her back, Mariah watched with trepidation as Thorn left on horseback with the British soldiers. |
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He glanced back over his shoulder as he rode out, meeting her eye with his usual impassive look that didn't ease her fragile frame of mind. |
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"Good-bye," she whispered. |
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Did his lips move in his own good-bye to her? Or was she imagining it? |
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She went through her afternoon chores in a daze, starting at every noise she heard, forcing herself to laugh at her folly. She was here at the inn, after all. Matilda was kidnapped when she left its shelter. |
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She didn't even leave the palisade's confines for water at supper time. She sent soldiers instead, including Will. |
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She wasn't at all surprised when he and the others came tearing back through the wooden fence, terror in their eyes, as animal-like whoops followed them. With René and Holly, she tried to get the gate closed after them. Unsuccessfully. |
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In moments, the compound was filled with Indians. |
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