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Page 25
Matilda bought downriver passage from some ruffians who later attempted to assault her. She swam ashore, only to be followed. In a scene Mariah could envision enticingly well, Thorn appeared silently from the woods. He chased off the villains with a hard stareand his well-aimed rifle.
He was a strong, heroic man. Mariah pictured him as tall, broad-shouldered in buckskins, with eyes that reflected his inner pain. She couldn't even imagine what actor could play the role. Alec Baldwin? Mel Gibson?
Unsurprisingly, Matilda and Thorn fell in love. Though Thorn remained anguished by his faults, he was always there when Matilda needed him. Steadfast.
Reliable.
Oh, yes. Mariah realized that this fantasy character displayed the traits of the only kind of man who would appeal to her.
One who existed, of course, only in the movies.
Mariah had learned her lesson well over the years: not to rely on men. First and foremost, there had been her father. And then, just after graduating from college, she'd fancied herself in love with a handsome young doctor.
Doctors were surely reliable, she'd imagined, when she'd become engaged to him. But she'd caught hers being relied upon for more than medicine by a female patient.
"Well," said Angela, interrupting her thoughts, "we'll consider letting your hero survive, though we may have to fight with our writer to allow it. Meantime, stop drooling and get some sleep. Keep an eye out for wonderful shooting spots tomorrow. Think about schedules, budgets, the works. If this is as good as you say it is, we'll want to snap up the screenplay and get into production as soon as possible."
"As soon as possible" in the film industry still meant months. Maybe years. But this was a project that Mariah wanted to be associated with as much as she wanted to eat, to breathe . . . to find a home.
"Good night, Angela," Mariah said. "And thanks."

She felt less like thanking her boss the next morning when Pierce knocked on her hotel-room door at seven thirty.

 
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