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Page 30
ing. Strange, to see a site so empty that must once have been the busiest locale in the area. Wouldn't these waterways have been vital to the first settlers for transportation of goods and people?
Mariah chuckled to herself. Maybe she had a sense of history after all.
In a few minutes, they reached the point where the rivers met, a cobbled and concreted point of land. The fountain Mariah had noted before rose from a round pool, billowing spray all about in the heavy breeze. It was beautiful. But Mariah felt unbidden tears well in her eyes. This was the spot where Thorn, in the screenplay, had fought his duel. And had died.
"I don't suppose this area looked half so lovely in the era of Fort Pitt," she asserted, more to make conversation than because she cared. She cleared her throat, as though the raspiness in her voice was from stuffed sinuses and not emotion.
"Not at all," Pierce agreed. "The riverbanks were uneven and muddy, though a few ferry boat landings extended out a ways. The King's Garden was pretty at certain times of the year, though."
He must have spent a lot of time researching the history of this place, Mariah thought, to sound so definite.
They walked back along the other river, where modern concrete defined the bank. Mariah took hold of her emotions. Silly, for her to have felt so upset where the historic duel might not even really have been fought. Pierce might have placed it there for atmosphere.
She'd ask him someday.
Small pleasure boats zipped up and down the Monongahela, and a paddlewheeler plied its way upstream beneath the nearest bridge.
Bypassing an even older-looking, freestanding structure in the shape of a pentagon, Pierce led her to a brick building stuffed like a bunker beneath a roadway. "I'd like to see that," Mariah protested, pointing toward the more antiquelooking building.
"In time," Pierce said. A strange, wise smile appeared on his narrow face, revealing his yellowed teeth.

 
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