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Page 322
ent from reality. Matilda and her Thorn didn't have a happy ending, but that was because he . . . he died. Even though you won't fight in that dratted duel and that damned grievous wrong will finally be righted, I don't know whether I'll have a choice about staying."
The idea of losing her caused a wall of pain to slam him in the gut. He said slowly, "But you would stay if you had a choice?" He did not give her the opportunity to answer, for his mind focused on the rest of what she had said. "The duel. You believe I will not fight against Will Shepherd."
"You told me he was the boy who was stolen all those years ago, and that he blames you for his mother's death. You saved his life. You're even now. And besides, even if he still calls you out for a duel, you told me you wouldn't fight."
She looked at him sidelong beneath her lovely, long lashes. Her smile was bright. Perhaps too bright, for she seemed to know his reply before he spoke it.
"I only said I would fight no duel if I could avoid it." He kept his voice soft, and he watched his hands as he worked the cooling bullets within his fingers. "If he challenges me still, Mariah, I will fight."
"But you can avoid it! You shouldn'tyou can't"
"I let that boy be stolen. His mother's death resulted from that. If he wishes to fight with me, I will fight. But I will not hurt him."
He felt the stillness beside him. Mariah had stopped working. She even seemed to be holding her breath. "You'd let him kill you?" she finally asked, her voice barely audible.
"If that were what he wanted. But first, you and I will marry, so that if you should be with child, the babe will have a name."
She pushed off from the table so quickly that two of the molds fell off and top and bottom separated. The nearly set lead balls rolled along the floor.
"You damned primitive woodsman!" she shouted. "Go ahead and kill yourself, if that's what you want. That'll follow the screenplay. It won't right the cursed 'grievous wrong,' but I'll let Pierce worry about that. If I'm pregnant,

 
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