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Page 71
Now, the golden-haired woman named Mariah Walker entered from the kitchen with a tray, shuffling across the wooden floor with her dark boots. She was like no woman René had seen before, perhaps shameless, perhaps ignorant of what was proper. Her blond hair hung in loose waves at her shoulders, and she wore no cap. She was still dressed in the crumpled pink gown she had worn earlier that day. It clung as though it had shrunken when wet.
Ah, perhaps she intended to serve more than food! But that was not Thorn's purpose. Though René's employer had not intended at first to run an inn, now that he did, it would remain respectable. Thorn would allow nothing less.
Still, this Mademoiselle Walker was pretty, with her smooth, clear features, a petite, perfect nose, a rosy mouth to entice the most celibate of menthough such were seldom found here on the frontier. At least not by choice, though often, alas, by the lack of women. If only this one did not frown so much when she thought no one watched. Like now, when Thorn seemed attentive to the gabbing of their guest. But René saw him look beneath his lowered eyelids toward the woman. René knew Thorn well, but even he could not always interpret his thoughts.
"The settler problem must be solved," their guest insisted. He was a scout from the army, sent to find an area downriver where a new settlement was said to have been begun secretly.
This was good. Thorn was interested in visitors who spoke of the issues of the day. Sometimes, he even responded.
"Do they not know," continued the man, "that it is illegal to take lands farther west? Stupid as well. The Indians have been told there will be no more settlements, and they will enforce that edict even if we do not. It was for the safety of those in legal settlement areas that the law was enacted."
The woman said, "Then there is a law against moving west?"
The scout, whose weathered skin and squinty eyes bespoke a life outdoors, turned to her in surprise. "Do you mean, living out here, you have not heard of the Proclamation Line? The government established it near five years ago."
The woman turned nearly as pink as her dress. "II only

 
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