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should go find Thorn or René." She began to edge away. "I'm sure one of them" |
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Darting toward her suddenly, the man grabbed her by the hair and pulled. Pain hurtled through her, and she screamed. |
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A large hunting knife in his hand, his pulse racing like the Ohio in a spring thaw, Thorn leaped from the shadows beside his house and approached Nahtana. His long gun was tucked beneath his other arm. |
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He had been watching the encounter between Mariah and the Iroquois chief. The woman was either incredibly stupid or incredibly courageous. |
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Then again, she did not know Nahtana. Perhaps the Indians of her acquaintance were not the marauding murderers of his. |
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The Indian did stop, but Thorn was certain it was not because he had told him to. Instead, with a growl of words that Thorn did not understand, the Indian glanced about, as if weighing his options. Beneath his hands, Mariah appeared to go slack, as though wishing to slide away from the Indian, but Nahtana tightened his grip. Mariah cried out. |
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An answering pain pierced Thorn's mind, but be forbore from wincing, from making any sign that he was affected by the woman's suffering. To do anything else would give Nahtana an additional weapon against both of them. She'd be dead, too, if he tried to point his gun. |
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He knew why the Indian was thereto wage his personal battle against Thorn and his inn. The Iroquois conquered other Indians. They wished to claim this area as their own. |
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Nahtana had made it clear that Thorn's inn was an unwelcome intrusion, a toehold that, if permitted to remain, would give the encroaching British settlers confidence that they might find new homes in Indian territories. |
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Dragging Mariah by the hair, Nahtana edged toward the woods. He brandished a large hunting knife in his free hand. |
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A knife that, in the blink of an eye, he could plunge into Mariah Walker's chest. Or use to slit her throat. |
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