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Page 194
Though her hair blew into her face, she had a wonderful view of Thorn without his being able to observe her in return. Kneeling in the base of the canoe, he was nearly as tall as she, seated on a slat. His chestnut-brown hair ruffled in an early morning breeze that seemed intensified by the speed at which he propelled the craft forward. The same breeze that carried away her words the few times she tried to speak.
He used a single paddle, dipping it into the water on first one side of the boat, then the other. His motions were graceful and regular, and she could see his muscles work beneath the loose beige shirt made of a coarse woolen fabric that she knew now, thanks to Holly, was called linsey-woolsey. Dampness appeared behind his broad neck and beneath his arms. The scenery along the river was outstanding: mountains covered by thick, rustling forests, from which now and then a family of deer or elk appeared to drink at the riverbank. But Mariah found herself staring mostly at Thorn's wide shoulders and strong back, telling herself that she didn't really want to touch him, to feel those straining muscles beneath her fingertips.
After a while, they rounded one more bend, and in the distance Mariah could make out the promontory between the two lesser rivers joining to form the mighty Ohio, with the first signs of civilization she noted on the trip: the earthen embankment rising above the town outside Fort Pitt.
And the Point. The spot where the fictional Thorn had lost his life.
Mariah hadn't realized she'd gasped aloud until Thorn turned around to stare at her. ''Are you well, Mariah?" he called.
"Sure," she said, the word catching in her throat. Fortunately, he wouldn't be called out in a duel here today. Too many things described in the screenplay hadn't yet happened.
Looking at the shoreline ahead, she recalled her reaction on first seeing the Pittsburgh of the twentieth century from the plane. She'd felt so attracted to the place, as though it were her long-sought home, her destiny.
Especially the Point.

 
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