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"Mariah," he repeated, the word as soft as a caress from his lips. She was glad that, this time, he did not turn back as he strode away. |
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Sighing, she returned to her work. |
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She still couldn't keep her thoughts from returning to the Indian attack. |
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She didn't belong in this time. Muggings and carjackings and drive-by shootingsthose were dangers she understood. |
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She finished washing René's shirts, keeping her eyes resolutely turned away from the stack of Thorn's washing on the ground beside her. She'd get to his stuff when she got to it, and not a moment before. |
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But as soon as she'd wrung out the last of René's shirts and hung it, dripping, from a tree limb, she dipped out some of the now-tepid water, retrieved more from the fire, on which she'd set fresh water to boil, then knelt again by the washbasin. |
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Her knees were rough and sore, and her joints ached with the unaccustomed bending and kneeling, but she was determined to finish the task. After all, hadn't she asked Thorn for his dirty laundry? |
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The stack consisted of four long pullover shirts: two ecru, one white and one a faded brown. The shirts were larger than René's, sewn of sturdy, woven cotton or flax, some material as natural and outdoorsy as Thorn. They appeared rugged, able to bear up under hard use, and they smelled of leather and smoke and the masculine scent she'd noticed before that was Thorn's own. |
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Mariah got to work on them. Her poor, sore fingers tingled, but this time it wasn't only from the heat of the water. Instead, she was affected by the intimacy of handling Thorn's clothing. |
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She hadn't had the same sense with René's shirts and was certain that laundry employees of her time didn't have such feelings. |
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She hurried, eager to complete the task, to rid her hands of Thorn's soft but substantial garments, to rid her mind of her absurd thoughts. These weren't the screenplay Thorn's |
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