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Premature, of coursebut she would fight for it. |
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Especially if the ending was changed. |
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Mariah saw no other pedestrians as they walked down the path on the left, though cars poured downtown from the roads surrounding the park. They reached a concrete wall with a weathered metal plaque embedded atop a pillar. Mariah stopped. A strange, prickly feeling tiptoed up her back. |
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The wall opened onto a flight of steps. At its base was a cleared area surrounded by a symmetrical brick wall built into a low hillside. A sign on the plaque proclaimed that she was viewing the remnants of original rampart walls from one of the five bastions of Fort Pitt. A drawbridge had been located here. |
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Mariah could not, from the abbreviated wall, imagine how Fort Pitt must have looked. Still, something seemed unnervingly familiar about this place. Why did she have a sense that this location was of immense importance to her? |
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"Shall we go on?" Pierce touched her elbow, and she blinked at him. For a moment, she'd forgotten him. |
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"Of course." Metallic clangs assaulted her ears as he led her between two tall flagstaffs, where ropes anchoring the flags slammed the poles in the growing breeze. The giant flags of the United States and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania snapped sharply, adding to the din. |
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Mariah found the dual bridges they reached next fascinating: Pierce and she passed beneath one long, rounded bridge over which automobiles rumbled, and at the same time crossed a paved bridge under it that spanned a small pond. |
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Though a couple of buildings to the left appealed to Mariah, Pierce led her to the right instead. They walked along the path closest to the Allegheny River, passing a broad lawn lined by a stand of trees. The breeze grew even stronger, whipping Mariah's hair into her eyes. She turned into it to blow her hair back from her face. |
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"This area would make a good site for filming the picture." Pierce's stern tone left no room for contradiction, but Mariah was dubious. It didn't have the atmosphere of an old fort. |
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They seemed to be the only visitors to the park that morn- |
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