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"I am all right," came a thin voice behind him. "Do not stop on my account." |
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"Do we dare rest now?" Mariah asked, looking toward Thorn in the increasing light. |
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He shook his head, causing his nut-brown hair to catch on the shoulders of his Indian-style buckskin shirt. She'd noted the darkened tone of his skin before, but she'd known him too well to mistake him for an Indian. Maybe his disguise had bought him a few precious seconds with her kidnappers, though. |
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"I know of an area near the fiver not far from here," he said. Though there were wrinkles at the comers of his brown eyes and a grim set to his mouth, he seemed to bear up best of all of them under the strain of their difficult trek. Of course, he hadn't been captured by Indians first. But to catch up with them as quickly as he had, he mustn't have slept for two days. "We can rest there, but only for a while. I need to return to the inn." |
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Mariah was afraid to ask the question that had been on her mind since their rescue, but she blurted it now. "Holly and Renéare they all right?" |
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Thorn nodded. "They led me to you. Holly, anyway. René knew of a recess beneath my house, and he was able to secrete Holly there when the Indians came. Unfortunately, he was unable to get to you. When you had gone, they came after me." |
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"Had you reached the settlement? Were Francis and the others all right?" |
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Thorn's even pace stopped, then started again, but he no longer guided her with his touch. Mariah looked up to find him glaring at her. "Francis is fine. I will take you to him, if you wish, instead of to the inn." He pulled up his broad chin and stared straight ahead. |
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She ran her hand up the soft, warm material at his solid back. "I don't wish, Thorn. I want to be with you." |
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Again, he missed a step, but he did not look down at her as he hurried onward. "There are things I do not understand." He seemed to search for words, and Mariah, straggling to keep up, waited for him to continue. "Holly said |
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