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am responsible." He had grieved long for this boy who'd now returned, and for his mother. |
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He dared not ask for absolution. It would not come from this boy, and it would certainly not come from himself. |
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"And then . . . then, my mother . . . " continued Will. |
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"She went looking for you." Thorn kept his voice carefully neutral to hide the emotional turmoil seething within him. "We all tried to help." |
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"She trusted you. She even cared for you, I am told. But you failed her. And then, Ainsley said, she killed herself." |
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"Yes," Thorn said simply. "She did. She walked into the water at the Pittsborough Point when no one was about." He paused. "So why are you here, Will? Were you so called by the lure of soldiering that you had to come to the frontier, or was it something else?" |
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The lad was on his feet in an instant, his hands at his sides, as though he reached for pistols holstered there, but there were none. "I came to kill the man who made my mother die." |
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Thorn felt spent. In his cabin lay a beautiful, plucky woman who might die because of him. There were those in England for whose death he was responsible. This young man's mother had taken her life because of him. |
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He wished no more blood on his hands. |
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He stood, spreading his arms out beside him. "Then kill me, Will," he said simply. |
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The young man stared, his mouth agape. Then he knit his dirt-brown brows together in a furious scowl. "No, I wish for you to know it is coming, to anticipate and to fear. But the fight must be fair, to both of us. I have practiced long with pistols. Ask Ainsley; I am the most skilled at the fort." |
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"Despite your age?" asked Thorn. |
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Will nodded. "After all that has occurred, I am not feeling well enough for the fight to be enjoyable. And this would be too quick, for I wish you to think about it. Consider yourself challenged to a duel, but this is not the time." |
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"Or the place," Thorn said. "I believe it must happen at the confluence of the rivers that form the Ohio." |
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