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She had to turn her thoughts in other directions. |
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She walked beneath the trees to gather more gooseberries . . . and then she heard it. |
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She froze, nearly dropping her bucket. Surely she'd been mistaken. The sound had seemed so low, after all, that the noise of the rushing stream almost hid it. |
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But then she heard it again. A low, painful cry. |
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It sounded like a human moan. |
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Couldn't be. She looked wildly around. Weren't there animal cries nearly indistinguishable from human? |
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She heard it a third time. It seemed to come from downstream, from the opposite direction from the way René had gone, from somewhere in the darkly ominous forest. |
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The noise could be a trap, luring her away from the stream. But why? If anyone were after her, it would be easy enough to snatch her. Of course, she'd scream for René. |
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Why wait? "René," she yelled. |
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"Mademoiselle!" She saw him run around the stream's bend; he must have been just out of sight. "Is something not right?" |
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"Yes. I heard strange sounds." She pointed. "That way." |
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René caught up with her, then stomped off in the direction she'd indicated. |
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Slowly, carefully, her breathing so slow that she felt lightheaded, she picked her way after him. |
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René practically stumbled over the noise's source. "Mon dieu!" he cried, then knelt. |
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A woman lay on the leaf-strewn ground. She was battered and bloody. |
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"Oh, no!" Mariah cried as she fell to the twig-prickly ground beside René, then shot her hand over her mouth. What if the woman's attackers were still around? |
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"Are you all right?" she whispered to the unconscious figure. Stupid question. The woman didn't move. As René touched her head, Mariah felt her neck for a pulse, as she'd seen countless times in the movies. |
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At home, Mariah would have run to the nearest house and dialed 911. An ambulance would have been dispatched |
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