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direction to recheck the truth of the news and to determine who had last seen the missing ships and when. Richard stormed up and down the shoreline, cursing the incompetence of the captains of those ships and vowing bloody retribution upon them. By the time the messengers returned, the worst of the King's rage was spent. He was able to listen intelligently to the scraps of information they carried. One ship was known to have foundered, but it was a heavy-laden transport. No one had had even a single sight of the ship that carried the women. It was not a particularly swift ship, but being so light-laden and already in the van it had disappeared while everyone was battling the first fury of the storm. Finally Richard thought of another possible source of information. |
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''Simon, summon the captain of our own ship. Belike he can guess from the direction the wind blew where the ships may be." |
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A moment passed. The King turned his head sharply to stare at his liegeman, taking in the blind, staring eyes and ghastly complexion. "Simon!" he exclaimed, then walked over and shook him. "Simon, what ails you?" |
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"Alinor," Simon whispered, "my Alinor was on that ship." |
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Under Richard's hand Simon's body shook like a man in the throes of a violent ague. "And my Berengaria and my beloved sister Joanna," Richard snarled. "Man, will you stand and weep and do nothing? You chose the ship and the crew. Do you so distrust your own judgment or the goodness of God? Come," he added more gently, "summon the captain. If he can point a road to us, we will follow." |
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Simon's dazed eyes raked the King's face. "Yes," he muttered, "most assuredly I will follow her." But Richard's decisiveness had broken his paralysis of grief and fear and he went to do the King's bidding. |
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The captain offered some comfort in that he did not believe the ship would have gone down. It was a very |
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