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Page 506
Outside the door, Edwina sighed with relief. She had been listening at the door intently for a long time; she was tired and wanted to go back to sleep herself. For a time it had seemed as if the lord and Joanna would talk all night, but at last they had fallen silent. Now Edwina was sure, with the certainty that fatigue and wanting something very much brings, that she had heard her mistress call out her name. Very quickly, before they could begin to talk again, she opened the door.
"All is ready, my lady," she called cheerfully, her eyes directed toward the spot she had decided was the best to set up the bed.
As she spoke, Edwina turned to look at Joanna. At the sound of her voice, Geoffrey's head had come up and what he had been doing was all too apparent. Edwina uttered a half gasp, half giggle and backed out more precipitately than she had entered. The door was closing before Geoffrey could draw breath to roar, "Out!"
For one moment both he and Joanna were frozen, Geoffrey's arms tense with indecision. If she sought to flee him, he did not know whether he would strive to hold her. The paralysis was broken when, with a soft sob, Joanna allowed her head to drop forward onto his shoulder. She would not resist him. Where force might have turned Geoffrey into a lunatic, the yielding restored reason. However, reason could not conquer a need that a year's waiting and musing upon his prize had honed to a razor sharpness.
"I will not despoil you," Geoffrey whispered. "I swear it. Let me ease myself, Joanna."
She raised her eyes and they were like the soft mist of dawn over a clear spring sky. Geoffrey shifted his hold upon
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