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There was one more possibility. "Could this filth's intention have been to bring you to the king by force?" |
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"No," Joanna said, drawing in on herself in revulsion. "He intended to have me here or somewhere downriver and to leave me naked and bleeding on the bank for all to see. Look at my gown! Would any man with orders from the king dare despoil me?" |
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Geoffrey made a strangled sound and Joanna began to sob again. |
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"He hated me," she wept. "Me! What have I done that anyone should hate me?" |
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"There are men with rotten souls, my love," Geoffrey comforted. "They do not need a real reason to hate. It might be that you did not smile upon him in passing, or that you did smile and he took it for a mockery" |
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Only a small portion of Geoffrey's mind was on what he was saying, but it made dreadful sense to Joanna and she stopped weeping and caught her breath. Geoffrey did not notice. He was thinking of his uncle. He was ashamed again at having thought the worst of John without real reason. John was a fool in many ways, but not, Geoffrey knew, in the practices of deceit. If John had intended to take Joanna by force or guile, he was not such an idiot as to send his men decked out in his own colors. Perhaps he was mad-proud enough to do that to another woman, but not to Joanna, not to his brother's daughter-by-marriage. |
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"I do not think the king had any part in this," Joanna said more calmly, echoing Geoffrey's thoughts. "I think it was intended that I should blame John and either keep silence out of fear or tell you so that you would act against your uncle and fall out of favor." |
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"It may be worse than that," Geoffrey said slowly. "It might be that this was a device intended to break my father away from his brother. It needs only that, I fear, to begin a dissension that would topple the king from the throne altogether." |
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Joanna did not contest that statement. To the world at large and to John himself it might seem that the king was |
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