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Page 258
stamped and whinnied. Halfway up the stairs he could hear the screams and sobs of terrified women. Cursing louder, he pushed open the door. Lady Maud knelt before a crucifix, wailing for help, for mercy, for forgiveness of her sins.
Geoffrey did not try to reason with her or even, beyond a word or two, try to calm her fear. Fighting loose of the avalanche of maids who fell upon him, screaming for succor, he dragged the hysterical woman to her feet. With Maud gripped firmly in one hand, he slapped two of the nearest maids hard enough to make immediate pain and fear more imperative than their terror of the nearing flames. As those women dressed their mistress, Geoffrey cowed the others into obedience. They were to dress themselves and take whatever was most precious that they could carry. His authority and the realization that they would soon leave brought order.
Lady Maud was now rational againat least as rational as she ever was for she was as thoroughly silly as she was beautiful. Geoffrey shepherded her down the stairs, not because he wanted her out of the house yet but because he knew if he left her she would relapse into hysteria and infect the other women whom she was supposed to control. As he bade her for the tenth time to be still or he would slap her silent, he made a mental apology for each time he cursed Joanna for too strong a will.
The moment Geoffrey reached the garden, however, it was apparent that he had been none too soon in removing Lady Maud from the house. Tostig had organized the servants into a bucket chain and part of the outbuildings were well doused, as was the front of the house. Ladders were being set up to soak the roof. Meanwhile, the men-at-arms were leading out the horses and dragging Lady Maud's traveling cart from its shed. But then the wind came in a blast from behind the cluster of buildings across the road. Geoffrey slapped a hand to his face as something flew against him and burned his cheek. And a sheet of flame, hundreds of feet long and God alone knew how high, swept up, just as great breakers in a storm rose and swept over the

 
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