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change, either for good or ill, for many hours. All he could do was send off a messenger to Alinor. She would be in some danger traveling in these times, but if Ian should dieAfter that, not knowing what else to do, he went to ask Jamie when and how Ian's illness came about. Naturally, the most important news came first. The king was dead. Geoffrey could not believe his ears. He asked Jamie again and again, and was assured with more and more detail, which eventually described the whole of what had happened, that John was, indeed, dead. |
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He galloped up to the sickroom, but was unceremoniously shoved out of the door by Edwina. If Ian should happen to regain his senses, the last person anyone wanted him to see was Geoffrey. Three days followed in which Geoffrey had plenty of time to digest the news and consider it in all of its ramifications. He kept coming to the sickroom and being driven away. Although Joanna was sure that Ian no longer wished Geoffrey any harm, she had no intention of permitting him to be exhausted by man-talk now that he had regained consciousness. On the morning of the fourth day, Alinor arrived, shaking with tiredness and terror, to be greeted by the happy news that her husband was out of danger. He was weak, but he was able to smile at her and whisper her name before he drifted off to sleep again. |
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In spite of her fatigue, Alinor would not yield her right to sit with her husband. Remembering how she had felt the same when she brought Geoffrey home from France, Joanna did not protest. She was strangely reluctant to leave the sickroom, however. She could hardly endure to turn away from the reawakening life there to meet her own husband's deathlike despair. Perhaps news of Ian's well-doing would wake some spark in him. |
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To Joanna's amazement, Geoffrey leapt to his feet as soon as she appeared in the stairwell and came across the room nearly at a run. "Joanna, Joanna, did Ian tell you?" |
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His eyes were blazing, golden as the sun, his breath was quick and his color high. Joanna's mouth fell open with surprise. Her heart began to pound. Here was Geoffrey, re- |
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