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"No, my lord. As you please, my lord," Joanna murmured softly. |
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"Come away from this noise then," Geoffrey said, and offered his hand formally. |
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Joanna curtsied generally to the group of young men and laid her fingers delicately on Geoffrey's wrist. He led her quickly toward an empty window-seat embrasure where, as soon as small movements and low speech could not be distinguished by anyone whose eyes had followed them, Joanna dug her long, well-sharpened nails viciously into the hand supporting hers. Geoffrey bit back an exclamation and snatched his hand away. A few drops of red showed on the skin. There was surprising strength in the long, siender, white fingers. |
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"Your manners are rather of the sty than of the gutter," Joanna hissed, smiling sweetly all the time. "Those of the gutter are at least human. Do not dare use me so in public when I cannot, for shame of my reputation, defend myself." |
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"How else was I to remove you from that crowd of rutting stags?" Geoffrey snarled, and then, before she could answer, "For God's sake, hold your tongue. My head is really splitting." |
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"And I can tell why. You stink of sour wine. Why did you not stay where you were and sleep it off?" |
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"Because my father came to drag me here, lest your ladyship be offended by my absence." |
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"I am more offended by your presence!" |
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"I will not long inflict it upon you. Is there some danger I must know of? What brought you flying here in four days?" |
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Joanna's anger was diminishing. In the balance between the indifference implied by Salisbury's need to "drag" Geoffrey to greet her and the naked jealousy of his action and his reference to "rutting stags," the jealousy was clearly dominant. The fixed smile on Joanna's lips became more natural, displaying a genuine and growing amusement. Geoffrey, after all, did not need to be jealous. Her lands and her person were already his. Since no action of hers could deprive him of the lands, it could only be her per- |
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