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apology in the way she thought would please him best. However, even while Geoffrey writhed and moaned softly as Joanna worked him deeper into the red well of pleasure, some small part of him wished that she would talk to himsay she was sorry, say that she loved him, say that she feared for him also as well as for the others she lovedinstead of paying him with physical gestures. It smacked too much of fondling a domestic animal to show you were pleased with it. |
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This was completely unfair, a not uncommon situation to a young man very deeply in love. Geoffrey knew Joanna was a reserved person who rarely voiced her feelings. But in this case it was fortunate that he kept his longing to himself. Her silence and misery was far more a result of guilt than of fear. As soon as Geoffrey said he would come to Adam's rescue, Joanna fully realized that to protect Adam would be to expose Geoffrey to greater danger. Her immediate impulse was to cry out that Geoffrey should leave Adam to his own devices. This disgusting notion, of throwing her little brother to the wolves to preserve her husband, so horrified Joanna as to inhibit her from voicing any further opinion on the subject. All Joanna could do was clutch Geoffrey to her while she had him, trying twice and thrice in the night to unite herself with him completely. This unusual behavior made Geoffrey even more uneasy so that he put off leaving for Mersea from day to day, Joanna eagerly helping him to find excuses to stay. |
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On March 5, action was forced upon them. An official order, which Joanna opened as Alinor's deputy, came from John. The lady of Roselynde was the king's bailiff for Roselynde town and in this capacity she was ordered "to go in person, together with the bailiffs of the port, to the harbor in your bailiwick and make a careful list of all the ships there found capable of carrying six horses or more; and that, in our name, you order the masters as well as the owners of those ships, as they regard themselves, their ships, and all their property, to have them at Portsmouth at mid-Lent, well equipped with stores, tried seamen, and good soldiers, to enter our service for our deliverance." |
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