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Page 498
thing. What else had I to do with you gone? Oh, there are one or two matters of justice that I laid over for you to settle because they regard points of honor, but they are small things. Even the country is quiet. Winchester holds the reins and Pembroke the whip. The steed knows better than to prance under such management."
That was not an outright lie. It merely concealed so much of the truth that it might as well have been. Joanna was not nearly so scrupulous about misleading her husband for his own good on political matters as about his body. It was true England was quiet under the control of Winchester and Pembroke, but it was the quiet of a seething pot which, growing hotter and hotter under a tight lid, erupts at last, throwing off the cover and spewing its contents all around.
Geoffrey was not unaware that Joanna's veracity on this subject was not to be compared with her veracity about his physical condition. He felt nothing beyond a profound gratitude about that. His question had been dutiful, a result of a strong sense of responsibility; however, he was very grateful that it had not called forth a stream of anxious worries. Far too often when he politely asked Lady Gilliane if he could do something for her, she had taken advantage of the formal question. He had found it very exhausting to try to explain what he felt any sensible woman should know, but it was not in his nature to spare himself. Nor could he stop asking; courtesy had been pounded into him until the formal words came out before he thought. He smiled, warmed and comforted by Joanna's presence, knowing nothing would be required of him until he felt able for it.
Joanna sat quietly by his side until she was sure he was deeply asleep, then she turned to Sir Guy, stiffening as she saw him standing in the doorway, naked sword in hand. He gestured her toward him.
"Do you realize we are in a cell that can be locked?" he whispered.
Joanna had not realized. Fear rose in her. There was danger here! There was! She knew it. She had felt it all along. Nonetheless, as she glanced around good sense warred with that "smell" of danger.

 
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