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Page 366
said, but she was not sorry. Their sleep was a guarantee that they had not altered anything in the room this morning.
As soon as she left, Joanna popped out of bed to use the chamber pot, pointing significantly to the door, which had, not closed completely. Geoffrey nodded, anger again darkening his expression, but he climbed out as she rose to relieve his bladder also. He opened his mouth to say something, not wishing the silence between them to seem unnatural but instead gestured with his head to the sound of voices in the antechamber. Joanna threw his bed robe to him and got back into the bed just as Isabella swept without warning into the room.
The indecent haste and improper purpose for which the queen had come was underlined by those who attended her. Without exception they were her own creatures or the wives of those who had reason to hate or envy the houses of Salisbury and Roselynde. It also underlined her stupidity. Ordinarily, there would have been jesting and conversation until the full group of witnesses assembled. Then the covers would have been drawn off Joanna, she would have been helped from the bed, reexamined to be sure she had not cut herself to supply the bloodall amid good-natured teasingand the sheets would have been removed by her maids to be retained as evidence of her purity. Instead, before Geoffrey could even shove the chamber pot out of the way, one of Isabella's ladies was looking under the bed.
"It is gone, madam," she announced with satisfaction. "There was a cloth bag with an animal inside it when I looked at the room last night."
"Yes" Joanna began, but her voice was cut off by a snarl of rage from Geoffrey.
"How is that your business, madam?"
Isabella did not seem to hear the question. She produced the speech she had planned to answer the question Geoffrey should have asked. "I say that the blood on the sheets is not Lady Joanna's but some other creature's. My woman saw the maid, Edwina, conceal something, and I"
Geoffrey made an inarticulate noise and started around the bed toward the queen. The ladies drew together and

 
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