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pulse to break into giggles. Obviously, Lady Ela had not really cared whether anyone heard what they said about Geoffrey. It was natural that Joanna should carry that trouble to her foster mother at once. Now, however, Ela wanted to impart information that needed secrecy. |
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"I am very strong," Joanna urged. "I will support you, and you may lean on the other side on Brian. Up, you fool," she said to the dog. |
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Thus, they tottered down the stairs and out into the open. Once outside, Lady Ela said with an air of pleased surprise that she could breathe more easily. Then she added, like a martyr who finds that the arrows piercing her do not hurt, that she believed she could walk a few steps. And between sighs of exhaustion and high-pitched exclamations on the fragility of her health, she imparted a few luscious pieces of scandal and a few comments that had been made about the queen by her ladies that should serve to silence certain tongues. Moreover, Lady Ela had her own methods of dealing with Isabella and she was able, temporarily at least, to divert the queen's shallow mind from Joanna. |
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As the queen lost interest and the ladies saw Ela's strong support backing Joannanone could really doubt where the tidbits came from that Joanna smilingly related in private and wordlessly threatened to make publicmost attempts to bait the girl died. Talk fell into a more impersonal vein in her presence. There was gossip of course, but most of the time it was the mechanics of entrapping male attention that absorbed the ladies. |
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In a relatively short time, such distractions began to pall on Joanna. There are only so many places to pin a brooch, only so many positions to place an armlet, only so many lengths to hang a necklet. Joanna was an exquisite needlewoman, but new stitches were not the be-all and end-all of her existence, no matter how beautiful the patterns they produced. She began to hunger after more solid substance for her days. She began to meet the enemy her mother had warned her against most specificallyennui. |
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Joanna had mostly discounted those warnings. She sus- |
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