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Page 202
you are here. I will take part in it myself"
"William!" Ela shrieked.
Geoffrey bit his lip and cast an apologetic glance at his father. In his effort to pacify his son, Salisbury had said what would make his home life hideous until the tourney was over. It was not that Lady Ela would deliberately whine and nag at her husband, as many thought she didas she did do in public. After an initial outburst and after she realized that Salisbury's decision was irrevocable, Ela would seem to forget the matter and be very pleasant and cheerful. OnlySalisbury loved her. He would know her misery; he would see the marks of tears shed in his absence and carefully hidden; for her sake, he would be unhappy.
"Now, Ela," Salisbury soothed, "it will not even be a real tourney. A one-day affair. More a formal exercise than any real fighting."
"Then surely one of us will be enough," Geoffrey suggested. "Let me supply your place, papa. You owe it me," he added smiling, "for trying to deprive me of my sport."
"Well, well, we will see," Salisbury temporized, realizing that Geoffrey was attempting to offer a way to appease Ela. He did not believe she could be taken in, but he could see no reason to reject his son's peace offer. Nor did he see any reason to continue the subject. "When do you expect Joanna?" he asked.
"I have no idea," Geoffrey replied. "I was sure she would be here already. Even if I traveled quicker, she had far less distance to come and I must have started some days later because the messenger" Geoffrey's voice faltered into silence and the color drained from his face.
Until he started to add up the days, he had not realized how long it was between the time Joanna had been summoned to court and this day. He knew that Joanna traveled no more slowly than any man.
"Taken?" he cried, leaping to his feet. "Could she have been taken?"

 
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