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Page 132
Eyes paler than her own but as bright as hers in a rage stared at Joanna. "What do you mean?" Ela asked sharply. "Do you mean you do not believe Geoffrey has ever mounted a mistress? I assure you he has before and may again."
"What he has done in the past is no business of mine," Joanna said softly, "and he may futter a whore in a ditch if I am not by and that is his need, but he will mount no mistress while I am his wife. He is mine!"
Lady Ela clapped her hands to her ears. "Is it Joanna I hear or Alinor?" she asked laughing. Then she said seriously, "I see what you mean, but you need not worry even about the past if what you fear is that Geoffrey's heart was touched. If you can win it, he will bring that to you as clean as your own."
To that, Joanna made no answer. Stricken by the knowledge that she did not wish to give her heart into Geoffrey's keeping, it did not seem right for her to demand his. Nor would she permit herself to examine why, if she did not want love, she was so set against Geoffrey's loving elsewhere. She could not say that to Ela, of course, and she shook her head.
"That is not really what troubles me," she said half truthfully. "What frets me beyond bearing is that I am helpless to stop their tongues. I could do it by changing the look of their faces with my hands, but Ian said I must not and, in truth, the blame is not all theirs. I believe the queen is behind it"
"I believe it too, but do not say it aloud again," Ela interrupted. Then her lips twitched and her hands began to flutter. "It is so dark in here," she whined. "I am afflicted with a shadowing of the eyes from lack of light. It is damp. My chest feels a tightness."
"Dear madam," Joanna exclaimed immediately upon her cue, "lean here upon my arm. I will lead you into the garden where there is more light and the air is warm."
"I am not sure I can go so far," Ela whimpered.
A tiny hesitation was all the sign Joanna gave of her im-

 
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