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pearances, I would have had to be rid of himwhatever the queen's willto save my sanity. Four days of Sir Henry from Roselynde to Whitechurch was enough. Rather than endure four weeks of him, I would have killed him with my bare hands. I do not know what can be done to still the queen's tonguenothing, I suspect. As for my private honor, except for one day at Shrewsbury, I can prove that Sir Henry was not at any time next or nigh me. I have been in company constantly with the wives and daughters of my mother's vassals and castellans. Thus, I have no fear of countering any tale told of me, but such things are never brought into the open where they can be disproved." |
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"All I can hope for," Joanna continued, "is that you can by some means discover where Braybrook really was in this time. I have a feeling that he was not innocently engaged with his own wife and that discovery of his true whereabouts would provide me with a weapon. Unfortunately, that weapon would be against himand he is a poor frail reed of a thing. Also, if he had allowed this rumor to be spread out of spite against me, I do in some measure deserve it. I was once again carried away by my delight in a jestbut that is better told in your ear than in writing." |
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By the time she had written so much, Joanna felt more sorry for than angry with Braybrook. She had little doubt that the queen was the impetus behind his actions. It seemed to her that the poor man would be ground to dust between the nether millstone of her own contempt for him and the upper of the queen's conviction that he could win her if he would only try hard enough. And, to make matters worse, if Geoffrey's note had been cold out of jealousy, Braybrook might well be chopped to pieces before he was ground to dust. The turn of phrase made Joanna laugh, but she soon sobered. It was not really funny at all. Sir Henry's father was a favorite of the king's and a power in the court. For Geoffrey to kill or even publicly to humiliate the son would be dangerous, in spite of all Salisbury could do to protect him. |
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Hastily, Joanna unrolled the letter she had just finished |
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