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Page 185
understand. "Your mother set me in this keep to guard it for her," he said simply. "I will obey her order and fight for the kingor against himas she or you bid me."
Matters were not so straightforward on the great estates of Mersea. Joanna had gone there first because it was farthest away. Sir John did not laugh, but he was not convinced of the coming danger. Moreover, Mersea was powerful in herself, not so likely to be snapped up by a larger neighboring landowner and, thus, in less need of protection from the overlady. Perhaps it rankled Sir John, who was a young man, to have to bow down to a woman. Joanna did not press the point, merely asked how the merchants and fishing fleets were dealing with Philip Hurepel to remind Sir John of the warning she had sent him and that changes had already taken place. He was somewhat more thoughtful after that. He could hold his own on his lands, but he had no ear or eye at court and might be badly hurt without news from his overlady about what went on there and in the world at large.
Thus, when Joanna paid a second visit toward the end of November, Sir John made no bones about the fact he had changed his mind. He had scarcely lifted her from her mare when he drew her into an alcove in the great hall. "Have you had the news yet?" he asked, and, not waiting for her reply, "Lord Geoffrey was right. I did not think the pope would do it. He has absolved all men of their fealty to the king, all men from princes to serfs are bid to avoid John at table, in council, or in converse on pain of their own excommunication and are free of any allegiance to him."
It was no shock to Joanna. She had already heard of the sentence passed by the pope from the merchants of Roselynde town. Nonetheless, she felt an inner hollowness and she needed to fight back tears. She wanted Geoffrey or, lacking him, her mother and Ian. But she knew she could have no support from any of them. Owain had sent a secret message to Geoffrey warning him that Lord Ian must not return to England. He was not specific in his reasons, but there was no doubt in Geoffrey's mind or in Joanna's that

 
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