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Page 51
him the viaticum. Poor old man to be burdened with such fear at the end of his life."
"God have mercy on him," Geoffrey murmured. "That is a bitter death for a loyal servant and a good man."
"Oh, he died in peace," Joanna said, her full lips thinned to a hard line. "I sent Father Francis down to him and he gave him good comfort. I took my whip to that priest also, and I tied him to my mare's tail and dragged him off the demesne. There is a young priest now who sees his duty to me and to the pope more clearly."
Geoffrey sat upright and stared at his betrothed. "You took your whip to the priest and drove him off? But"
"But what?" Joanna asked hotly. "Can he challenge me before the bishop of Winchester? Will Peter des Roches, who sits at supper with the excommunicated king, deny that there is a reasonable limit to obedience to the pope? I do not ask the priest to open the church or to say daily mass. What sins grow upon us for lack of such things we can atone for in the future. For the dying, there is no future. A man must not be damned for eternity by the failure of a rite because of a priest's whim. Cedric's sins were little sinsif he had any. Why should he be denied heaven and burn eternally in hell because of a quarrel between the king and the pope that had nothing to do with him?"
"I do not know," Geoffrey replied heavily. "Where is he buried?"
"Oh, mother settled that when the interdict was first announced. We gave a field right beside the churchyard to the church. All our people are buried there, and Father Francis assured them that as soon as the interdict was lifted he would consecrate the field."
"I hope he lives so long," Geoffrey remarked drily.
Joanna looked seriously at him. "Tell me what this quarrel is about, Geoffrey. Mother and Ian never speak of it. They never speak of the king at all, unless it is very necessary, and I do not like to ask becausebecause I can see the fear in mama's eyes when Ian talks of these matters. She fears for him."

 
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