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Page 550
lowed the master he had never loved but could not leave. They struggled on a bare twenty miles until John collapsed.
It was plain now the king would not live. Ian was not sure he would live himself. Each breath was a torment and his limbs were not willing to obey him. John survived the night of the seventeenth, but as the dark ebbed, so did the spirit. Before dawn, the king was dead.
Ian could not believe it. It was inconceivable. All his life John had been there, a threat, a force to circumvent. Hate is as strong as love; Ian felt as if his life had been broken. A terrible need seized him and a terrible fear. He feared he was dying and he needed to be with Alinor. Even though he could barely walk and could not speak at all, Ian gathered the men of his personal guard and rode out of Newark.
They traveled through the day, although Ian became so weak that his master-at-arms Jamie had to mount behind him and hold him in the saddle. During the night, he was worse, but he signed to be lifted to his horse in the morning and they rode on again. By afternoon, it was plain that whatever Ian wanted he would never live long enough to reach Roselynde. In these times, however, a man could not simply ride into the nearest keep and expect to be welcomed. Jamie sent a few men south and west to ask the names of the holders of keeps in the area. He nearly wept with relief when he learned that Hemel was only five miles ahead, due south.
For Joanna, the past five months had not been as dreadful as she expected. The agony of pity and fear had receded into a dull misery, although Geoffrey had not changed. She was accustomed to the deadness under his smile and loving words. Only once in a while, when there was word that French troops were moving in the area, he looked at her in such a way that a cold sweat of fear broke out on her body.
Self-preservation aroused in Joanna a lively and unavoidable interest in what was going on in the country. Hemel was a substantial keep, but nothing like Roselynde or Lincoln. If Louis or one of his powerful supporters turned his attention to Hemel, it might not be able to resist for longand Hemel was the nearest of Geoffrey's keeps to Louis's

 
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