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Page 149
To feed the war party, Joanna had stripped Clyro naked of provender. Then it was necessary to draw supplies not only from Roselynde but Kingsclere and other keeps to replace Clyro's store and even to increase it in case this second assault on Llewelyn also failed and the king decided to try yet again. Unfortunately, Joanna had discovered that Sir Peter's lady was truly a weak reed. While Joanna purchased cattle and sheep at Shrewsbury and dispatched them to Oswestry in the care of Knud and part of her guard, she had sent Lady Mary a message to make ready for cartage to Oswestry sufficient grain and dried meat to feed the men for three weeks and such salt meat and fish as was available. To her horror when she arrived at Clyro she found total chaos.
The sacks were helter-skelter all unmarked with no way to tell what was meal for bread or unground kernel for other purposes. The maker's marks were on the casks of salt provision, but the stupid woman had not stopped to think that the men who dealt out the supplies came from all over the country and would not know which maker provided Clyro with salt fish and which prepared salt meat from the demesne cattle. It was all for Joanna to do: seeing that each cask was marked with the brand of a fish or an ox and each sack painted with a loaf of bread or an ear of corn. Also she had to attend to the purchase and borrowing of oxen and carts for transport. How Lady Mary thought the supplies would get from Clyro to Oswestry Joanna did not bother to ask.
In fact, unlike Lady Alinor who in her first rage might well have frightened Lady Mary out of what little wits she had, Joanna had merely cast her eyes up to heaven. Subsequently, she had patiently made what she wanted so clear, one word at a time, that Lady Mary was actually of some help. The usefulness, however, gave Joanna no mistaken notion that she had imbued the lady with either good sense or efficiency. It would be necessary for her to return to Clyro to oversee the replacement of the provisions she had commandeered and the stockpiling of the additional supplies. At least, Joanna thought, she was sure that she would be a welcome guest.

 
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