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had had rigid duties which kept him essentially apart from the knights. And, although they had all met on a more equal footing at Geoffrey's betrothal, he had spent most of his time closeted with Lord Ian and his father. |
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Now they discovered that Geoffrey was a very merry companion. He liked a sup of wine as well as the next manand had a hard head for it; he liked a pretty girl as well as the next manand did not worry overmuch about sin. Sir John of Mersea, Sir Robert de Remy, who held Telsey, and young Sir Giles of Iford decided they were going to enjoy this campaign. |
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All returned to camp in the best of good humors, the older men to eat and then stretch out on their camp beds which, if not equal to the soft feather beds of home, were a good deal better than the plain ground they had been sleeping on. The younger men were also thinking of bodily comforts, but not of sleep. Having picked out the cleanest of the camp whores, they had a rather loud party. Geoffrey's lute was tuned to a more raucous note and a livelier measure than "Stella Maris," and the women dancedwith less and less clothing to obscure their movements as the late afternoon darkened into the long summer dusk. |
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Joanna's messenger had caught Geoffrey when he first rode into camp, but, having heard how quickly the man had come and that his father had already been informed, Geoffrey put the matter out of his mind temporarily. For one thing, he did not expect Joanna for at least another week; baggage carts moved slowly even when the roads were good and the rain of the past weeks would have turned them into a muddy mire. For another, Geoffrey was a little resentful. He knew it was not Joanna's fault, but her presence in Whitechurch would be a nuisance. It would oblige him to spend a good deal of his time at court. This would spoil his plans for completing his knowledge of the men he was leading and expose him to the constant pinpricks of Isabella's tongue. |
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Worst of all, it suddenly came to Geoffrey that Joanna would now be intimately associated with the ladies in his |
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