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When the wains were loaded, Joanna engaged in a sharp struggle with herself. She had a violent desire to go with the supplies to Oswestry and found herself putting forward the most ridiculous reasons to do so. There was not the smallest purpose to going. A lettershort at thatcould tell Geoffrey all he needed to know. Besides, Joanna realized she would be most horribly in the way in a town overrun with men, an additional burden on poor Geoffrey, who would have to find her lodging and would doubtless also try to find some hours to give to her in an already overfilled day. Joanna told herself she could not imagine why she wanted so desperately to go, and then blushed hotly in the privacy of her own chamber. It was a sad strait when a person began to lie to herself. What she wanted, Joanna acknowledged, was to taste Geoffrey's mouth again, to feel his hands on her body. |
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Recognized for what it was, the lust could be subdued. Joanna sighed and bent over her writing desk. She described succinctly the quantities of provisions she had sent and the markings used to distinguish them. Then went on, "I must now betake myself to my mother's other keeps to gather up, a little here and a little there, what will replace the provision sent you. For now, Clyro is so empty that, if summer lambs and vegetables were not to be had, all here would starve. It is needful also to give comfort to the monks and priests on the Church lands adjoining ours. They have been stripped nakeder than Clyro and no restoration is promised them. I am the more earnest to keep their good will as I have heard a legate of the pope is on his way to England. When the king comes to terms with the Church, I wish it to be remembered that I was their faithful daughter even in their adversity." |
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Joanna tickled her nose with the end of her quill as she reread what she had written and then "tsked" with irritation. She had forgotten something important. |
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"I will also gather over and above what is needed here so that you may draw upon the excess if the campaign should continue longer than is now planned. Send to me here at |
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