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mined that Geoffrey would arrive before her to give her countenance. |
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There was also a full baggage train this time. To questions about what she needed house furniture for, Joanna replied that her previous visit to court had proved to her that she could not sleep or be happy except with her own furniture around her. Since it was common enough for the great nobles to furnish their own chambers, the gentleman thought no more of the matter. Joanna was greatly relieved. She had neither had to lie nor to confess that she had no intention of staying with the queen's women as she had in the past. It was too vulnerable a position. Lady Alinor owned a house in London, and Joanna intended to establish herself there with fifty loyal men-at-arms to protect her and repel unwanted visitors. |
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The roads were miserable. The carts broke down. Even the weather cooperated. All in all, a journey that was an easy two-day ride stretched into near eight days and, with the two days Joanna had spent dithering over her packing, it was the evening of the first of March when the walls of Southwark came into view. |
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By now, Joanna's escort was thoroughly exasperated. He knew he would be in trouble with the king, but short of knocking the girl unconscious or binding and gagging her there was nothing he could have done to get her along faster. He might even have tried the latter expedients, except that her master-of-arms and a hard-eyed and tight-mouthed second-in-command never let her out of their sight for a moment until she was closed into her tent or safe in the women's quarters. To his request that they be dismissed, Joanna had replied that she had no power to do so. Their attendance, as that of the fifty men-at-arms who rode with them over the loud objections of the king's messenger, had been ordered by her mother and Lord Ian. |
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"They will obey neither you nor me, my lord," Joanna said placidly and mendaciously. |
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Thus, when they saw a large troop of men come thundering across London bridge, which they were headed toward, |
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