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Page 17
The name was slipped in very naturally. Alinor had been holding her daughter's eyes steadily all the while so that there was no need to seek to catch her expression. In fact, there was no change in her face. Perhaps a fleeting emotion flickered in her eyesrelief?but it was so brief that Alinor could not really read it. Joanna said nothing and a silence fell, broken after a moment by the sound of Ian shifting uneasily in his chair. Alinor turned toward her husband. When her eyes came back to Joanna, the girl was looking at Brian. The dog lifted his head, then rose and came to his mistress. Joanna braced herself. Brian sat, with a thump that shook even the solid hardwood floor, and then leaned heavily against Joanna. The stool began to tilt. Joanna hastily moved her feet to brace herself better. Alinor smiled. Geoffrey had brought the puppy that grew into Brian from Ireland where he had been serving as Ian's squire. Called back to action, he had given the still-blind, gangling, emaciated creature to Joanna.
"Now Joanna," Ian went on. "It is true that we all love Geoffrey, but if you feelif perhaps you think"
"Tush!" Alinor exclaimed impatiently. Men were always accused of coarseness because they cursed and spat and pissed in odd places, but they really were afflicted with the silliest delicacy of mind. "What Ian wants to know, Joanna, is whether you will feel as if you are bedding your brother when it comes to coupling with Geoffrey."
"Alinor!"
"Well, that is what you meant, is it not?"
Instead of replying, Ian rose and walked to the window in the antechamber, where he stood staring out at the walls and, beyond them, to the little whitecaps that showed on the swells of the sea. Joanna and Alinor looked at each other with identical expressions of amusement, each biting her lips to restrain giggles. Each knew that it was not especially the mention of incest that troubled Ian but the idea of Joanna's mating. His reaction was fortunate, however, in that it broke the tension.
"Well, Joanna?" Alinor insisted, but she was smiling.

 
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