|
|
|
|
|
|
gled to control her sobbing. Ian was distraught enough. She did not wish to burden him with her grief as well as his own. She did choke herself into quiet before he entered the roomhe walked so slowlyand she was glad of it. Ian looked worse than when he had gone out. His face was gray and his luminous eyes dull and fixed. Nervously, Alinor rose and went round the table to meet him. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
"What is it Ian? Is the news worse?" |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
"The terms are unbelievable. I will tell you of that later. What is worse is Geoffrey" his voice cracked and he took a deep breath. "Geoffrey was definitely not among the prisoners nor among those who were sore wounded and died. It cannot be an oversight that he is not mentionedI mean, he is mentioned, and by name. It seems that Salisbury begged Philip to inquire specially and Philip was so good as to do so. Geoffrey is not among the live or the dead that they have identified. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Alinor's tears broke out afresh and her husband took her into his arms. "I begged you not to hope," he whispered. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
"I did not," she sobbed, "not really. See," she gestured toward the parchment on the table, ''I have begun my letter to Joanna." She paused and struggled with herself but without success. Clinging to her husband she wailed aloud. "I cannot bear it. I cannot bear that Joanna should suffer" |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
She choked the rest of it off. Even in the midst of her grief it was impossible to mention to her second husband what she had endured in the loss of her first man. Ian knew, of course. He had loved Simon himself enough to give that name to his own firstborn son. Still, it was not a thing to be said aloud between them. Alinor dashed the tears from her face. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
"What a stupid thing to say. I must bear it, so I can. Come, beloved, sit down." She pressed him into a chair and brought him a goblet of wine. "Why cannot his body be found?" she whispered. "Others have been named as dead, even many of the lesser men, have they not? How could he be overlooked? Oh, Ian, is there no hope?" |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
He could not let her cling to hope and transmit that hope |
|
|
|
|
|