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Page 65
had been banked, only a few dull embers showing through the layer of ash. Joanna passed softly down the stairs after her glance through the doorway. There was no sense in waking the menservants who were already asleep on their pallets along the walls.
There was no challenge as Joanna passed out of the forebuilding into the inner bailey. The moon was well up and her hair was so red that it identified her even in that colorless light. Had she been in the shadow, it would have made no difference; the huge dog was a guarantee that the person accompanying him was a member of the household. Brian bounded into the open area joyfully. Joanna watched him for a few minutes and then walked around the corner and opened the gate to the garden.
The few night-blooming flowers spread their pale trumpets wide and Joanna touched first one and then another gently, soothed and comforted. Although she knew the garden as well as or better than she knew her own bedchamber, it was different at night. The scents were sweeter, she thought, and more exotic. A fitful breeze came in off the sea, salt and tangy yet mixed with the sweetness of the roses that grew on the cliffs. The scent drew her off to the right, down the path that led to the rose garden. She would sit there on the bench for a few minutes and breathe the sweetness until Brian signaled his desire to go in again.
The roses were thick on the trellises now, and the bench was shadowed from the moonlight. Nonetheless, there was something odd"Who is there?" Joanna said imperiously.
"IGeoffrey."
She hesitated. "Are you lying in wait for me again?"
He laughed. "No. I thought you were abed."
"What are you doing here?"
This time he hesitated, then instead of answering said provocatively, "I could ask the same question."
The provocative tone did not escape Joanna. Although she had already confessed by her second question that she remembered that they had met in secretif so innocent a meeting could be said to be secretin this spot before their

 
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