|
|
|
|
|
|
off duty found that London was a very friendly place where you might be accosted on the street, plied with drink, and returned quite safely, even though nearly insensible, to your quarters. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The third and fourth of March passed quietly. The weather was unsettled, nasty damp and quite cold, so that Joanna was happy enough to sit by Lady Ela's fire or her own, gossiping and embroidering. She did not feel any lack of stimulation because Salisbury brought Ela all the news, and Ela and Joanna discussed it thoroughly from a different point of view than his while he was away. Geoffrey too was enjoying himself, although not as cozily as Joanna. The king had been delighted to give permission to hunt and had made the young men free of his hawks, his hounds, and his horses as well. Wine and women they bought and brought from town. If they were cold and wet during the day, they had excellent sport and could look forward to being well-warmed at night. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
During the night of the fourth, the clouds blew away so that the fifth of March dawned bright and mild. The young men had been hawking from the earliest dawn. At sunrise, the few clouds low on the horizon flamed pink and orange. Watching, ravished by the loveliness around him, Geoffrey was suddenly smitten by his conscience. He remembered how Joanna had said it would be dull for her and how resignedly, but without whining, she had put her pleasure aside. The bag of birds that morning was excellent and they breakfasted well on the fresh-roasted bodies, but the sunlight had driven the other game into cover early. Idleness renewed Geoffrey's pangs of conscience. A twig cast into a stream they passed reminded him of his promise to take Joanna on the river. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
For Henry de Braybrook, it was not the weather of the third and fourth alone that made the world look gray. His sensitized nerves saw mocking laughter in every pair of eyes and heard a sneer in every voice that addressed him. Worse, his father was surprisingly unsympathetic. Usually, the elder Braybrook was happy to have a cause for complaint |
|
|
|
|
|