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Page 427
engaged! It must be Ferrand because the noise would be louder, the individual cries and clangs cleaner, if it were Otto's force.
"Let us go," Geoffrey hissed. "Let us go so that both edges will pinch Philip and drive him forward into Otto's arms."
That Salisbury's thought was similar was apparent because he was straining upright, almost seeming ready to climb to his feet on top of his horse the better to hurry his squire. Geoffrey ground his teeth with impatience, his eyes set fixedly on Salisbury. He was almost afraid to blink lest he be a part of a second late in driving forward once Salisbury gave the signal to move. At lasthours, weeks, months laterpossibly in real time four or five minutes, the young man could be seen returning. Geoffrey lowered his lance into position, tensing all his muscles as he did so to control the trembling of his body.
It did not help, of course. Possibly the tenseness increased the shaking, but Geoffrey did not know how to subdue his characteristic reaction and he was ashamed of it. He was always afraid those near him would believe he shook with fear. In fact, he was not sure that was untrue. Mostly he felt excited and eager, but there was, somewhere inside him, a sense of chill, a dread of being no more or of being so maimed that he would no longer be a man. Had he been capable of attending to what went on around him, beyond his fixed concentration on Salisbury, he would have been relieved of the worry about being thought a coward.
Tostig, just behind and to the left of his master, lowered his own lance and turned his head toward Roger, the castellan of Hemel who was beside him, to Geoffrey's right. "I hope your spurs are well sharpened," he said wryly. "Do you see our lord straining at the leash? Be ready. As soon as Salisbury moves, he will charge. If you are not quick, you will be left behind."
"I have" the castellan began, but in that moment the squire reached Salisbury and the earl fewtered his own lance and called aloud.
On the sound, Geoffrey clapped spurs to Orage, eased his

 
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