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At first Adam's ability to sense danger seemed greatly at fault. Nothing occurred on the road to Horndon on the Hill, but that was not surprising because, with the men Adam brought, they were over a hundred strong. Their numbers created one difficulty in that they were delayed by the small capacity of the boats that ferried across the Thames. Once the entire party was assembled on the north shore, however, it was only little more than an hour before Adam was disposing of his men in a small woodland they believed to be about five miles from Horndon keep. Since it was still before dawn and Joanna and her men had been in the saddle for twenty-four hours, except for brief rests and the time on the ferry, Adam insisted that they take time to sleep. |
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"No," he said to Joanna before she could protest. "You cannot arrive at dawn looking like death. You might just as well scream in the man's ear that this matter is of overgreat importance. Do you want to make him suspicious?" |
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"No," she agreed meekly, knowing he was right and again aware that Adam was a man, not a boy. |
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In the end, the caution seemed unnecessary. When Joanna arrived at Horndon with Sir Guy, Knud, and eight men-at-arms, she was greeted pleasantly but completely casually. Sir Léon had been warned and was ready and, although the castellan counted every coin to be certain every penny was paid, he made no more than a polite demur when Joanna said she would leave after dinner. He asked, of course, what she wanted with Sir Léon and she promptly told him a farradiddle about Salisbury requesting that the man be freed because his wife had appealed to him before the battle. He then proffered condolences on the loss of her husband. Joanna swiftly turned her face away, a gesture that |
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