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told you already that I was on my way here.'' |
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"Joanna!" Geoffrey roared, but she had gone too far. Even rage could not obscure the deliberate idiocy of that answer. He stared at her balefully for a long moment, and then began to laugh. "I will pay you back for that," he said, when he could speak, and then, seriously, "I was frightened out of my wits when I realized it was ten days since you had been summoned and you still had not arrived." |
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That was heartwarming, very flattering. Joanna could find no fault with that reason for bad temper. She smiled enchantingly. "But you could not believe me such a fool as to arrive before you were at court to give me countenance. I will not live among Isabella's ladies again if I can by any means avoid it." |
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The words touched a sore spot, and Geoffrey frowned. "Why not?" |
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"Because I was near bored to death by them," Joanna replied tartly. |
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Again Geoffrey was silenced. He had a strong inclination to make a nasty remark concerning the gossip about Joanna and Braybrook, but he was aware that he was vulnerable on a similar score and, what was more, was guilty. Meanwhile, they had clattered across the bridge, Joanna exclaiming with wonder at the tight-packed shops and houses that lined it and at the rushing water. She had not had occasion to cross it before. When she came to London with Lady Ela, they had taken a more northern route from Salisbury and had forded the Thames many miles to the west where it was narrow and manageable. |
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Disarmed by her delight, Geoffrey dismounted and gained admittance to the back premises of one of the shops so that Joanna could watch the watermen shoot the arches. The tide was running in, and boats were coming up-river toward Westminster. Joanna laughed with excitement at the perilous undertaking, wanting to know how the boats came down again. Geoffrey explained that they came down when the tide turned, which Joanna understood very well except, she protested, that tides did not run in rivers. When Geof- |
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