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Page 448
much about anyone, Alinor thought, but she said nothing. If Lady Elizabeth was happy with her mistress and had seen no deeper into Isabella's nature after all the years she had served her, there was no need to try to change her mind or teach her better.
Lady Elizabeth drew a deep breath, as if bracing herself, and said, "The queen told me that it was very fortunate Geoffrey was killed and his body lost at Bouvines because that saved her a great sum of money. When the news of Salisbury's capture came, she secretly sent a'message back to Philip with the herald offering double Geoffrey's ransom for his dead body if he had been taken prisoner.
"What?" Alinor gasped, frozen into her seat.
"Isabella said she wished to make the same offer for Salisbury's corpse, but that the king would never help her to pay that bribeso I must assume that John knows of what she has done andand approves it. You can look for no help from the king."
The paralyzing horror that had gripped Alinor when she heard what the queen had done receded slowly. The blaze of hope that sprang up in its place also receded, but it did not disappear completely. If so great a sum to be paid for Geoffrey's corpse had not been claimed, it could not be for lack of searching. Probably that only increased the possibility that Geoffrey's stripped body had been cast into a common grave at Bouvines, but perhaps there was some chance
"Thank you, Lady Elizabeth, thank you," Alinor stammered.
The young woman shrugged. "I do not suppose it matters. He must have died on the field and been lost among the other bodies. Nonetheless, if he is lying sore hurt in some serf's hut or by some miracle is somewhere in France or Flanders still alive, I thought that his friends should know the threat that still hangs over him. I will go now. Above all, I do not wish to be discovered here."
At the door Alinor thanked her again, but when she had closed it she wondered whether the thanks were merited. Hope warred with desolation in her, making it impossible

 
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