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Page 46
known friend, a reliable partner in a difficult undertaking. Sitting in justice was a matter that troubled Joanna. Unlike her mother, she had a strong consciousness of right and wrong, not only as it affected her but in the abstract. In the past when Alinor left Joanna to manage the estates, there had been someone to help herat first Lady Margaret and later Sir Guy. But Lady Margaret had returned to her son to help care for her grandchildren, and Sir Guy had gone with Ian to Ireland.
Within Roselynde, Joanna did not doubt her power to ascertain what was right. She knew the men and women and even the serfs on the demesneif not as individuals at least as "good" or "troublesome" servants. What had been required of her this time, however, was the settlement of a dispute in the town of Roselynde. Here, she was far less secure. Ordinarily, the mayor and aldermen ruled the town with little interference from the lady of Roselynde, but a dispute had arisen among those worthies themselves, so an appeal had been made to the castle. The date had been set before Alinor's departure was decided upon and, in the hurry of other business, had been forgotten. Now Joanna found herself facing the unenviable task of taking her mother's place.
Under the circumstances, Geoffrey's arrival was like manna from heaven. The armed force he brought would be a strong inducement toward obedience to Joanna's decision if it was not popular, and his own presence was a guarantee of an intelligent opinion to support (or contradict, if necessary) her own. He had taken no part in the proceedings, as was proper, merely standing silent, full-armed, at the right hand of Joanna's chair, a visible symbol, no matter how young and slender the judge, that having been called in she was absolute.
In this event, the matter itself was unworthy either of Joanna's qualms or Geoffrey's stern presence. As she would have realized had she been a little older, it was not a weighty question of law that needed resolution or explication but a silly, spiteful nothing. This, once she had sat si-

 
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