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brought to the keep and Lady Gilliane thought he would die, the priest had been called to administer the viaticum. But Geoffrey had recovered, the priest said hastily, and this last time, when the letter was handed to him, Geoffrey was sitting up in a chair. |
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"He has not been to mass?" Joanna asked. She was really inquiring about whether he was too weak to walk to the chapel, but she saw the priest's eyes shift uneasily and fear touched her again. "What, is he imprisoned?" she cried. ''He is an honorable man. It is not needful to lock him in like a wild beast." |
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"It is for his own good," the priest replied severely. "If 'the king's agents had found him, he would not be alive and well now." |
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It might be true, Joanna knew, but there was something else that was not being told her. She turned anxiously to the precious letter she held in her hand. |
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"Considering the disaster that has overtaken us," Geoffrey wrote after a tender salutation, "my situation is none so ill, but I am afraid that it will cost you high to have me back. Isabella has offered twice my ransom to obtain my dead body, and I have promised that Sir Louis of Baisieux, who took me prisoner, will lose nothing by his kindness in preserving my life. This I hope will not be difficult." |
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There followed a long passage describing what might be expected from the strongboxes of Geoffrey's various keeps. Joanna scarcely glanced through this. She had no intention of wasting time going from one place to another all over England to collect jewels and money when she could take what she needed from Roselynde. The sum could be restored to her mother from Geoffrey's coffers when he was home safe. |
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That came to an end and the next line caught and held Joanna's attention. "There is another matter, however, that may give you some trouble. Lady Gilliane's husband, that Léon of Baisieux whom I wounded and ordered spared because of his great spirit on the ships in Damme, is held for ransom by Sir Walter of Halfand in East Sussex. It is neces- |
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