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Page 282
fear, was fuller although still high-pitched with excitement. There must be a way out, Geoffrey thought, sparing time to rub his cheek gratefully along the horse's soft muzzle as he dropped his sword. A single glance behind wiped all thoughts from his mind beyond the need to escape immediately. The mob was still struggling in the lane, the battle intensified by those who continued to pour into it from the Chepe, but now the roofs of the houses on that very street were already aflame. Geoffrey began to press backward, and Orage moved sluggishly to his urging.
When he came into the yard behind the house, Geoffrey was horrified to see that it was just thata yard. On all sides they were blocked off by a tall fence. Before he could berate Joanna for the false hope she had raised in him, she was proffering the ax and pointing to a locked gate. Geoffrey stared for a moment, sick with disappointment. Then, doggedly, he took the ax and struck.
"I'll have to kill Orage," he said with the second blow. "I cannot leave him here to die in the fire."
"Kill him? Leave him here? Certainly not!" Outrage brought Joanna's voice to its usual full timbre.
A knight's destrier was a valuable piece of property. It was not unknown for a man to pledge a small estate to buy a really good horse. Joanna had been strongly oriented to the preservation of property by her mother; in fact, she would struggle to that end nearly to the last breath in her body. The thought of voluntarily destroying or abandoning so valuable an animal was an abomination to her. She was not surprised at what she considered Geoffrey's casual attitude toward his possession. Her mother had explained that men were idiots about such things. From her own experience, Joanna knew that her father had been most careless about his personal possessions and Ian was just as bad, giving away farms and other things (if Alinor did not stop him) as if they could be replaced by wishing. It was a wife's duty to curb such extravagance as best she could.
Geoffrey cast a glance at her over his shoulder. She was standing very near, just out of range of the swinging ax, straight and tall, apparently quite calm, and firmly gripping

 
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