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Page 517
tion would not arouse curiosity. He would be snapped up as a bonus.
Sir Guy could get little help from Geoffrey or Joanna. Geoffrey was not rational, and Joanna thought her husband was dying and did not care in the least what happened to her or anyone else. Then they had a piece of luck. In a mean village where Sir Guy stopped to buy somethinganythingto eat, the woman he had dealt with, taking him for French, cursed him in English as he paid. Stumblingly, Sir Guy replied in the few words he had of that tongue, rode back in haste to bring Knud, who explained in his native tongue their case and their need. The woman agreed to hide her compatriots.
A place to rest, filthy and odorous as it was but at least warm and dry, sparked a little hope in Joanna. She remembered the name of a merchant from Oostende who had done business with Roselynde and might take a chance and help them in hopes of future favors. In the city, the good luck held. Sir Guy found the merchant cursing the French who had confiscated his merchandise and were generally making business impossible and his life miserable. He was very willing to transport the party to Roselynde. Sir Guy was sure he could trust the merchant. Wars with France might come and go, but trade with Roselynde was not a sometime thing. That would go on for many years and yield a rich profitbut not if the merchant betrayed the daughter of the house.
The trust was well placed. The merchant went himself with a horse litter to fetch Geoffreya sick friend for whom he vouched at the gatesand he did not wait for cargo but sent off his ship with the first outgoing tide. He did not ask for payment either or even for surety; he knew the lady of Roselynde of old. He trusted, he said, to God to reward his good deed; one must cast bread upon the waters sometimes.
His faith was fully rewarded, as he doubtless expected it to be, and the bread he had cast out returned to him, after Geoffrey had been tenderly carried into Roselynde, in silver and gold and jeweled armlets and necklets. Three full car-

 
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