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upon their drunken companions. An ever-present danger of any large feast was that men, made too truthful by wine, would speak their minds too plainly and come to knives or swords. What was odd was not the outbreak of brawling but the rapidity with which it was silenced. |
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With a chill that brought back all her anxieties, Joanna noticed that surprisingly few of the men were drunk. Certainly John, Ian, Salisbury, and Geoffrey, who all enjoyed a good pull at the wineskin on suitable occasions, were stone-cold sober. Obviously, Geoffrey might have a personal reason not to drink; he did not wish to be incapable of performing his marital duty. A deeper cold washed over Joanna and she thrust that from her mind. But the fact that the others were not allowing themselves to celebrate as they normally would was a bad sign, a very bad sign. Clearly, very few of the guests dared get into a condition in which their tongues might run away with them. |
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Joanna's eyes ran up and down the table and her fears were confirmed by what she saw on her mother's and Lady Ela's faces. They were characteristically different, of course. Lady Alinor looked wary and dangerous, her hazel eyes bright, her body tense with impatience. Joanna almost smiled. Her mother could never bear to wait for trouble. These days she was, perhaps, less eager to stir it up, but if she knew trouble was inevitable, she wished to face it at once. Lady Ela looked near to weeping with anxiety. Her hands clutched the table to hide their shaking, but she talked whiningly and continuously of how dreadful it was to be married, how harsh and inconsiderate husbands were, and did much to distract everyone's mind from real fears. For all her trembling and weeping, Ela would be a staunch support to her husband, and she would go down with him with no regret except that she could not save him. |
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Isabella, on the other hand, seemed hardly aware of the disturbance, how quickly it was quelled, or what that signified. She looked rather like an exquisite, self-satisfied cat that had got successfully intoand out ofthe family cream pitcher. Joanna wondered a little at the queen's indif- |
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