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Page 469
pack clothing; the men to make ready the mistress's tent and arrange the little furniture necessary; the cooking pots and bedding, to go into packs that could be fitted on horses and mules. Sir Guy raised his eyes to God for a moment, but he started away to call a messenger and choose the men-at-arms that would ride with them.
Well before dawn the next day they were on the road, and by midafternoon were approaching Kemp. Before they reached the castle, where the men hoped to at least dismount and stretch their legs, Adam met them in the road. Joanna's messenger, spurred by his mistress's threat, had arrived with the dawn. Then Adam, no more dilatory than his sister and galvanized by the news of Geoffrey's safety, sprang into action. He had ridden to Halfand himself, astride one of the great, swift gray stallions. It was no more than twenty miles, and he was back at Kemp in time to meet Joanna with disappointing news.
"He is not there," Adam called as soon as he identified Joanna surely.
She laid her whip on her mare so violently that the tired beast closed the gap between herself and her brother in a few strides. "Dead? Oh, my God, do not say he is dead!"
"No, but Sir Walter gave him as a surety for a debt to FitzWalterof all people."
Joanna closed her eyes for a moment, but when she opened them her jaw was set hard. "Do you know where FitzWalter bides?"
"I have done better than just find that out," Adam assured her. "I know where Sir Léon himself is, and Sir Walter has already written to the man who holds him that you come to redeem his debt and that Sir Léon is to be given into your hands. If you have the money, we can go at once."
"I have the money," Joanna said, "but what do you mean 'we' can go at once?"
Adam's bright hazel eyes darkened. "You know how mama can sometimes 'smell' trouble coming? Well, this time I smell it."
"Sir Walter?"

 
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