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many troubles. Do not blame him for this small oversight. I will remind him tomorrow of your tie to Llewelyn. He will honor you the more that you served him so faithfully despite that tie and that you do not wish to bring more pain upon a defeated man." |
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Geoffrey looked down at his hands, which were clenched so tight upon the bedclothes that his fingers ached. Deliberately, he loosened them and allowed his hands to lie open. He did not believe a word his father said. Perhaps Salisbury did not lie on purpose; he never could see his brother's real ugly nature. It was true that John had many vassals; however, Geoffrey was not only his nephew but was deputizing for Llewelyn's clan brother. The king could not have forgotten that nor that Geoffrey's knowledge of the Welsh, which John had found so useful, had come from his experiences in Llewelyn's court when he had been Ian's squire. |
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Perhaps, Geoffrey thought, trying to be fair, John could not know that there was real liking between myself and Llewelyn. John was not unreasonably harsh to the squires of his vassals, but he hardly knew they existed. He would never trouble to teach them new songs or show them how to track game, or tease them gently about their conquests in love. The effort to see the king's side of it was not much of a success. Geoffrey had scarcely gotten so far when the first thought recurred. It was not for himself that Geoffrey had been summoned, but as Ian's deputy. John neither knew or cared about what, if any, relationship existed between Geoffrey and Llewelyn. It was to display Geoffrey as Ian's substitute, to point out that the horrible destruction in Wales was his idea, to make bad feeling between Ian and Llewelyn, if it was possible. |
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"I will be obliged to you if you can bring the king to excuse me from attendance upon him while Llewelyn is here," Geoffrey said. Then he lifted his eyes to his father's. "I will not come in any case, unless I am bound hand and foot and dragged. I am sorry if I displease you, father, but I assure you that it is less out of disobedience to the king than out of fear of what I might be driven to do or say." Tears |
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