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Page 16
"Blood is a sacred tie to Henry," Ian reiterated. "He will never strike at Geoffrey, just as he has never acted vengefully toward Richard of Cornwall."
"Sit down, Papa," Simon urged.
"Do you think I am exhausted from walking down the stairs," Ian teased, "or do you want me to sit so I will not collapse with shock when you tell me you want all of us to join Richard Marshal's party?"
Joanna frowned furiously at her half-brother, and Ian smiled at her, slipped an arm around her waist, and kissed her brow. Alinor laughed. She had grown somewhat heavier with the years and her black hair was now iron gray, but her acerbic personality had not changed and her eyes snapped and sparkled as clearly as Simon's.
"Perhaps it is time you presented your lord with a new young one, Joanna, and stopped trying to be a mother to Ian and to me," Alinor remarked, smiling. "We are neither blind nor stupid. We hear quite welleven what is not said aloud."
"Then I assume you have heard that Henry is become insufferable," Simon snarled.
"It is not so much Henry himself as the Bishop of Winchester and that bastard of his," Adam said, trying to smooth over the vicious tone in Simon's voice.
"Peter of Rivaulx is said to be Winchester's nephew," Ian corrected absently, while his mind was obviously elsewhere. Then he sighed and went to join Geoffrey. "Winchester has been too long out of this country. He seems to have forgotten everything he once knew about the English."
"No," Geoffrey said softly, "no. He has not forgotten. He remembers very well. He always hated the fact that power in this realm was divided by right between the barons and the king. He was as strong for the king's uncontested right in John's day as now, but John was so hated that Winchester realized any effort to curb the barons would bring war. In the end John tried it,

 
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