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Page 179
had been at work with their knives and longbows. It was also very convenient for Simon, who stopped in the deep shadow beside it to unfasten and unroll his cloak. This he donned, pulling the hood well over his head and down to conceal his blackened face. Then he strode out boldly, kicked awake the first man he saw, and asked where Lord Geoffrey FitzWilliam's men were quartered.
When he had found the area he needed, Simon strolled idly around the tents until he found Tostig, whom he shook awake, just dodging back in time to save himself a punctured throat but not quickly enough to prevent Tostig from seizing him by the ankle.
"Some welcome," he grumbled, a bit nettled at having been caught.
"Sir Simon," Tostig gasped, recognizing the voice. "Whatever are you doing here?"
Simon tensed. "Keep your voice down. What do you mean, what am I doing here? Is there some reason I should not be here? Damn and blast, did Henry learn I was with Richard and outlaw me?"
"Nothat is, you have not been outlawed. As for the rest, I cannot say, but I heard my master tell the Earl of Cornwall that you had gone back to Wales."
Well, we are in Wales," Simon said. "Is Geoffrey here?"
"Asleep in his tent. Sir Simon, it is the middle of the night!"
Simon grinned. "Yes, well, there are reasons I could not come calling by day."
"Yes, my lord." Tostig sighed. "Be careful you do not step on the boys. They sleep near the opening to protect my lordfor all that is worth. Both of them sleep like logs."
Simon laughed softly. He did not blame Geoffrey's squires if they did sleep heavily, although he guessed the remark was partly engendered by Tostig's anxiety for his master. Simon remembered his own campaigns

 
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