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Page 15
"But was it Henry's?" Joanna asked. She was grateful and relieved that the subject had come up in this natural way. She had tried several times to soothe Geoffrey's anguish, but he had, as was his unfortunate habit, closed his bitterness inside himself. "Henry is fond of your father," she continued. ''To me, it appears more like a move Winchester might suggest, thinking that to spare your father you would violate the oath you made to Richard. And I will add this: I do not think it beyond Winchester's duplicity to have summoned your father on his own, telling him that he must speak and act as if his coming to the king was his own idea and desire."
"But why would Papa. . . . Oh, God! Very likely you are right, Joanna. Of course, that snake would have written to Papa and said that the king was greatly angeredwhich, I must say, must have been trueand that if Papa would come with his men, Henry would be appeased and do neither me nor my sons harm. Bishop! That one should be a bishop in Satan's church, not God's."
"Well", Joanna temporized, "we do not know which man was at fault, and very likely we will never know. Having given his word, your father will stick to it, buckle and thong, that it was his own ideayou will see."
Geoffrey nodded, his gaze abstracted. Plainly he was reconsidering his plans in a light less owing to a raging fury with the king. Watching his face, Joanna could have wept for joy. Ten years in age seemed to have lifted from him and an aeon of bitterness. Unlike Ian, Geoffrey was not suffused with love for all mankindnor womankind, either. Geoffrey regarded humanity in general with a jaundiced eye, and he saw clearly the defects even of those he loved best. Nonetheless, those he loved, he loved hard, despite their imperfections. There were not many outside of his father and stepmother, their children, and his relations by marriage, but prominent among those were King Henry and Henry's brother, Richard of Cornwall.
If Geoffrey was often irritated by Henry's fits and starts, the enthusiasms that went too far, the way Henry pushed blame on others, and his occasional temper tantrums, he was also closet to the king in his love of music and art. Geoffrey truly appreciated the soaring cathedrals Henry was having built and the marvelous sculptures with which they were being decorated. Henry had made Geoffrey rich, and Geoffrey gave lavishly of those riches to the king's artistic pursuits

 
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