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He set foot on the porch but saw that another person knelt, praying and weeping, in the dim interior: Lord Geoffrey

I am not the only troubled soul And were his troubles so very desperate? Discontent was not the saure from the porch of the little church, Ivar sensed that, outside, he waited under the skies of a far finer day than the one that, inside, plagued Geoffrey with rain and tempest Lord Geoffrey had lost his wife, and his cousin--if he had held much affection for the deceased Count Lavastine, which Ivar had no way of deterhter had only a tenuous hold on the county clai held in Autun in the tender care of Lady Sabella The local folk ainst him, and sohtful heir in order to get the lands and title for his daughter and thus--because she was still a child--hiate, the watch bell rang A pair of banners fluttered in the distance as a party of riders approached the holding

"What news?" de from the church

"I don’t know," said Ivar, taken aback by that brusque tone

"Didn’t Biscop Constance send you? Who are those riders?"

"I know no more than you do"

"Then you know that this life is only tears and suffering! Or do you clerics have some psalm for that, to tell us otherwise?"

Ivar couldn’t think of any The psal foes, rejoicing at deliverance, and punishing those who did not act as they should, although the blessed Daisan had taught that to act against what is right was, in a way, its own punishment since huood than what is evil

"The actions of humankind are a ht to know better, and sorunted as if irritated and set out for the gate to greet the newcomers Ivar hastened after hiof a youth raised in a noble house, speak to Geoffrey and Constance while a crowd gathered to listen

"Lady Sabella sends this ent for Lavrentia, count of Lavas ‘Tidings have reachedBiscop Constance, who has foainst me Turn her over into my custody, in Autun, or your sons will be forfeit, executed for your treason’"

"Treason!" Geoffrey raged The er "They are children! The younger hasn’t seen four suainst his forehead and hter sat small and quiet behind him "It would have been better if they had died with their ht to restrain tears

"Despair is a sin, Geoffrey," said Constance, taking hold of his ar his hands down

"Aaze and held it, and after ah the ranks to his friends, aiting beside the hearth The lanced their way, attracted by Ivar’s h the assembly, and dismissed them with a smirk

"I would not have burdened you with my presence if I had known Sabella would threaten you in this particular way," said Constance

"She’s listening to Salian advisers!" Geoffrey see their children to clear their own path to the throne or to riches"

"So the chronicles suggest," agreed Constance in a mild tone that was meant to warn hiht be dead already Then nothing will be served by giving you up to her as well Better stick e know is true Or SabellaShe may not have the heart to kill two innocent children"

"Do you think so?" asked Constance

He swayed, jerking side to side as though tugged this way and that by a sharp pull on a rope "I don’t knohat to think! How can it have all gone wrong? I e myself for them! Let her kill me if she wishes! I would welcome death!"

"Lord Geoffrey! For shahter sobbed into her hands, echoing her father The company of retainers and servants stood in awful silence, and a few crept away like beaten dogs hoping not to be noticed Thethe scene into his ht report Geoffrey’s weakness to Sabella