For he did, he was too suspicious, too quick to read tK worst into men's motives. Not, she added loyally, that he had no cau^ for mistrust. Many of the Norman barons had gone over to Philip at tne first chance. Joanna had spent much time in the past year seeking to puzzle j( out, how her father's luck could have soured so swiftly in the months after Mirebeau. She'd even attempted to discuss it with John, but had been rebuffed with unwonted sharpness. And Isabelle had been no help whatsoever. She was interested only in consoling John for his loss, not in analyzing the whys and wherefores. It was from her Uncle Will that Joanna had gotten most of her answers. He'd admitted that John had blundered in freeing Hugh <3e Lusignan and in alienating William des Roches. But he'd told her, too, that John's mistakes were threads woven into a larger pattern. "In some ways, Joanna, John is reaping the crop Richard sowed. Mayhap Richard could have held on to the lands for a while longer, but that is all.
