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and Justiciar, the Bishop of Ely, does not agree with you. He has sent my deputy notice that he will displace him with a new warden for the lands of Lady Alinor and a new Sheriff of Sussex." |
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A deathly silence fell upon the Hall. Even the barons of the continental lands, who had been silent out of politeness or had been conversing together very softly because they felt this was an English matter of no particular interest to them, were startled into breathless attention. Richard looked out upon a sea of faces turned to stone, upon bodies stiffly tense. Every pair of eyes was wary, incipient rage leashed in by expectationevery pair of eyes but two. Longchamp glared at Simon, and in his brother John's eyes Richard saw an ugly hope. |
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It was that, far more than his mother's careful, logical exhortation, that saved Simon at that moment. John hoped that Richard would side with Longchamp. He could then portray himself as the supporter of right custom, and every disaffected malcontent would flock to him to raise rebellion against the absent King. Not in England, Richard thought contemptuously, mistaking the more stolid manners of the northern magnates for cowardice, but his own hot-tempered Poitevins were measuring his action too. And William Longchamp was little better loved in Poitiers than in England. |
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That thought made Richard cast an angry glance at Simon, although it was directed more at his type than at him as an individual. They hated Longchamp for what he was rather than for what he did, the King told himself resentfully. Or, perhaps, they hated him because his only loyalty lay with Richard. Longchamp mouthed no platitudes about the well-being of the realm. He did his master's bidding and had no extraneous loyalties, like Simon's to "honesty" in treatment of that girl ward of his. Longchamp would have squeezed much more from Sussex and the Devaux estates. Nonetheless, Richard knew Simon would not |
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