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Page 334
attraction to their minds. She loved them allmen and womenand the more she loved them, the more some Unnamable terror gripped her.
In Oxford Rhiannon had spent most of her time with the older women, but Alinor had realized that Rhiannon was not happy visiting and gossiping. Moreover, she knew that the wider society of London would only provide more jealous women to tell tales of Simon. Thus in London it was Sybelle who kept Rhiannon company. They soon found a common ground in their interest in the art of healing. Hours were spent in the carefully tended gardens, discussing the herbs and exchanging recipes for febrifuges and strengthening draughts, for pesticides and poisons. Sybelle knew the science of the cultivated herbs best, but Rhiannon knew more of the flora that grew wild in the forest, how to cull the mandrake so that its cry when torn from the earth would not drive one mad, and of those shy plants that grew only on the mossy banks of slowly trickling, deep-shaded brooks.
Less certainly but with increasing confidence, they also exchanged views concerning men and marriage. Sybelle was much the younger in years but, because of her upbringing, was by far the more experienced and knowing on these subjects. As the putative chatelaine of the great lands of Roselynde, she needed to be able to hold her own against any man. Even though she would be protected by an adamantine marriage contract plus her brothers and other male relations who would take up arms in her defense if it was necessary, that would be a'very undesirable way to solve differences of opinion with her husband.
Sybelle was mostly concerned with her own doubts about the wisdom of taking Walter de Clare in marriage. She was greatly attracted to him, more than to any other man she knew, and her father favored him because of the disposition of his estates. However, Sybelle was afraid that the passion and strength of

 
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