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Page 65
"Mind your tongue before my sister," Richard said, half jesting, but with the jest covering a warning as servants entered the room to empty the bath water. Simon drew a breath; the servants belonged to the brother of the king.
"My brother-by-marriage is tied with bond upon bond," Simon said. "He could no more fail to support the king than my Lord of Cornwall."
Reminded of something that had been overwhelmed in his sister's excited greeting and then in Simon's news, Richard asked, "Where is Cornwall?"
"He had business with the king," Isabella said, staring hard at her brother and then letting her eyes slip to the servants and back again. "I sent word that you had come. He will be here as soon as he can."
Simon's breath drew in again, but Richard's eyes flicked to him and he said nothing. As if the preceding question and answer were of no importance, Richard said, "You were knighted before my brother died, were you not?"
"Yes, my lord."
"Do you now hold, or have you taken over your father's meinie?"
"Papa is not so old as that," Simon said. "In any case, the lands are mostly my mother's. They will be Geoffrey's to worry about whenbut that will be many, many years.
"Lord Geoffrey's?" Richard asked, actually interested as well as relieved to have an unexceptional subject to discuss while the servants tidied the room. "How does that come about? Is not Adam your mother's eldest son?"
"Yes, but Adam inherited his father's lands. My mother has full power over her own, and chooses to leave them in the female line. My sister Joanna will hold Roselynde and my mother's other honors, and it is already settled that the bulk of the lands will go after her to Sybelle, and then to Sybelle's eldest daughter."

 
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