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Walter looked at the most attractive woman he knew as if she had sprouted a second head, then glanced at Adam to see whether he would laugh at the joke. Adam, however, merely nodded acknowledgment. He knew Gilliane would do what was necessary. His statement had been a mark of irritation, not an expression of a real anxiety. Before Walter could remark on so startling an idea, he was diverted by Ian. |
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"Men do vent their rage when they can," Ian remarked. "Thus, if they have not come, it is fear, not rage, that restrains them. I have heard the lesser men say that there is a plan to seize those without strong overlords, to disseisin them, and to send Poitevins or other foreigners to take their lands." |
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"That is ridiculous," Geoffrey said. |
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Walter nodded. "Cornwall and Ferrars are worried, but not about such a thing as that. They talk to Henry and he wavers toward giving assurances that he will proceed only according to strict law. Then the Bishop of Winchester gets at him and tells him that he will be a laughingstock, forever shamed as a weakling, if he yields. But there is this shadow of a substance to the fear you mentioned, Lord Ian. Isabella tells me that there are foreigners in courtmen with considerable retinues, although what they live on is a puzzleand they flatter Henry and tell him that they would not so defy him if they were his vassals." |
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"This is madness," Ian sighed. "Henry is behaving like a child" |
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"Which is not exactly unusual," Sybelle snapped, thrusting a goblet of wine into Walter's hand. |
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Walter was so surprised by her interposition into the conversation that his hand almost failed to close, but Geoffrey and Ian, the two who had the most right to correct her, merely shrugged in a jaundiced way in agreement with what she had said. |
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"It is not Henry I blame," Ian went on. "Peter des Roches must know that he is pushing the king down a |
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