|
|
|
|
|
|
raising the question directly, they confined themselves to the subject of Simons betrothal, praising the brideto-be, and requesting permission to present her. Their forbearance had the excellent result of gaining Ian a quit-claim for his son's marriage without the customary fine for marrying whomsoever he chose. Nonetheless, Ian would gladly have paid the fine to escape seeing how Henry's eyes shifted when Geoffrey uttered a mild neutral hope that they would soon see the Earl of Pembroke at court. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
They rode home with heavy hearts to discover that the womenfolk were equally uneasy. Without moving more than the few hundred yards between houses, all were aware of even worse news than their men had uncovered. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
With the instinct of a bee attracted to honey, Walter de Clare had homed in on Sybelle's presence. He did not approach her directlytheir last meeting was still too vivid in his mindbut he had spoken to Joanna. Her exclamation of distress had brought Gilliane and Sybelle. In view of the coming trouble, the past disagreement between Walter and Sybelle had been interred without even a hint of a funeral service. Naturally, Joanna brought her package of worry to Alinor, so Rhiannon had also heard. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Moreover, Alinor and Rhiannon had a message from Simon that he and Adam were riding to Wallingford to see Cornwall. The fact that this was necessary only seemed to confirm Walter's news: Henry would not give up Usk and intended, if Richard Marshal came to demand it in person, to seize him as a rebel and imprison him. This, of course, was Walter's dramatic version of the rumors that seethed and surged around Oxford. This was worse than Ian and Geoffrey had expected; they had assumed that Henry would hold out pardon for the ceding of Usk and future good behavior. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The worst was confirmed when Simon and Adam |
|
|
|
|
|