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Page 37
as a deliberate affront to Richard Marshal."
"But why, Simon? I cannot get any sense out of Walter when I ask. He gets so angry he sputters and chokes. And I do not like to ask Papa. He is so unhappy about the king's behavior."
"Are you sure it is the king's behavior that makes Walter sputter and choke?" Simon teased. "You grow more beautiful every day, Sybelle."
That was not a fond uncle's flattery. Sybelle was as beautiful as her mother, if less flamboyant. In Sybelle, Joanna's flame-red hair was muted to a deep golden bronze, and she had her father's changeable light-brown eyes, bright as new-minted gold when she was happy. Her skin was also a blend of her mother's milk-white and Geoffrey's warmer complexion. Altogether, Sybelle was a golden girl, warm and rich as honey in the sun.
"Never mind that," Sybelle said dismissively.
She liked to be flattered as well as the next girl, and she enjoyed Simon's frank approval, but at the moment she did not want Simon to be diverted from the political subject to teasing her about Walter de Clare's interest and the possibility that he would offer for her.
Agreeably, Simon returned to the original subject. "You mean why the king wishes to affront Richard Marshal? I am not sure. There is a rumor that Richard stood against him when the king wanted Margery of Scotland, but I cannot really believe Richard would interfere in such a matter. Then there was the crazy rumor that de Burgh had poisoned William Marshal so that Richard could inherit. The idea was that William had too much influence with the king. Supposedly, de Burgh would be able to control Richard. But I know that was not true. William was my lord, and I was with him when he died." Simon's eyes clouded with remembered pain. He had loved the man he had served as page and squire almost as dearly as he loved his father,

 
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