|
|
|
|
|
|
gymnastics, useless owing to a total lack of informationwhen a servant approached her with a letter in hand. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sybelle reached eagerly for the folded parchment before the servant spoke, hoping the letter was from Walter and fearing it was from Bassett to say her husband was hurt or dead. In fact, in her anxiety she almost broke the seal before looking at it, but as her nails caught at the wax, she remembered that it was most likely of all that the letter was not for her but for Sir Roland, and she looked questioningly at the servant who said, "For the lord or lady, and the messenger did not wait." |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
"The lord or lady" did not answer the question of whether the letter was for her or Sir Roland, but it immediately relieved any fear that what she held announced that harm had come to Walter. Sybelle looked down at the device on the seal, but it meant nothing to her and she did not study it closely. Doubtless the letter was from a friend or relative of Sir Roland. She turned it idly as she began to lay it on the small table that held her embroidery silks so that the superscription caught her eye. The letter was for Walter, and the handwriting was almost certainly not that of a scribe. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Curiously, Sybelle turned it over again to look more carefully at the seal. Who would know that Walter was expected at Clyro? Whose seal would be unfamiliar to her? It was a small seal, too. Sybelle hesitated, thinking that it might not be her business to know who was writing to Walter, and then shook her head. Nonsense. All of Walter's business was hers, and hers his. They were married, one flesh and one blood now. What if the letter were from young Gloucester or from some friend appealing for help? Sybelle carried the letter to where the light was better and looked carefully at the outlines in the wax. Then her lips thinned to a hard line. The seal was small, but it had been pressed carefully, most carefully, into wax of just the right consistency. Les Maures, although bent around a curve, was easy enough to read. |
|
|
|
|
|