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Page 340
Chapter 26
When Sybelle and Walter had agreed to be married so quickly, most of the arrangements for a wedding celebration were put aside. However, Alinor had not wished to deny the common folk their pleasure, and she had sent out word to all the farms and villages within a day's walk that the next day was to be a holiday and that there would be food and drink for the taking in the town of Roselynde. While Walter and Sybelle had enjoyed each other, cattle, pigs, and sheep had been slaughtered, roasting pits had been made ready, and permission granted to cut wood for use in them. The town bakers had mixed ten times the usual batches of dough for bread and cakes, brewers had rolled out kegs of ale and beer, and vintners had broached casks of wine.
In the morning, the wedding party returned to the bedchamber of the bridal couple to examine the sheets. These were properly bloodied, but after they were displayed and carried away to serve as evidence in case the bride's purity should ever be questioned, gravity and dignity departed.
"It is just as well that blood is blood and no one can tell from whom or from where it came." Sybelle giggled. "You have capped your other gifts with the saving of my good name. But what a shame it is that we did not know I was like my grandmother and had no maidenhead to broach. Think of your trouble to bring me untouched to my wedding bedall wasted."
Walter had been laughing also. He was in no doubt as to his wife's virginity despite the fact that he had found no impediment to entry into her. In fact, he knew he had caused her considerable pain although he had taken time enough to make her eagerly ready, and it had not been easy to deliver the gift he had promised. It had been necessary for him to withdraw and to ease his passage with one of the unguents

 
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