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Page 48
been right and that she did know about the war but chose to ignore it.
"Because more and more men have flocked to Richard," Walter replied, "and, to speak the truth, because Prince Llewelyn has actively entered the fray."
"Are you implying that a Welsh savage can win a war when half the nobility of England could not?" Gervase asked distastefully.
"Prince Llewelyn is not a savage," Walter replied with a slightly condescending smile, as if he knew something she did not. "Indeed, he may act the barbarian from time to time to trap an enemy, or in society to make fools of those stupid enough to fall into the assumption that he is lees than he really is. It is a sport with him to expose silly people ignorant enough to look down on him as crude and uncivilized before they have met him. His court is only waiting to laugh at those who behave contemptuously."
"That does not seem to me to be polite and civilized behaviorto make fun of your guests," Gervase remarked, but her expression was wary.
"Oh, Prince Llewelyn himself is always polite," Walter said innocently, rather stretching a point, for Llewelyn could be both crude and vicious when it was expedient. "His speech is fine and gentle, but he sometimes asks questions that might seem simpleminded or makes remarks that could be taken as naive. When an unwise person replies contemptuously or with a sneer, then the jaws of the trap close. To anyone who is civil, Prince Llewelyn is most gracious. But this is silly talk. So elegant a lady as yourself could not be other than gentle and forbearing in speech, even to those whose manners are a trifle rough. Neither you nor Lady Marie, I am sure, have anything to fear from Prince Llewelyn."
Walter was relieved to see that this combination of veiled threat and gross and false flattery, which his own experience contradicted, had made Gervase thoughtful. Marie, on the other hand, seemed unaffected, but this was not because she intended to be rude. She had dismissed that idea when she conceived the notion that Richard had presented Walter as a possible second husband and that the wedding at Builth would permit her to examine other available men. Marie was no longer interested in spiting Richard; she was quite pleased with him. Although she did not find Walter physically attractive,

 
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