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Page 357
how quickly her party had come so far, Sybelle told herself not to be a fool. Although Walter had asked her to come as swiftly as she could, he probably had not believed she would arrive so soon. Moreover, he had business with Bassett in Clifford. Perhaps he was having difficulty in persuading Bassett not to attack the king. Sir Gilbert was very bitter against Henry.
Good sense almost prevailed against a suspicion Sybelle would not even admit she felt. And she had little time to brood. They went early to bed, and fatigue won out over her smothered doubts. She slept soon and well, and if she dreamed, she did not remember any unpleasantness in the dreams. The next morning Sybelle was caught up in a discussion about Sir Heribert and the conditions in Knight's Tower.
Sir John was naturally curious about the keep he was to manage. He had asked a few questions on the road, but it was difficult to sustain a conversation while riding, and now he pressed Sir Roland and Sybelle for all the information they could supply. Sir Roland had a few points to make about Sir Heribert himself, but he had never been to Knight's Tower. Thus, it was Sybelle to whom most of the questions were addressed. She was far more able than most women would have been to answer, but unlike her mother and grandmother, who could have replied with half their minds on some other subject, she was sufficiently inexperienced that she had to concentrate on what she said.
It was not until after dinner, when Sir Roland and Sir John went off together to look at the war machines on the walls and to discuss attack and defense, and their wives betook themselves to the nursery to talk of babies, that Sybelle had time for her own thoughts. These, as she worked over the embroidery of cuffs to match the collar she had finished for a gown for her husband, were not pleasant, but they were not jealous, either.
It had occurred to Sybelle that if Walter had not been able to dissuade Bassett and Siward from an attack, he might have decided to accompany them in the hope of exerting some control over what the men did. She was counting over the days, trying to calculate how long it might take to organize an attack, and when Bassett would be likely to strike if he were going to do soand in general engaging in a series of mental

 
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