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Page 186
Just at that moment one of the more important Welsh guests, armed and cloaked for riding, came out of a chamber behind them. He paused to speak a word or two to Walter and Sybelle while servants carried out the last of his baggage. Then, with a jovial hope that Walter's shoulder would be healed in good time for their next enterprise, he strode away. Never slow to recognize a good thing, Walter seized Sybelle's hand and drew her quickly into the chamber, which he hoped was empty. Not only was this hope gratified, but, in addition, a fire was still burning brightly in the small hearth and the room was pleasantly warm.
With battle-trained swiftness and a dexterous twist, Walter released Sybelle's hand and got his arm around her waist, pulling her close to his side. "How can I not wish that you remain with me?" he asked. "But if your parents go . . ."
Sybelle made not the slightest attempt to free herself. In fact, she rested her head confidingly against his shoulder. "Simon and Rhiannon will be hereor somewhere in Wales, but I think not far from Prince Llewelyn, and he, I suppose, must have affairs to discuss with Lord Pembroke. . . ." She let that trail away, and lifted her eyes to watch Walter's face, where eagerness strove with doubt.
"Will they permit you to stay with Simon?" Walter asked. "Your mother spoke somewhat sharply of his heedlessness."
Sybelle smiled. "That is Mama's way. Simon is her 'little brother,' but she knows that he would protect me with his life. And he is steadier now, for he thinks Rhiannon is too wild and that he must be sober for both. I would have asked sooner but I did not know. . . . If you have duties that will keep you away . . ."
Instead of answering that in words, Walter dropped his head and kissed her, at the same time changing his grip so that her body was turned and pressed front to front against his. For a moment she was passive, her mouth unresisting but not answering to his, either. Then, just as doubt and disappointment were rising in Walter, her lips fulled under his, one arm went around his waist and the other around his neck, and she pressed forward.
Sybelle had been taken by surprise. Until that moment, Walter had given none but the subtlest signs of his desire. She had found those restrained touches and glances quite exciting, far more stimulating, in fact, than words, but she had, oddly

 
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