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Page 354
letter, he pointed out, if she received it before Walter arrived in Clyro.
Marie laughed. ''Then I will send another, tearfully asking why he did not respond to my first letter, which will surely make him ask what happened to it. Walter is not the man to take kindly to a wife's interfering with his life. He may come a day or two later, but he will come all the same, and Sybelle will be all the angrier."
Sir Heribert was about to argue further, for it was essential for him to know when Walter would arrive. Marie would be comfortable enough inside Hay, but he did not wish to camp out for several days in winter weather. Then it occurred to him that he could not, without detection, keep a large troop of men near enough to the manor to be sure of getting at Walter, and he raised that question.
"You will not need a large troop," Marie said. "How many men will it take to overpower a naked man? And why should, you camp out? You and ten or fifteen men or even twenty can come to the manor as an escort."
Heribert shook his head. "Where would you get such an escort if you have quarreled with your sister? If Sir Walter sees the men, he will be suspicious, and if we try to hide the men, the bailiff will certainly think it peculiar and might even warn Sir Walter to avoid trouble in his house."
But in spite of his arguments, Marie would not be moved. She insisted that the letter go to Clyro so that Sybelle would know of it. Eventually Heribert yielded because it came to him that Sybelle's knowledge of Marie's letter would be evidence beyond his assertion that Marie had devised the plan that led to Walter's death. It would be an extra insurance that she would be silent.
He could bring two or three men, Heribert thought. The bailiff would think nothing of that, nor would he think it odd if the men made themselves scarce after they arrived. He might be no match for Sir Walter alone, but three or four of them should be enough to hold him, particularly if Marie could manage to get him unarmed and into bed. A man stationed near the road could gallop off to bring the rest of the troop as soon as he saw Walter arrive, and the troop should be at the manor house in plenty of time because Heribert assumed it would take as much as half an hour for Marie to do her part. If Walter came at all, for whatever reason, he

 
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