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face; he, too, liked Walter and thought the marriage would be most suitable. There would be time enough to interfere if he found that the pressure being put on Sybelle was making her unhappy. And Sybelle's answer to her grandmother's prodding confirmed his decision. |
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"I do not wish to say no," Sybelle admitted. "I know I must marry soon, and Walter is attractive to me, but . . . but I am not sure he will make a good husband." |
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In Hemel two days later, Sybelle's parents, Lord Geoffrey Fitz William and his wife, Lady Joanna, also were discussing the subject of Simon's marriage to Rhiannon. They had received both their daughter's letter, informing them that Ian and Alinor would attend the wedding, and Prince Llewelyn's invitation within an hour of each other. |
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It was just dusk and the torches along the walls of the great hall had already been lit. Hemel was old, and the narrow slit windows, deep-set into the thick walls, provided little light even on a sunny day. Covered with thin, scraped, oiled skins to keep out the worst of the wind and cold, the windows might just as well not have existed in a November dusk. |
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However, the lord's place by one of the great hearths was cozy enough. A huge fire roared and leapt in the fireplace, tall wrought-iron candlesticks holding fat candles of real bees-wax gave light without smoke or stench, cushioned chairs provided comfortable seating, and carved footstools raised the feet above the drafts that swept along the floors. Nonetheless, many of the servants seated on stools or even on the thickly strewn rushes that covered the floors were more at ease than their master and mistress. Their lives, if not necessarily happy, were at least simple. They had only to obey; they were not troubled by divided loyalties or theoretical questions of right and wrong. |
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Joanna watched her husband anxiously. She knew the contents of the letters he had just read, and she wanted very much to see her half brother, Simon, married for she loved him dearly. Because her mother had been as deeply involved in political affairs as her stepfather and usually with him wherever he went, when Joanna was a girl she had often had the care of Roselynde and of Simon. He was as much eldest son as youngest brother in her heart. |
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Nonetheless, Joanna did not feel she could urge Geoffrey |
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