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Page 289
"And what if he will not act?" Marie cried. "He let my lands be taken, although it was his duty to return them to me."
"Then . . . then we will see," Gervase answered, fondly hoping neither Richard nor Sir Walter would return to Abergavenny until long after it was possible for Marie to claim she was pregnant with Sir Walter's child; in which case, no matter what Marie said, Richard would laugh at her. "But we will do something," Gervase added, hurriedly seeing the fury in Marie's face and desiring to pacify her.
She might not have been successful in her attempt to keep Marie quiet if Sybelle and Rhiannon had come to sit with them, but they did not. When every bruise had been salved on the men-at-arms, they were reminded by the tolling of the church bells that it was Christmas Day. Forgoing dinner, for which neither had the smallest appetite, they hurried to the church. No day seemed more appropriate to prayer.
To whom Rhiannon prayed, Sybelle did not ask. Rhiannon made the proper responses during the Mass, but afterward she whispered softly in her own tongue. In fact, Sybelle was glad of it. It mattered not a pin to her if the power that preserved Simon and Walter were approved by the church in which she worshipped. If the old gods still had strength here in Wales, she was glad Rhiannon knew how to appeal to them. Sybelle would have prayed to them herself if she had known howor to the devil for that matter. But being in church, she did what was best known to her, giving silver to the priest and making offerings at every shrine.
Then, without a word spoken but knowing what the other wanted, Sybelle and Rhiannon made their way up to the walls. The guards were surprised but did not say them nay, and they stood long there, staring eastward despite the cold and bitter wind. They went to Mass at Vespers, too, and then back to the wall. But no sign came, and, at last, the light failing, they went within to stand shivering by the fire.
By then Marie's first rage had faded, and Gervase had managed to instill in her a sense of fear and caution. She looked hatefully at Sybelle, but she would have had to stick a dagger into Sybelle's side to draw her attention. There was little talk as they ate the evening meal, and after that, Rhiannon sang. She did so to ease her own heart, for her music was her

 
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