|
|
|
|
|
|
"You may have my own chamber for privacy," Llewelyn offered, "and I will stand witness if you desire." He smiled also. "I do not think I will be long discommoded or kept from my own affairs. I foresee a quick agreement." |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
That was a form of dismissal, and Walter bowed and withdrew, leaving the old friends alone to talk of the past. He should have been content with what he had accomplished, having virtually received assurances that the contract was already as good as made. However, he kept seeing the concern in Sybelle's expression, as if something she had no intention of saying had been forced out of her. By jealousy? Could Sybelle be jealous of Marie? |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
If so, Walter thought, she was a fool. He had passed his word to her father. She must know that he would consider no other woman for wife unless and until he was formally rejected. A wife could not be jealous of a passing bed partneror, at least, should not be. But Walter had not forgotten what Joanna had said . . . and then Prince Llewelyn had virtually repeated it. He had said the women of Roselynde clove like welded iron to their men but demanded the same courtesy. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Although Walter did not lack for company, being handed from one group of young men to another like a refreshment, the conversation did not hold much interest for him. Mostly he was required to discuss what he was beginning to think of as "that accursed battle." Thus his eyes wandered frequently, and nearly every time they did they found Sybelle, and each time he saw her, she was with one of her own menfolk. Certainly she did not dance with any man who was not a member of her family, and even when he saw her in conversation, one of the group was a relative. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Walter grew more and more uneasy. If Sybelle's sudden acceptance of him had been to warn away Marie, was this studied avoidance of all men except those blood-bound to her another signal? And, if so, was he to yield tamely? Was his life to be no longer under his own direction? |
|
|
|
|
|