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Page 234
gether in Sybelle's mind, she realized that Walter was trying to avoid Marie and also to keep her apart from Marie. With that realization came another: Almost certainly Marie's hints were true; she had been Walter's mistress.
Without a word, Sybelle turned away. It was fortunate that her sense of dignity would not permit her to run. The need to control her body and the brief period it took her to walk to the part of the keep in which her chamber lay gave time for her first raging burst of jealousy to ease and for her to change her mind about refusing to go anywhere with Walter. Then there was the need to give orders about carrying the packed baskets down to where the horses would be waiting and to speak a few last words to her mother's maid, Edwina, who had also been left behind for Sybelle's convenience. During this time Sybelle did not permit herself to think consciously of Walter and Marie. Nonetheless, some process inside her must have been picking over the evidence because when she was ready for riding, booted, gloved, cloaked, and hooded for the long, cold journey, she had reached some very soothing conclusions.
First was that it did not seem possible to Sybelle for Walter to have had any relationship with the woman since he had arrived in Builth. Second was that she herself had seen him discourage Marie from the day he had asked her father for her in marriage. Third, Marie's very viciousness the moment Walter was away and unlikely to hear of it was a strong indication that he had probably broken off the affair. Had he still been sniffing after her, Marie would have acted superior and condescending and would have been far more eager to keep the relationship a secret.
These conclusions did not wipe out the jealousy Sybelle felt, but they gave it a new direction. After all, Sybelle had been taughtindeed, she herself had told it to Rhiannon many times before Rhiannon had agreed to marry Simonthat what a man had done before his marriage was not subject to a wife's criticism. A wife's rights began only after the bonding, and it was the wife's business to make herself so interesting that her husband had no cause to look elsewhere for pleasure and entertainment. Had not her mother reminded her that Walter was no callow boy, that he was a man with a man's experience?
Then his look that very morning when he said I love you came back to her and the other times when his expression, his

 
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