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uneasy. Walter woke, then slept again, only to slide into far more intimate fantasies. He woke again with an urgent need. |
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For a time he lay quiet, expecting wakefulness to calm him, but his waking mind was almost as unruly as his sleeping one. Finally, groaning softly with stiffness and frustration, Walter sat up and slid carefully out of his cot to go to the garderobe. Perhaps if he relieved his bladder, this other urgency would also dissipate. The cot creaked, and Walter paused to look at Sybelle's brothers. There was no sense in waking the boys. Neither of them stirred, which drew a smile from Walter in memory of his own sound sleep at that age. He rose, pulled his nightrobe awkwardly over his shoulders, and began to pick his way carefully to the door. Just as he reached it, there was a gentle touch on his arm. |
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"Do you need something, Sir Walter?" Joanna asked. softly. |
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"Only to piss. I am very sorry if I wakened you," he replied in a whisper. |
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"It does not matter," she said, gesturing toward the hall where a gray light could be seen. "It is almost dawn. You do not feel ill? You are sure?" |
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"Not at all," he assured her earnestly, and then added, "I am only restless." |
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Joanna arranged the night robe more securely around him, then, suddenly, smiled. "You are very eager to be put out of your miseryor into it?" |
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"Yes," Walter replied, frowning. "But I do not understand. I thought" He glanced back toward the place he had slept beside her sons, as if he were one of them. |
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"I am sorry," she said hastily. "I did not mean to imply you would be refused, but it is possible that you . . . Go. I hear Geoffrey stirring. He will be ready to speak to you when you return. It will be better this way, for there will be no need to explain your going apart with him if there is an unexpected problem." |
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Walter made his way to the waste shaft in a very thoughtful frame of mind. Even if he had not desired Sybelle for herself, it was hard to imagine any conditions in which a man in his position would refuse a marriage alliance with the Roselynde clan. Unless . . . Walter stopped abruptly and set his jaw. Unless the condition was that he abandon Pembroke's cause. Suddenly he remembered the way Sybelle had been silent and |
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