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rang true to him. "Damn him. I hope I was not too generous in my estimates." |
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"I do not think it matters," Sybelle pointed out. "I would imagine whatever you suggested would be used as a low point. Prince Llewelyn, I would guess, intends to ask for too much. I am sure he prefers to allow raiding. After all, a great deal more is picked up than food." |
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"To speak the truth," Walter said, "some raiding is better for my purposes. If the Welsh lay waste the land as they approach Knight's Tower, Sir Heribert, my late brother's castellan, will be more likely to yield it." |
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Sybelle frowned. "But will that be best? If this Heribert yields at once, what excuse will you have to put him out? You have not previously demanded your dues, I believe. Do you know that he deserves to be dismissed? And, say he does, will he not return and perhaps make trouble as soon as you must leave? The people must be accustomed to obeying Heribert. What of the men-at-arms who are now in Knight's Tower? They must be Heribert's men. Have you replacements for them?" |
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"I have been thinking about just those questions," Walter said, although he was startled by Sybelle's grip of the knottier aspects of his problem. "I think my next move must be to demand my dues." |
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"I think so, too," Sybelle agreed approvingly. "Would you like me to write the letter for you? It is very hard to write when one has only one hand." |
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Walter was surprised again, although this time the sensation was mild and brief. The ability to read and write was not common in women, whose business in the nursery, weaving room, stillroom, and kitchen hardly seemed to require Latin, or even French, prose. Even as that idea passed through Walter's mind, he remembered Geoffrey's remarks. Sybelle would spend little of her time in nursery or stillroom if she managed her own lands. |
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"I do not think I will write," he said slowly. "Since I will be useless for any military action for some weeks, the best I could do to forward Richard's plans would be to obtain the use of Knight's Tower for him. I think I will go in person." |
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"No!" Sybelle cried. "Oh, no. That would be very foolish. It would be . . ." |
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She did not permit herself to finish the sentence. She had |
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