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Page 370
"Walter!" Sybelle's voice was sharp. "Have you no more to say to me than that?"
"Not now," he replied. "I must speak first to Marie." He was so distraught that he did not realize how such a remark could be misinterpreted.
Sybelle gasped with outrage. "You must speak to Marie before me? I am your wife. I do not know how other wives feel about such things, but I know you have been warned that I am not the woman to share my husband with another."
"Do not be a fool," Walter snarled. "I do not care a broken groat for Marie. I have done her an injury and have an obligation to redress it. That is all."
"You are a fool," Sybelle snapped back. "Can you not see that the woman cares nothing for you, that her one desire is to make trouble between us?" "Do not speak ill of her," Walter said coldly. "I have wronged her, not she me. Nor has she done you any ill, nor wishes to."
"Oh, you are right, I am the fool," Sybelle cried. "From the first, in Builth, I saw there was something between you and Marie, but I deceived myself that it was me you wanted. I believed you spoke the truth when you offered to take me with nothing, but I see that it was Gervase who spoke the truth when she said you wanted me for my wealth and power. That was a clever feint you made. You knew that I would not be given without Roselynde, so it was safe to offer to marry me without a dowry."
"Sybelle, I do not have time for this nonsense," Walter snapped. "You know as well as I that I cannot profit by our marriage except at your pleasure. Would I be such an idiot as to spite you if it were your lands I wanted?"
"Love makes idiots of people," Sybelle spat. "it has made one of me."
"Well, it has not made one of me!" Walter bellowed. "And I do not propose to stand arguing with you while it grows so late that I will have to ride back from Hay in the dark."
"Walter." Sybelle's voice was level and cold as ice. "If you go to your mistress now, you do not need to worry about riding back after dark. You will not be permitted entrance into this keep or any other place where I am."

 
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