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Page 65
of his arrival to Abergavenny. If he could, Richard's letter said, he would come at once, but there were signs of renewed activity from two of Henry's men, Baldwin de Guisnes, who held Monmouth keep, and John of Monmouth, who was at Grosmont. Walter considered and decided to go to Abergavenny himself. Things had progressed to such a point between Marie and himself that he would need to make a definite move in one direction or the other now that they were in a keep of substantial size where privacy might be found if assiduously sought.
Walter could not deny his strong physical desire for Marie nor that she encourage him, and he could not bring himself to reject her out of hand; however, if Richard had plans to use his sister-by-marriage to make a political alliance, Walter knew he could discipline himself. The safest move, then, was to commend the ladies to the care of the castellan, soothe them by assuring them he was going personally to bring Richard to Brecon as swiftly as possible, and remove himself to a safe distance.
Arriving at Abergavenny not long after the prayers at None, Walter found that Richard had gone south to Usk that morning. Since it was only about ten miles farther, Walter continued on and finally came into the Earl of Pembroke's presence as the early dusk of the end of November was darkening the sky. Walter was greeted affectionately, but with a certain amount of regretwhich amused him. Although the regret was somewhat mitigated by his report that he felt sure the ladies would behave with the utmost propriety at Builth, Richard still seemed relieved that Walter had arrived too late for them to leave for Brecon that day.
Also, since it was impossible for Richard to dismiss the subject of his wife and sister-by-marriage without at least decent inquiries as to their health and well-being, Walter had adequate opportunity to discover what he wanted to know. It was soon clear that Richard was totally indifferent to what Marie did and that he felt union with her would make enemies rather than allies for him.
"In God's name," he said to Walter, perceiving both more and less than Walter had anticipated, "you are not thinking of marrying her, are you? Believe me, for all her grand airs, her dower is not worth itand if it were ten times as much, it still would not be worth it."

 
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