|
|
|
|
|
|
tling him to the ground and raping him right in front of my mother's face. Before my father died, when Ian had no hope of gaining Mama, why should he have resisted? And Simon and Adam are different, too. They have been raised from childhood with Ian as their mentor. He drummed it into their heads that a man may playindeed, that he should playin his youth so that he will know what he wants in a wife and then be content only with her. You, too, my love, learned from Ian." |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Geoffrey's mouth twisted with distaste. "I did not need his lessons. I had seen to much of the other side of the coin already at King John's court. But what makes you doubt that Walter knows what he wants? I will say to you plainly, my love, that if Sybelle is willing, I would welcome the match. And there is another advantage, also. We would not be swamped with an army of dubious relatives. The de Clares have had bad luck in this past generation. Walter is the last of the cadet branch, and there is no one in the senior branch except young Gloucester." |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
"That is a good thing," Joanna agreed readily, with a spark of enthusiasm. "All the lands are his, and he will have best claim to the earldom of Gloucester if something should happen to young RichardGod forbid it should, for he is a sweet boy. More important, I think Walter will cling to us. He is lonely for a hearth and home." |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
"Yes, which is another reason I think he will make a good husband to Sybelle," Geoffrey insisted. "And I do not think you need to fear that he will wander. She will know how to hold him once she has himwill she not, my love?" |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
"You are right," Joanna said with a little more confidence. Then she smiled and reached down and tickled Geoffrey in a very sensitive spot. "Or, if she does not, then it is your fault and you are different from other men. I could not teach my daughter what I did not know, and all I know I learned from you." |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Geoffrey made no verbal response to his wife's challenge. He had a more interesting and exciting use for his mouth than talking, and, he thought, as he sighed with pleasure and felt Joanna shiver with delight, a better way of convincing his wife that the joys of marriage should not be longer withheld from Sybelle. |
|
|
|
|
|