Lady Sybil's Choice: A Tale of the CrusadesHolt, Emily Sarah
History
Lady Sybil's Choice: A Tale of the Crusades
Holt, Emily Sarah
Crusades -- Fiction; Historical fiction
Well, I knew all the while it was nonsense, but I did feel so miserable
I could not tell what to do. I know Raoul and Guillot have a notion
that they are only fulfilling the ends of their being by teasing their
sisters; but it was something so very new for Guy.
"But thou wilt not give over loving _me_, Guy?" I wailed, and I am sure
there were tears in my voice as well as my eyes.
"My dear, foolish little Lynette!" said Guy, half laughing, and
smoothing my hair; "dost thou not know me any better than that? Why, I
shall be afraid of talking nonsense, or sense either, if thou must needs
take it to heart in that style."
I felt rather comforted, but I did not go on with that. There was
something else that I wanted to ask Guy, and it was my last opportunity.
"Guy," I said softly, after a moment’s pause, "canst thou remember my
mother?"
"Oh yes, darling," he said. "I was eleven years old when she died."
"Didst thou love her?" said I.
"Very dearly," he answered—quite grave now.
"Am I like her, Guy?"
Guy looked down on me, and smiled.
"Yes—and no," he said. "The Lady Clémence had lighter hair than thou;
and her smile was very sweet. Thine eyes are darker, too, and
brighter—there is something of the falcon in them: she had the eyes of
the dove. Yet there is a likeness, though it is not easy to tell thee
what."
"Did Monseigneur love her very much, Guy?" I said.
"More than he ever loved any other, I think," answered Guy. "He was
married to my mother when both were little children, as thou knowest is
generally the case: but he married thine for love. And—I don’t know, but
I always fancy that is the reason why he has ever been unwilling to have
us affianced in infancy. When people are married as babies, and when
they grow up they find that they do not like each other, it must be very
disagreeable, I should think."
"I should think it was just horrible, Guy," said I. "But Alix and
Guillot were affianced as babies."
"So they were," said he. "But I doubt if Guillot ever cared about it."
"Why, is Umberge one to care about?" I replied. "There is nothing in her
of any sort. Was Alix very sorry, Guy, when her betrothed died? How
old was she?"
"About ten years old," he said. "Oh no—not she. I do not think she had
seen him five times."
"Well," I said, "I am very glad that I was not treated in that way."
So we went on talking. I hardly know what we talked about, or rather
what we did not; for it was first one thing and then another, as our
thoughts led that way. I asked Guy if he thought that our mothers knew
what befel us here on earth, and he said he supposed they must, for how
else could the saints and angels hear us?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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