Around the table, several people bristled at Isabell's cold pronouncement that their town had no value. Even the people at the lower tables, who had been cowed into silence by the barbed exchange between the engineer and their liege lord, began to mutter darkly about this arrogant woman who felt that their homes and businesses should be torn down.
So long as it was a matter of trading insults between an outsider and their lord, the common people would hold their tongues. Even if some of them happened to share Isabell's dim opinion of Baron Hanrahan, none of them would dare to speak in support of her or laugh at their lord's expense. After all, no one wanted to risk incurring their lord's wrath over something so petty.
