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Page 498
''You have bad news?" But Alinor did not pause for Ian to answer. "Do not tell me now," she said, half-laughing but with a tremble in her voice. "Have you eaten?" He nodded. "Come, let me unarm you and bathe you."
"My squires are with the troop," he protested. "I rode ahead."
At that Alinor laughed more naturally. "I have not yet grown so feeble that I cannot lift a hauberk. Come." She drew him toward the wall chamber from which she had emerged. "The bath is ready. It will grow cold."
For one instant it seemed as if Ian would resist, and Alinor stopped to look at him questioningly. However, there was no particular expression on his face and he was already following, so she said nothing. Something was wrong, Alinor knew. Ian had been her husband's squire before they were married. After their return from the Crusade, Simon had so successfully advanced his protege's interests that Ian had been granted a defunct baronage that went with the estates he had inherited from his mother. He had been a close friend all through the years and a frequent visitor to Roselynde. His fondness for them, coupled with his resistance to marriage had once made Alinor ask her
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