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blunt question, "or if I have, their mothers have not seen fit to inform me of it so I must assume they have made other satisfactory arrangements." |
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That was all. There was no word of love, no word of joy at the realization of their long dream. Alinor wrote again, and then again, and received no response at all. The empty-handed messengers who returned could tell her nothing; they were not given to observing their betters. Alinor sent Beorn, but his report was merely more puzzling and frightening. Sir Simon was not ill, at least he was not laid upon a bed nor showing obvious signs of feebleness, but he was very thin and very ill tempered. He was not much engaged in business, the whole camp was idle, and had said he did not write because he had nothing to say and he would see Alinor soon enough. |
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If Alinor was growing uneasy at the idea of her marriage, Simon was in a far worse state. In the grip of a post-fever depression, he was unable to see any brightness in his future. With each passing day he became more convinced that the King was right and that he was sinning against Alinor, ruining her life by marrying her. He was an old man. The solution was simple. He must tell the King that he no longer wished to marry. The trouble was that Simon wanted to marry Alinor a good deal more than he wanted to go on living. He simply could not make himself ask the King to withdraw his permission. Typically when faced with an emotional rather than a practical problem, Simon buried his head in the sand and waited for the situation to resolve itself. He could not force himself to do anything that would make Alinor refuse him, and he would not do anything to encourage her desire or determination to marry him. |
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His mental condition was not improved by the pall of depression that hung over the King and the army. Not only had Richard failed to take Jerusalem and rescue the Holy Sepulcher from the hands of the infi- |
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