< previous page page_298 next page >

Page 298
moment that the Queen had any morals at all. Alinor's contention that the Queen would approve the affair as a step toward marriage because she knew Simon was nonsense. Simon had never had any reason to be particularly virtuous with women as far as the Queen knew. Besides the Queen also knew Alinor. What she was counting upon was that the eager girl would trap him or simply wear down his resistance. Simon contemplatively stroked the neck of the magnificent gray destrier Alinor had urged upon himone of her grandfather's own mounts and of Lord Rannulf's own breeding. The Queen was not far wrong in that aspect of her thinking. Had it not been so bitterly cold on that ship crossing the Channel, Alinor might have been a maid no longer. Simon had been careful to provide no more such opportunities to his fair temptress.
There were two things, however, the Queen did not know. She assumed Alinor would be content with Simon's body, more content in that there would be the stimulation of hiding and whispering to heighten the delights of love. In this she misjudged Alinor. Simon knew, all too well, that Alinor's body was warm and eager for love, but her body was not central to her existence as with most women. She was really more interested in the fishing trade and how the politics of the Low Countries would influence the price of fleeces. Alinor wanted what she had seen between her grandfather and grandmother. She had told Simon about their life together. She had neither taste nor time for clandestine love. The other thing the Queen did not know, of course, was the stupid way the charter for Alinor's lands was written. His clever witch was counting on that. Perhaps she was not deceived at all about the Queen's intentions. In any case, Simon decided, sighing and leaning against the horse, it was safest to take to his heels. Too much of Alinor would undo him.
It had undone him already, Simon thought, and be-

 
< previous page page_298 next page >