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Page 174
eyes were not completely dissatisfied. The marks of tears were still plain on Alinor's face.
I am constant in my dislike of you, Alinor thought, but all she said was, "Raining clears the skies and crying clears the eyes. Having seen my own silliness clearly, I have come to laugh at myself."
"And so you should. Even I do not aspire to the King."
The statement coupled with what she had been thinking left Alinor completely bewildered. "Aspire to the King!" she echoed.
Isobel of Gloucester laughed. "Do not think to hide it now for you betrayed yourself most openly, saying he was 'beautiful' and then, when Elizabeth said you could not look so high bursting into tears and crying, 'I know.' It will be all over the Court."
And I know who will spread the word, Alinor thought. Then her eyes grew round. There could be little harm in the rumor that she was smitten by the King, especially if she shrank away from Richard so that no one believed she really aspired to him. At least it would direct attention away from her love for Simon. Alinor no longer had any doubts of her feelings, not since her terror for him had exaggerated three little trickles into a man covered in blood.
"Only such silly geese could think such a thing," Alinor replied. "When one has seen the sun, one is ravished and blinded. But only a madman reaches out to seize it. I do not deny, "she added haughtily, "that I think the King is beautiful. No one could think otherwise. He is beautiful."
"And yet there is something odd in himis there not?"
"Odd?" Alinor echoed.
"It is said he is not like to breed up sons."
"Bite your tongue!" Alinor exclaimed. "I never heard such and, in mercy to you, I have grown deaf and do not hear it now." She spoke as loudly as she

 
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