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Although the Queen had lightly climbed the steep and winding stair to the Great Hall and even the second flight to the women's quarters, she was burdened by her years. Having arrived in the solar, she was glad indeed to sink into a chair by the great hearth and then drink the goblet of sweet wine Alinor hurried to bring her. Then she smiled wryly. |
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"I am too proud. Perhaps I had done better to accept your chair, Alinor. I am weary, sore weary." |
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"Come then to the wall chamber, Your Grace, and lay you down," Alinor urged. "It will be some hours until dinner is ready, I am sorry to say. It is late, but I did not know when you would come, and all was held back half done so that a fitting meal might be set before you." |
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The Queen nodded absently and followed Alinor toward her own bedchamber, which had been swept and garnished, the huge bedher grandfather's and grandmother's bridal bed in which her small form was completely lostfresh made with brand-new linen sheets that had been scented with crushed rose petals and lavender flowers. A fire burned in the small hearth, for the wall chambers were clammy cold even in high summer, carved as they were into the damp rubblework that filled the castle walls. |
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"If you will come this way, Madam," Alinor murmured. |
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"What a lovely apartment," the Queen exclaimed, waking from her abstraction. "I would never have thought Lord Rannulf so given to luxury." |
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"Oh, this is my grandmother's doing. My grand- |
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