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Page 55
"Am I to set places for them at dinner?" Alinor asked, concealing her chagrin as well as possible.
"Oh, yes, assuredly. Sir Simon expressed a wish to see the demesne lands."
"And Sir Andre did not deem me fit to display them?"
The voice was so much like a shower of icy water that Sir John blinked. "It was so very early, my lady. They rode with the first dawn, before the sun."
"And what needed this haste? Will the demesne vanish away like the mist when the sun rises?"
Sir John cleared his throat uneasily. Lady Alinor had the devil of a temper, although her rages did not last long, and was extremely tenacious of her authority as mistress. That, Sir John acknowledged, was most right. If she allowed Sir Andre to deputize for her and appear before the people for her in all things, she soon would have no authority. She was clever about it too. Mostly she sat silent while Sir Andre meted out justice or punishment, but often enough she prearranged with him that she would gainsay his decision. And she was clever enough to gainsay it as often on the side of severity as on the side of mercy. Thus when Sir Andre was afield and it was needful to hold court, Alinor sat alone, and her decision was accepted as finalmore final than Sir Andre's.
Naturally enough Sir Andre was not ignorant of this facet of his lady's character. He had tried to suggest that they wait for Lady Alinor or send to have her wakened. Sir Simon had stared at him as if he were mad. "What, wake a lady at dawn to ride through mucky fields?" And Sir Andre, caught between the upper millstone of Alinor's anger and the nether millstone of Sir Simon's contempt, had decided to squeeze out between the two.
When Alinor asked him, no doubt in a voice dripping venom, whether he aspired to her honors, he would throw Sir Simon into the snake pit. He would

 
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