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against him and producing about as much effect as she would have had on a mountain. "Do you want the whole castlefolk to hear of this? Of course, I do not think you fear either of those fools. But a word from you, the King's warden, would be taken as a slight from the King." |
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It was the bitter truth. Simon ground his teeth. "You are the fool," he growled. "You have started something that will bring grief upon us." |
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"Not if the Queen checks my behavior and I retire into maidenly modesty." |
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Simon shook his head as if there were a buzzing in his ears. Then he passed his hand over his face. His eyes looked bemused. "You flirted with those men for the purpose that the Queen should scold you and you should stop flirting with them?" Again he rubbed his face as if to clear from it some obscuring veil. "I am going mad!" |
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"But Simon," Alinor said soothingly, "it is most reasonable really. If you say I am stiff-necked and will not obey youwhich the Queen will believe" |
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"Oh, Simon, it is not true. I obey you very well, except when you wish us both to run head first into a stone wall. Never mind that," she said hastily as she saw him draw a furious breath, "do not begin to quarrel with me about nothing. You can tell her also that you did not wish to affront Bigod and de Bohun except by her order. Then the Queen will summon me to correct my ways." |
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"The Queen's wrath is not light to bear, Alinor. I had rather" |
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She put up a hand and touched his face, her eyes so tender all of a sudden that Simon's voice and heart checked. "She will not be wroth," Alinor said gently, smiling her thanks for his indulgence. "A girl's foolish errorI am new to Court. I will yield at once and promise amendmentand then I will have good reason |
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