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from him when he spoke her name in the night? |
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"What do you mean, how do I mean 'safely'?" the Queen said crossly. "Wherever that girl is, there is a hotbed of unrest. If she were ugly or stupid, the young men would not look at her. If she were less rich, the fathers would not egg them on. No, you need not fly into the boughs in her defense. Since that one foolish mistake, Alinor has been well behaved." The Queen paused. "In fact, there is something that weighs on her spirit of late. She has become very quiet and oppressed. When I question her, she denies it and is gay againuntil she thinks I do not notice her. Do you think she yearns for her own keeps and lands?" |
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"I thought she might have written something of it to you." |
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"No. I would have said, from her letters, that she enjoyed the employment you give her and the life of the Court. Her letters were full only of gossip and politics. Sometimes she wrote a question of business, but there was no sign even in those questions that she wished to be at home." |
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"Then it will not be an unkindness to take her, if that seems best." |
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"Take her?" Simon repeated. |
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"That is the alternative to leaving her here. What ails you, Simon? You repeat what I say like an idiot, and you have never answered as to the safety of leaving her upon her own domains. Would it be safe?" |
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Feeling restored, Simon had to bite his lip to contain a cry of pain. In all his dealings with greed and corruption, the reality of the Devil had never been so apparent to him. That scene in the moonlit garden that he could not banish from his mind and heart, that was truly temptation. And here again was temptation. He need only say that Alinor would be safe in Roselynde, and she would be his againto laugh with and ride with, talk with and read with. So much he |
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