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ing at her now. Usually their spite had little effect upon Alinor, but her spirit was so weighted just at present that even so small a thing unbalanced her judgment. |
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"Very well, then, Adam, you may go." |
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A farewell, Alinor told herself, it must be a farewell. Nonetheless a small nagging feeling of guilt was added to her misery. She knew she should have read the message at once. It was no farewell. Surely it was trouble, but Alinor simply did not want any more trouble. She thrust the packet into her belt where it would be hidden by her cloak, just as Simon and the remaining half of his troop came slogging back through the mud. |
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Simon's eye had become almost as quick as Ian's with regard to Alinor. He did not miss the swift, almost surreptitious disposal of a packet that could only be letters. To his mind it needed only that as a fitting conclusion to the last few days, which seemed to have been compounded of every horror that could overtake a man responsible for a traveling party. Why else should a woman hide letters unless they were from a lover, and an unsuitable lover at that. Simon turned on the leader of his half troop a face that made the hardened and steady soldier become pale. |
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"Get the men and horses aboard that ship in all haste," he said softly. |
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The man wondered briefly if it was worth the chance to ride the horses aboard. That would be the quickest, and most of the animals would behave with a man in the saddle. However, there were a few young men in the troop who were not yet capable of controlling their mounts in so frightening a situation. Frankly, he thought, some of the men were as frightened as the horses. It would not do. One more accident would turn his lord into a madman. He shuddered himself as he dismounted and called orders to his men, remembering the screaming, hysterical maidservants, the weeping and pleading menservants that |
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