< previous page page_439 next page >

Page 439
clever, and skillful in management. I will do my bestto save Berengaria from hurt."
Joanna was successful in preventing Berengaria from actually forbidding Alinor's marriage, but she could not, and did not even try, to shield Alinor from the other effects of her news. Cold disapproval alternated with tearful pleadings and dire warnings. If Berengaria had been completely a fool, she would have failed utterly in her purpose. She was clever enough, however, to pick away at any point she found at all sensitive. Once married, a wife's estate was in her husband's hands while he lived. No contract could alter that. An older man who looked at young girlswould he not seek them younger and younger as Alinor bore children and became less nubile?
Alinor knew it was all nonsense. She knew Simon to be honorable to a fault, but might his very honor lead to disaster? And marriage was different from being a warden. A warden had to account for his stewardship sooner or later. A husband had to account for nothingever. Simon had already endeared himself to Alinor's men and vassals. Might he not endear himself to them further so that they would support him in whatever he did? Once there were children, he could even put her aside, mew her up in some prison with a tale of illness. Even worse, Alinor had no kin. Should an accident that was no accident befall her, Simon would inherit all her property. It would be his very own.
Not Simon, Alinor told herself, not Simon; but she grew uneasy and apprehensive. And to add to the strain, Simon was behaving oddly. In response to her questions about his estate he had written promptly, detailing the property sufficiently for the contract, adding that it should be secured in the usual manner, in male tail or, failing male issue, to female heirs general, failing any issue to his wife, and, should his wife predecease him, to the Crown.
"I have no children," he had stated in reply to her

 
< previous page page_439 next page >