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Alinor did pay attention to what she heard in the women's chambers and tried to pick the grains of truth out of the heaps of chaff. Before the afternoon was gone it was clear to her that Isobel would be married and several times over a mother before she obtained any real information in this manner. Perhaps among the older women who waited on the QueenThat was it! It was the solution to her boredom and dissatisfaction and a far better place to glean information. |
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In her enthusiasm, Alinor almost ran to look for Simon and tell him of her brilliant idea, but fortunately she thought that over. Simon, she realized, far from being equally enthusiastic, would absolutely forbid it. He would call it "spying on the Queen." Well, and so it would be, Alinor acknowledged. But, she decided, Simon is an honorable idiot. If the Queen is constrained by her goodor by her son's or even the realm's goodwhy should I not be constrained by my good? Moreover, I am no idle gossip. No one will hear from me what goes forward. Only I will know, and know how to act for my own good. |
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That evening Alinor put the first step of her plan into action. She flirted outrageously with two of the men who had the most need of her wide estates and some vague possibilities of obtaining them. They were both younger sons of powerful magnates who were not notable for fixed loyalties. Roger Bigod was as black browed and blackly ambitious as his grandfather. Doubtless a livelihood could be found for him among his father's enormous possessions, but such limited |
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