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If the Queen reprimanded those who might have had a hand in the attempted abduction, Alinor saw no sign of it. Both Bigod and de Bohun continued to pay her particular attention, and Alinor was very polite, unnaturally so, anyone who knew her would have saidbut very reserved. No one attempted any physical persuasion, however, for two hard-faced men-at-arms accompanied every step she took outside the women's quarters and Simon rode close beside her as they traveled. |
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Alinor was glad of that. She rode a soft foot pace and Simon, perforce, rode softly too. Night and morning she dressed the three wounds he had taken for her. The two small ones were nothing, scabbed over hard already; the gash, however, was still ugly, with moist yellowish edges marking the puffy red flesh where Alinor had stitched it together. There could be no scandal in Alinor's attentions to Simon. The two men-at-arms were always present and, with the entire Court on the move, private chambers were only for the very greatest even in the huge royal castles. Simon slept in the Great Halls with the other lesser lords. |
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On the thirteenth of August, a hard-riding courier brought word that Lord Richard had landed safely at Portsmouth and would be at Winchester on the next day. The people had turned out to welcome him, the courier said, and to bless his name. Alinor saw the satisfaction that filled the Queen. By riding throughout the country, freeing political prisoners, relaxing the harsh hunting laws, giving justiceall in her son's |
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