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Alinor read her letter for the fifth time. The hand did not look like Simon's; the writing shook and sprawled and straggled. The words did not sound like Simon's; usually he wrote as fluently as he spoke. The sentiments, however, were quite correct. |
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"I have you. Let the clerks write whatsoever contract you desire. When we come to Acre, we marry, and then we sail for home." |
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The "we" who would come to Acre must be the King and Simon, perhaps with the army; the "we" who would sail home was more questionable. Simon and herself alone? The King and the army? Alinor read over her letter for the sixth time and then realized why she was puzzling over a question that was totally meaningless and that, in any case, would be answered soon enough. The truth was she did not know how to give this news to Berengaria. Certainly she could not show her Simon's letter. The "I have you" as if he had won a horse in a tourney would not sweeten Berengaria's attitude toward marriage. |
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In a sense, of course, it was the same. Simon felt he had "won" Alinor and that he possessed her just as if she were a horse. He could not be happy feeling otherwise. Still, he showed a delicacy Berengaria would never unravel from the coarse words. It was Alinor he possessed, not her land; it was Alinor he desired, not her property. That meaning was inherent in telling her to write any marriage contract that would please her. A marriage contract, after all, existed to arrange the disposal of the joint property of bride and groom. |
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