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Page 138
advice more than I would men whom I have known far longer. like Sir Andre.''
There was danger there, the Queen thoughtnot as completely deceived as Alinor hopedbut she trusted Simon. That thought gave birth to another. She smiled at Alinor. "You were near to bursting these two days with the news of Richard's coming, were you not?"
Alinor sighed. "I thought I had hidden it quite well."
"You did well enough, but sometimes a tongue needs a place to vent itself like the air when a barrel is filled. You may vent your news into Simon. To tell him a secret is like casting a gold coin into a well. It is forever lost and will go no further."
"I am glad of that, but you will have to tell him I have your permission. Else, he will not listen and he will be fit to kill me for bearing tales."
In this case, however, there was no longer any need for a special outlet. Because the Queen intended to move the whole Court to Winchester to greet the new King, she could not pick herself up and go, leaving the others to follow or not, helter-skelter, as best they could. All must be there to greet Richard and all must be in as good a humor as possible. She herself announced the move and the reason for it on the same day that she had spoken to Alinor and confirmed her service. The result was a great increase in Alinor's status and in her freedom of movement. First of all the Queen had little time for the kind of writing Alinor did. State affairs held her, readying all for Richard's arrival. Second, the Queen's ladies were busy with overseeing the moving of the household goods. They were glad of a young pair of feet they knew to be attached to a trustworthy head to run the kind of errand that could not be entrusted to a maidservant or a page.
Alinor was most willing. The orders she gave made her known to the Queen's high-born servants, the barons and earls who were responsible for the household, as a

 
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