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paused again. "Mother, we have been too long alone. I had better go now." |
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Alinor broke into a cold sweat. When he left, the Queen might well come back into the inner chamber. Helpless to do anything else, she moved her stool up to her writing table, placed her arms upon the table and her head on her arms, and pretended to sleep. It was a very lame pretense. Between revulsion and terror she could control neither her muscles nor her breathing. Gasping and shaking as she was, she could not have fooled far duller eyes than the Queen's. |
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Minutes that seemed like leaden hours passed. Finally, Alinor heard the tinkling of a silver bell. She swallowed and prayed. The Queen's bedchamber was on the other side. If she had summoned her ladies to help her change her robes or to undress her so that she might rest awhile on her bed, all might yet be well. If she summoned a clerk or desired Alinor herself to write for her Alinor blanked the thought from her mind as if it might communicate itself to the Queen. She is old, Alinor thought. She was late astir last night and early awake this morning. She had ridden and greeted a son she has not seen in some sixteen or seventeen years, and she has spoken to a King on matters that might make a lion quail. Surely she is tired. |
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Then came salvation. "I will rest awhile," the Queen said to whoever had entered at her summons. "Deny me to anyone except the King or my son John." |
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Footsteps, then silence. Alinor waited, then crept along the wall to peer through the doorway. The chamber was empty. On tiptoe she leaped forward toward the outer door. A step came from the bedchamberand the door was too far. Alinor stopped, turned about and began to walk softly toward the inner chamber whence she had just come. |
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"Lady Alinor?" the old maidservant said. |
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