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Page 302
guessed that. Yet I think she hopes to be able to help us and, truthfully, you know and I know that my 'good name' does not matter a pin. My broad acres will make up for any little fault in my person, such as the loss of my maidenhead."
That was, of course, true. A man would have only to wait a few months to be sure Alinor was not breeding before consummating his marriage. Alinor's virginity was a matter of little importance except to Simon and his conscience.
"But she will use your hope as a carrot is held before an ass," Simon warned painfully, "leading you from one thing to another"
"No, my love," Alinor murmured, covering the hand that still held her wrist. "That might serve with a man, but I am a woman, schooled by a woman as wise as the Queen and less able to get her own way by giving an order. I was schooled with love and with a whip, and I have not forgotten my lessons. I know how to get my own way, most often without needing to give an order, and despite promises or threats."
"That I know to my sorrow," Simon replied bitterly. "What I do not know is whether your way will permit me to look myself or any other person in the face. If it is the Queen's will, I can endure that we should be looked at and slyly jested about. I hate it, but I can see the sense in it and I can bear itso long as I know that we are in truth clean of the lies told about us."
"But Simon"
"No buts. Alinor, I begin to fear you will break me to your will because you have raised such a fire in me that I forget I am a man of many sober years. When you put your arms around me and your lips on mine, I become as heedless of right and wrong, as much a slave to my lust, as any burning boy in the first heyday of his manhood."
"You blame me too much, Simon," Alinor protested softly. "I have not many sober years, and my desire

 
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