|
|
|
|
|
|
alone to the chapel where she was to give her freedom and her life into the hands of a man who had become a stranger to her. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
It was not a merry wedding. The bride and groom both looked white and stricken, barely able to murmur their replies. The King looked black as thunder, giving countenance to something he heartily disapproved and losing thereby one of the most useful servants he had. The Queen wept aloud all through the ceremony, nearly drowning the replies of bride and groom. Lady Joanna was in so foul a humor, foreseeing the trouble she would have with Berengaria in the days to come, that she was fit to be tied. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The bedding ceremony was as stark as the wedding. An apartment in the palace had been set aside for the new-wedded pair, but Alinor had little heart to furnish it elaborately. This was not her home and, in any case, Simon would hate cloth-of-gold hangings and jeweled washing vessels. Moreover, if she purchased such things, she would only need to sell them again at a loss. With the costs of the journey home in her mind, Alinor was not prepared to spend a penny on a useless show. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
In a totally unnatural silence, for usually the time for disrobing was a time for bawdy jests and comments, the weeping Queen and the furious Joanna stripped off Alinor's clothes to exhibit her naked to the King and the few prelates who attended. It was a useless formality. Alinor was without physical flaw, but considering her wealth and Simon's poverty she could have been a goat-legged hunchback and her husband would not repudiate her. The King and the Bishop of Beauvais stripped Simon. The Queen turned her back, but the other witnesses examined him conscientiously. It was far more likely that the bride would be tempted to repudiate the groom. The general opinion was that, if she did, it could not be for any physical fault. Of course Simon's body was ridged and |
|
|
|
|
|