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"Yes, indeed, Your Grace. My mother was named for you, and I also." |
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"You also? How old are you?" |
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"This spring I completed my sixteenth year." |
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Alinor hesitated fractionally. She knew quite well that sixteen years ago Queen Alinor was not in good odor in England. She was then in the south of France leading a rebellion against her husband, the King of England, and English barons had been summoned to fight the Queen's vassals in France. And English gold had paid the heavy expenses of that campaign. Alinor was divided between her reluctance to remind the Queen of those unhappy years and her desire that the Queen know she was not simply ignorant of these facts and trying to curry favor with a stupid remark. |
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"Perhaps not many Alinors were named in that year," Alinor continued boldly, having decided it was more important to remind the Queen of an old relationship with her family than to be ultimately tactful, "but you had done my father some great serviceI do not know what it was, only that he felt great obligation to youand so I am Alinor." |
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Alinor was quick to pick that up. "Adam Devaux, Sire of Roselynde," she prompted. Although well aware of her family's wortheven though they bore no high title such as earl or dukeshe was not naive enough to believe the Queen would remember the name of a single man or an incident nearly twenty years past. Alinor's father had been dead for fourteen years. |
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"Adam Devaux," the Queen repeated softly, musing. Then, to Alinor's surprise, her lips twitched and laughter rose in her eyes. "Adam Devaux, Sire of Roselynde," she said again. "Oh, yes, I remember." And then, softly again, ''What befell him, Alinor? He was a preux chevalier." |
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"He and my mother were drowned coming home from Ireland when I was two years old," Alinor re- |
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