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He stood, staring up after her, fuming. How dare she say he used her ill, only because for once he had asked her to suit his convenience instead of her own. Meek and mild and biddable! She was biddable so long as it was he who said "yea." Coward, she had called him, rank coward! There was not a man alive who would dare, and she Simon turned and cast a fulminating glance at Sir Andre, who promptly looked innocently up at the rafters above. Had there not been others present, Simon would have told Alinor's chief vassal what he thought of his management of his mistress. As it was, he choked down his spleen as well as he could and took himself down to the bailey to harry his men into being ready long before Alinor could possibly beeven if she had been hurrying, which she certainly was not. Strange he thought, the earth is dry and the sun is shining; I could have sworn that it rained. |
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Nonetheless, when Alinor finally descended to the bailey, wimpled and gowned for riding only a few minutes after prime, Simon felt as if she had delayed him for hours. He took so frigidly courteous a leave of the castellan and Sir Andre, whom Alinor had kissed and hugged most fondly, that the former gentleman nervously asked the latter in what he had offended the King's warden. |
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"Not at all," Sir Andre said, laughing heartily, "not at all. He has had some small difference of opinion, again, with our lady. Do not let the matter concern you. Lady Alinor knows what she is about. He will guard her interests as devotedly as I." |
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