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Page 326
offer more than a formal embrace in public, but Alinor felt he could have been more fervent. She scanned the gentlemen with the King, hardly expecting to find Simon since naturally those of highest rank would be invited to meet the future Queen. Her heart leapt and then sank like a stone. He was there, but his eyes were on Joanna and the Queen who were conversing eagerly. He was not looking among the ladies for her, yet he must have known she would be there. She had written to tell him when she had been transferred to Berengaria's service.
Now the gentlemen were coming forward, being named by Richard, bowing, kissing Berengaria's hand, moving on to greet the Queen. After the formal introduction, the strict grouping gave way to casual conversation. Several of the noblemen and churchmen knew Alinor and stopped to speak to her. A few asked if the Queen had more recent news of England than they had. Alinor knew she must have replied sensibly and looked much as usual because no one seemed surprised by her manner, but if her life depended upon it she could not have recounted a word that was said nor to whom she said it. She spoke and smiled, but all she thought was, Simon had not come to her. With each moment her rage and desperation grew deeper. She dared not look around for him. If he was in the group surrounding Joanna and the Queen, her control would break.
The arrival of the horses to take them to the hospice where they would be lodged was both a relief and a final disappointment. Alinor fought back her tears and turned to smile at the gentleman who had lifted her into her saddle. The smile froze on her lips. Young Lord Leicester was gone and Simon's gray-blue eyes, sober and worried, stared up at her. He handed her her reins, swung up on his own mount. All of Alinor's good resolutions took wing. She forgot completely how she had vowed she would be a model of maidenly de-

 
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