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Page 93
"A courtier who has been long away from Court. The old king did not love me overmuch in the last years. I sat still on my lands."
"But you must tell me something," Alinor insisted.
"My suggestion is that you wait and take the Queen's advice. To ape the new fashion incorrectly will make you more a target for sharp tongues than to admit you obeyed your grandfather's will and, thus, your gowns are not of the latest style."
The laughing green and gold flecks in Alinor's dark hazel eyes dimmed a trifle. "And there will be sharp tongues. There I will be as a maid among other maidens, no more mistress and first in importance." She looked up into Simon's face and saw it closed against her. "Simon! Do not you desert me. I have no friends at Court, not even any female blood kin," Simon's jaw clenched. "There is nothing I can do for you among the women," he warned.
"You can tell me if they have led me to make a fool of myself. It is very well to bid me ask the Queen, but she is like to have more important business than the style of my gowns.
A shaken laugh was drawn from Simon. "Do not trust me overmuch. Perhaps I have no desire that you appear too beautiful."
"No, indeed," Sir Andre said hastily, now well aware of the cause of Simon's tension Simon was in love with Lady Alinor. "Alinor, you must comport yourself with great reserve and modesty. If you arouse the hopes of the wild young bucks at Court, you are like to come to grief." He turned to Simon. "Would she not be safer in a house of her own in London, which can be well guarded by your men and hers?"
To this notion, with which he had hoped to create a diversion, Sir Andre received no reply. Simon had frightened himself mute by his near confession. He swallowed convulsively and, when he still could not speak, turned on his heel and walked away. Alinor

 
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