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and You frown, Alinor. Ah, the young are so impatient. Once I, too, could not bear waiting for a good I saw clearly. I have learned." |
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"I am not impatient, Madam," Alinor protested. "I grieve for all those who suffer under his oppression." |
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"Yes, and if we should fail to destroy him through haste to prevent small harmsthen what? He would be warned; our strength would be found wanting so that allies would desert us; he might even, through miscarriage of our purpose, triumph over us." |
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"I know you are right, Madam. Yet my heart is hot against him. The insolence! To set himself up against a man like William Marshal." |
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"Cool your heart, child. I count upon his going from insolence to insolence. Come, I will give your mind a happier thing to dwell upon. Very soon now, as soon as word comes that Philip has set sail, we go to Navarre. Berengaria, from all I have heard, is another such as Isobel, but somewhat more learned. I hope you will soon have a new friend." |
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Alinor's eyes flew to the Queen's face, dropped, then raised again, a trifle defiantly. "Will you bring the Lady Berengaria to the King?" she asked. |
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The Queen laughed. "I said I would give your mind a happier turn. Yes, at least if all goes as I hope. But," she warned, "I would not have you write of this to Simon for a little time. Even love letters are sometimes opened, and the road between here and Sicily is long." |
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Early in her life Alinor had learned that sudden great thrills of happiness must be damped down lest they burst out in some unseemly manner and either dissipate too soon or turn into an unexpected grief. She concealed her blazing cheeks and eyes, her pounding heart, by a studious application to her needlework. As the quivering excitement of knowing she would see Simon again steadied into a more quiet satisfaction, the Queen's idle remark about hoping she would have a |
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