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unwed in that, as long as you are single, he is the richer. This is some protection to you. If the King foresees your wardship will last some years, there is no sense in wringing the lands so dry one year that revenues will fail the next year. Also, when he decides to give you in marriage, he will not wish his vassal to feel cheated. However, I warn you, it may not be so easy to bring the King to agree to your marriage as it has been to bring me to agree that you should not marry." |
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"No, I see that." Alinor replied slowly with apparent submission. |
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But the shock was past and her fertile mind was already busy. The King's warden might be less successful in finding every mil than she herself was. If he tried to find too muchHer vassals would certainly aid and abet her in this matter, more especially as it demanded no outright defiance of authority. To the contrary, the more the appearance of total compliance, the more successful they were likely to be. |
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The only thing that troubled Alinor was that her vassals were honest to a fault. Her grandfather had been honest and honorable to a faultthat was the one and only source of conflict between her grandmother and grandfather. Often they came to words because Lord Rannulf would not consider his own interest sufficiently. In a long life, he had enough time to pick and choose among the men who owed him allegiance, and he had always given power and advancement to his own kind. Of course, in some ways this was greatly to Alinor's benefit. Her men had sworn to uphold and protect her, and they would die if necessary in the keeping of that oaththey were truly honorable men. In other ways so open an honesty was less advantageous. Perhaps they would try to hold their tongues or skirt around the warden's questions, but their faces and demeanors would betray them. Alinor could always tell when they were trying to keep something from her |
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