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Page 145
done. There was a stone here I think. It is gone now."
Alinor glanced around. The other riders were nearly out of sight. "Come," she said, "you may ride pillion behind me. Without your weight he will do better."
With a word of thanks, the young man sprang to Dawn's crupper. Alinor reached back to give him his horse's rein, but instead of taking it, he seized her about the arms and breast with one hand and about the mouth with the other, loosing a wild hunting halloo. In spite of his youth, he was very strong. For one moment, Alinor sat in stunned, paralyzed stillness. Then she began to struggle. She bit the hand across her mouth with all the energy that affronted rage afforded her; she dropped her reins, throwing them as well forward as she could with her fingers so that her captor would not be able to control her horse; she raised her sturdy legs and slammed the hard heels of her riding shoes into her mare's sides.
At that final indignityadded to the loud noise in her ear, the loose rein, and the double weightDawn rose on her hind legs and pawed the air. She was as anxious to get rid of the strange weight on her crupper as Alinor was. The bite had brought a shriek but no loosening of the boy's hand. Instead of leaning into her mount's rise to force Dawn down, Alinor threw herself backward. The boy uttered another shriek and started to slide, but he still did not relax his grip. Dawn came down with a thud that threw her riders even more off balance and loosened Alinor's feet from her stirrups. Indifferent to anything beyond her need to free herself, Alinor twisted and tossed herself back and forth. Dawn lifted again. Now Alinor could not have leaned into the rise even if she wanted to. As she toppled backward, her captor cried out again and fell, dragging her with him.
The fall finally broke the squire's grip. He had hit the ground first with Alinor atop him. Although slender, Alinor was a sturdy young woman, and though

 
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