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Page 280
been disappointed. Simon neither spoke nor moved.
"I should have realized that she did not mean what I thought," Alinor continued.
"Are you so sure?" Simon asked in a rather constricted voice.
"Yes I am," Alinor lied cheerfully. "She knows you and must know you would have no part in such a thing. She has spoken to me often of how you have not been fittingly rewarded for your loyal service, but she has so many differences with the King on the right management of the realm that she dare not press for small matters."
"That is God's truth," Simon sighed. "If Longchamp continues as he is going there will be bloody war in England."
"Yes, and the King will hear no ill of that toad. But Simon, if it should come about that I needs must marry, and in haste"
"And how," Simon asked with dangerous softness, "could such a thing come about?"
Alinor decided it would be safer to advance circuitously. "My family was seisined by William the Bastard," she said ingenuously. "There is nothing in our charter to say an heir must be born in wedlock. To the firstborn male, it says, or, failing male heirs, to the females of the blood, in perpetuum."
Simon knew better than to argue with Alinor on any subject pertaining to her estates; nonetheless, he said, "You jest!" Such a charter could lay endless heartache. A boy's peccadillo with a serving wench could throw the succession into doubt. If an heir did not have to prove legitimacy, the estates might become entangled in endless trouble.
"I do not jest," Alinor said indignantly, and then began to laugh. "The first Lord of Roselynde was a bastard, you see. That was not important, but so was his favorite son. And my grandfather was a very near thing, I understand, although the priest was said to have

 
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