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Page 9
consuming passion. She had wheedled and connived so that she could follow him all the way to the Holy Land, accompanying King Richard's wife and sister on the Crusade. Joanna had been named after Richard's sister, who had been godmother to Alinor's first child. And Simon had been as passionately in love with his wife as she was with him.
Two strong and determined natures, two violently passionate people, could not produce a milksop, Alinor thought. In fact, she knew Joanna was not a milksop. Outwardly she was more placid than her mother, but she could love fiercelyas she did that damned dog. Alinor glanced briefly across to the hearth where something that looked like a shaggy gray pony lay curled before the fire. Instantly, a bedraggled and unkempt tail, thick as Alinor's wrist, began to thump the ground. Alinor laughed again and looked away. To look at Brian too long generally induced him to rush over and try to sit in your lap. Sturdy as she was, Alinor did not relish nearly fifteen stone's weight of dog climbing on her.
It was very hard not to love Brian, but Alinor had contended that anything that size must be banished to the kennel. Joanna did not argue; she merely went to the kennel with the dog. Alinor reasoned, then pleaded, then whipped her daughter soundly. Joanna returned to the kennel, was whipped again, returned to the kenneland Brian came to live in the chambers of the keep with his mistress. Suddenly Alinor's eyes returned to the dog. Perhaps there was a clue in Brian to Joanna's preference that Joanna herself did not suspect or would not admit.
"Yes," Alinor said, "you can make me laugh, but it is not really funny at all. I do not know whether you remember, my love, but when Ian married me he gained the enmity of the king. John still does not love him, but a truce has been patched between them by Salisbury. It would be very dangerous for Ian to break that truce by going to serve Lord Llewelyn in Wales. Yet, Ian cannot serve with the king. He is clan brother to Lord Llewelynand he loves him."

 
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