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"She isn’t anything like what I rerew pensive "It’s as if that ti had fallen asleep on his shoulder

"Perhaps it was," observed Rosvita "Youth is prey to fancy We are adept at building palaces where none exist"

"I was very young," he agreed "In truth, Sister, I find it disturbing I recall my passion so clearly, but when I look at her now, I fear I made a mistake"

A stiff breeze stirred the leaves in the herb bed next to the prince Laughing, Sanglant stood as Heribert leaped up, startled The outside air and Heribert’s presence had restored the prince to good spirits, yet now he glanced back toward the open here his father stood Had he heard them? Surely they stood too far away for their conversation to be overheard

"Was it a mistake Your Majesty?" She nodded toward the prince

"Nay, of course not Perhaps I am only a little surprised that memory has not served nant who knohen to flatter his advisers, but Rosvita sensed tension beneath the light words

"You were very young, Your Majesty God grant us all the privilege of change and growth, if we only use it You are a wiser man now than you were then, or so I have heard"

He senuine pleasure The baby stirred, co awake She yawned, looked around, and said, quite clearly: "Da!" After this unequivocal statement, she frowned up at Henry She had a clever little face, quite char, and mobile expressions "Ba!" she exclaimed She seemed to have no other mode of speech than the imperious

"The months do not count out correctly," said Henry "Nine months for a woman to come to her time, and even if she deliver early, no child will survive before the seventh o, yet this child is surely a yearling or even older But her coloring is like that of the Eagle’s, if I a correctly"

"Do not doubt your memory on this account I also believe the child resembles its mother in soht, Your Majesty Even if she were a seven months’ child, born early, she could therefore be only seven e now"

"Co for his son, but as soon as he stepped outside the beauty of the autue and late flowers distracted the child Rosvita watched as the king surrendered to her i that caught her eye, he obediently hauled her to that place, and then to another, lowering her down to touch a flower, prying her fingers fro a withered oak leaf blown over the wall, lifting her up again to point at a flock of geese passing overhead

He was besotted

Sanglant had wandered to the garden by the here he spoke privately to Brother Heribert What intrigue lant ever been one for intrigue? He had always been the htforward of men

Still, he made noworked her ithout obstacle Queen Adelheid had gone into the aviary Rosvita had to ad queen: either she was determined to turn Alia into an ally, or else she intended to divert all suspicion while she concocted a plan to rid herself of her rival It was hard to tell, and even afterthe most difficult of circumstances in Adelheid’s coh to knohich was more likely

But as Rosvita watched Henry dandle the child, her heart grew troubled

Twilight finally drove them back inside Adelheid and her attendants caarden Alia lingered outside, alone, to smell the last roses No one disturbed her By custoht, but neither Henry nor any in his party seereat hall Too lant at once She had begun to fuss with hunger A spirited discussion ensued aoat’s milk over cow’s milk to feed a motherless child He took her outside

Rosvita went to theA cool autulant avoided his ht on the far side of the old walnut tree

Adelheid came to stand beside Rosvita The queen sly of the rose water she habitually washed in She had such a wonderful, vividly alive profile that even in the half light of gathering dusk her expressions seeht as the waxingover wall and treetops