"Christopher Stasheff - Warlocks Heirs 01 - M'Lady Witch" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stasheff Christopher)

apt to be constrained to become a husband, if one seeks to dally. With commoners, though, there is less expectation, and greater willingness."


"You have flirted with chambermaids and milkmaids, then?"


"I will own to that," Geoffrey admitted, "and to having won their favors."


Alain ached to ask just how extensive those favors had been, but it would have been rude. The sudden, overwhelming realization struck him: any
favors he had won from women had been almost by accident-and intoxication. "Alas! If I am not the chivalrous knight I had thought myself,
however am I to win your sister's love?"


"Chivalry does not always have a great deal to do with it," Geoffrey allowed. "Do you truly wish to win Cordelia, though? Or is it only that you
have been ordered to?"


"I have not been so ordered!" Alain cried vehemently. "She is my choice, my heart's desire! I have known that I loved her since I was fourteen!"


Geoffrey sat still a moment, absorbing the fact of his friend's passion. Then he said quietly, "Well, well. You have kept your own counsel well, have
you not?"


"So have I been bred." Alain looked away. "My father has taught me that a king must indeed do so, for his bosom will need to hold many secrets."


"You have kept this one too well. I doubt that my sister knows anything of it."


"But how am I to tell her?" Alain cried. "I cannot merely step up to her and declare it!"




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 M'Lady Witch

Now it was Geoffrey's gaze that wandered. "No-o-o-o," he agreed. "That would be unwise. You must create the right mood for such an
announcement, if you wish her to believe you."


"Why, how is this?" Alain stared, astounded. "Is there no love arising by itself, from a woman? Might not she fall in love with me ere I have even
spoke a word?"


"She will, if she is your one true love," Geoffrey said. "If she is not in love with you, no persuading of yours will ever create that love, though your
conduct and bearing may inspire it. When all's said and done, it is what you are that will win the lady-and if you wish to win her, 'tis a matter of
what you can become."