The chamber seemed to Mora full of tender and poignant memories.
How many girlish dreams had been dreamed while her healthy young body
rested upon that couch, after wild gallops over the moors, or a long
day's climbing among the rocky hills, searching for rare ferns and
flowers to transplant into her garden.
In this room she had mourned her father, with her strong young arms
wrapped around her weeping mother.
In this room she had wept for her mother, with none to comfort her,
saving the faithful nurse, Deborah.
To this room she had fled in wrath, after the scene with, her
half-sister, Eleanor, who had tried to despoil her of her heritage--the
noble Castle and lands left to her by her father, and confirmed to her,
with succession to her father's title, by the King. These Eleanor
desired for her son; but neither bribes nor cajolery, threats, nor
cruel insinuations, had availed to induce Mora to give up her rightful
possession--the home of her childhood.
Before the effects of this storm had passed, Hugh d'Argent had made his
first appearance upon the scene, riding into the courtyard as a King's
messenger, but also making himself known to the young Countess as a
near neighbour, heir to a castle and lands, not far distant, among the
Cumberland hills.
With both it had been love at first sight. His short and ardent
courtship had, unbeknown to him, required not so much to win her heart,
as to overcome her maidenly resistance, rendered stubborn by the
consciousness that her heart had already ranged itself on the side of
her lover.
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