When at last, vanquished by his eager determination, she had yielded
and become betrothed to him, it had seemed to her that life could hold
no sweeter joy.
But he, hard to content, ever headstrong and eager, already having
taken the cross, and being now called at once to join the King in
Palestine, begged for immediate marriage that he might take her with
him to the Court of the new Queen, to which his cousin Alfrida had
already been summoned; or, if he must leave her behind, at least leave
her, not affianced maid, but wedded wife.
Here Eleanor and her husband had interposed; and, assuming the position
of natural guardians, had refused to allow the marriage to take place.
This necessitated the consent of the King, which could not be obtained,
he being in the Holy Land; and Hugh had no wish to make application to
the Queen-mother, then acting regent during the absence of the King; or
to allow his betrothed to be brought again into association with the
Court at Windsor.
Mora--secretly glad to keep yet a little longer the sweet bliss of
betrothal, with its promise of unknown yet deeper joys to
come--resisted Hugh's attempts to induce her to defy Eleanor, flout her
wrongful claim to authority, and wed him without obtaining the Royal
sanction. Steeped in the bliss of having taken one step into an
unimagined state of happiness, she felt no necessity or inclination
hurriedly to take another.
Yet when, upheld by the ecstasy of those final moments together, she
had let him go, as she watched him ride away, a strange foreboding of
coming ill had seized her, and a restless yearning, which she could not
understand, yet which she knew would never be stilled until she could
clasp his head again to her breast, feel his crisp hair in her fingers,
and know him safe, and her own.
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