Also during this
time Gilbert saw Beatrix freely, so that their love grew more and more;
but he seldom spoke with the Queen, and then briefly.
Now Eleanor lived in the western tower, and only one staircase led up
to the vestibule of her apartments, by which way Count Raymond came,
and the great nobles when she summoned them, and the guards also. But
beyond her inner chamber there was a door opening into the long wing of
the palace where all her ladies were lodged, and by that door she went
to them and they came to her. Often the Lady Anne came in, and Beatrix,
and some of the others who were more especially her familiars, and they
found the Queen and Count Raymond sitting in chairs, and talking
without constraint, and sometimes playing at chess by the open window
which looked out on the west balcony. They thought no evil, for they
knew that he had become her counsellor in the matter of the
repudiation; and Beatrix cared not, for she knew well that the Queen
loved Gilbert, and she never saw him there.
On an evening in the week after Easter the King determined that he
would see the Queen himself and tell her his mind. He therefore took
two nobles for an escort, with torchbearers and a few guards; and when
he had descended into the main court, he walked across to the west side
and went up into Eleanor's tower; for he would not go through the
ladies' wing, lest his eyes should see some fair and noble maiden, or
some young dame of great beauty, whereby his pious thoughts might be
disturbed ever so little.
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