The Crusading Wizard

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The royal family was enjoying one of the rare hours when they could feel like a family. They sat in the palace garden in a secluded and high-hedged comer of the courtyard, Queen Alisande and her husband the Lord Wizard watching their son and daughter at play in the golden light of late afternoon.

“It is so good for them to be out of doors,” Alisande sighed, “and with us. I could wish I were not a queen, that I could spend hours and hours with my babes if I wished.”

“If you weren’t a queen, you wouldn’t have any choice,” Matt pointed out. “You’d have to spend hours and hours with them, whether you wanted to or not.”

“Oh … not if I were a countess or some such…”

“Well, that’s true,” Matt mused. “On the other hand, this country would be in real trouble if you weren’t its queen.”

“Oh, I am sure some other could rule it as well.” But Alisande glowed at the compliment, then frowned. “Still, the poor babes must be quite sad now and again, with no company but one another.”

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