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Simon was the first to laugh, and the reaction spread swiftly from one to another around the table. Rhiannon's eyebrows rose, but Simon embraced her, crying, "Eneit, eneit, you are as wise as you are beautiful, and we are a gaggle of silly geese, sitting here afrighting ourselves by our own honking." |
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Geoffrey's smile diminished. "The case is not so desperate as I made out," he said, "but there is something to fear. Some twenty years ago Lord Llewelyn was defeated by our using his own tactics against him. King John ordered that all be burnt before and behind as we went. Each town and village was laid waste utterly, and the land and forest also. Winchester was close to John in those days. Perhaps he also remembers." |
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Now it was Rhiannon's turn to grow rigid with fear. She had been less than five years old the summer of that bitter defeat, but she remembered it as a time of horror. Llewelyn had fled to Angharad's Hall when all seemed hopeless. No army had followed him there, and they had not been attacked nor suffered directly. Nonetheless, for the first time in her happy life, Rhiannon had been surrounded by a pall of grief and bitterness and impotent rage. Sensitive as she was, she had never forgotten it. |
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Simon put an arm around her. "That must not happen, and I think it will not. This time Richard must have his craw full of insult and treachery. I believe he will be ready to attack as well as defend. I am almost sure, also, that Prince Llewelyn will make alliance with Richard." |
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"You must warn him, Simon," Rhiannon urged eagerly. |
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"Oh, I will, dear heart," Simon agreed, "but there is no hurry about it. For one thing, I am not sure your father needs telling. This may have been in his mind from the beginning. For another, the king cannot move against Richard until after October ninth, when |
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