< previous page page_399 next page >

Page 399
aware of the healing, until one day she would be quite well. It would be easy to know, she thought, as she plodded wearily back to the hall. When she could think of Simon with the same calm pleasure she felt on thinking of Llewelyn, she would be cured of love.

Simon's troop was not well pleased when they were ordered out of Ruthin before they had caught up on their sleep or had eaten a decent meal. Simon, however, was eager to be on the move, to be doing something that would dull both his hopes and his fears. Llewelyn had increased both by his reception of Simon's report. There was no doubt of his pleasure over the political news. He had unlooped a heavy gold chain from his neck and placed it around Simon's.
The prince had been somewhat less forthcoming on Simon's description of his personal problem: that instead of leaning more toward marriage, Rhiannon had barely been prevented from formally breaking the betrothal. Llewelyn had listened without comment, but his eyes and his lips narrowed. Simon knew that Llewelyn favored the marriage, especially after hearing that Rhiannon had made so strong an impression on Henry. Therefore, Simon assumed that Llewelyn expression of determination meant he intended to see that the marriage took place.
In a sense, that gave Simon confidence. He could not remember anything Llewelyn undertook that he did not eventually achieve. Rhiannon had to marry Simon reasonably soon, however, or Llewelyn's purpose of using her as an emissary could not be fulfilled. What increased Simon's fears was that Rhiannon's father might push her too hard and she would be driven to some desperate action.
Simon found Richard Marshal at Usk by the twenty-sixth of October and was welcomed warmly both for himself and for the news he brought. On the thirtieth, Gilbert Bassett appeared with Hubert de

 
< previous page page_399 next page >