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Page 292
up those stairs since he left for fostering when he was nine years old. Probably he would not climb them again until his father or mother was dying.
As to the succeeding nights they had been apart, that was the fault of circumstance. Kingsclere was so small that all except Alinor and Ian, who shared the castellan's own bed, had slept on pallets, men in the hall and women in the solar. The following night Simon had been at Wallingford.
For a moment Simon was fooled by Rhiannon's pretense of hurt and her complaint that he had been avoiding her. "No!" he whispered. "No!" and stepped toward her with his arms outstretched.
Realization came before he embraced her, however, and instead of enfolding her gently in his arms, he grabbed her with one hand and slapped her briskly on the buttock with the other.
"Monster!" Rhiannon gasped, leaning heavily against him. "You do not love me any longer. Now you will beat me to death."
"I am more likely to eat you alive," Simon murmured, applying his lips to her throat with an enthusiasm that gave a tinge of reality to the threat.
"You will have a hard time chewing this gown, I am afraid," Rhiannon murmured after a few minutes.
Simon bit her ear lobe gently. "I have good teeth," he chuckled, "but I think you are right. Perhaps it would be better if we took it off."
To that he got no reply but a soft sigh, since he had managed to undo one side of her bliaunt and slip his hand inside to stroke her back. However, after unlacing the other side, he drew off the gown with a briskness that was startling. Rhiannon stepped back silently to remove the rest of her clothing, assuming that Simon, now amused, would wish to get on with the business quickly. During their travels his lovemaking had been rapidbut thorough.
This time, though, she could not have been more

 
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