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He enjoyed it in a mild way, but if he was willing to offer inducements, it was to snare Llewelyn's daughter, who might be a useful hostage. He had no real desire to keep her for his pleasure. Nonetheless, as her fear receded a little, she grew angry. Simon had no right to insult her and call her a fool when he did not know the circumstances of her going. |
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"Did I not tell you not to go to sing for the king again?" Simon asked furiously when they were mounted and out of earshot of the guards at the door. "It is by God's Grace alone that I came there in time." |
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"You are a fool yourself," Rhiannon snapped. "I had no choice but to go. Ask your mother and father. They will tell you. And you are worse than I! You had no need almost to fling a glaive into Winchester's face." |
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"What would you have had me do? Should I have let him take you to a private chamber somewhere in the keep and tell the world that you found it so delightful that you wished to stay?" |
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"The king would not suffer it!" Rhiannon exclaimed. |
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"Why not? Oh, he might be angry at first, but after it was explained how fine a hostage he had in his hands, not only for your father but for me and my father and my brothers" |
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"I did not say it was wrong to take me away," Rhiannon broke in hotly. "I said you were a fool to do it in such a way that Winchester understood your suspicions all too well. And you are more the fool because I could have got away on my own without making more bad feeling than there is already." |
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"Only an ignorant chit of a girl would think of such a stupidity," Simon snarled. "You might have left the hall, but you would never have arrived at home." |
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"And who would have given such an order to the king's squire of the body and the escort he led? Simon, you are ridiculous! Winchester would not take me by force, and you know it. Perhaps my father loves me, but he loves nothing so well as Gwynedd, and my life |
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