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Page 82
she began to pack. There was only one place he could be where he would not have heard herin the great hall. She could only hope that Simon had left there already, and she peered in cautiously from a doorway not far from the dais where her father's chair of state stood. The sight that met her eyes drew a gasp of combined amazement and fury and precluded any stealthy retreat from court.
Simon and her father were talking very earnestly in low voices, Simon sitting on a stool drawn near Llewelyn's chair. However, Rhiannon hardly noticed her father or his attitude. What had caused her gasp and the accompanying emotions was the sight of Math, sitting in Simon's lap and purring away as Simon absently stroked his head and gently scratched under his chin. Escape was no longer possible.
Stormily, Rhiannon went to tell her men she had changed her mind. They would stay at Aber. Then she stamped out to the women's hall and unpacked. Finally, eyes gleaming with defiance, she came to the great hall. There she met only more frustration. Simon and her father had disappeared. Math, however, came to her at once, his tail high, purring, looking, to Rhiannon's jaundiced eyes, inordinately pleased with himself.
''Traitor!" she exclaimed bitterly. "Is this how you reward me for all my devoted service to you?"
A low exclamation of fear close by made Rhiannon turn swiftly. She was about to say it was only a jest, but Mallt uerch Arnallt and Catrin uerch Pawl, the two ladies who had been nearest, were hurrying away, doubtless making signs against the evil eye. Now those two would probably spread the word that she had confirmed herself a witch and Math her familiar. She wished briefly that she was and that she could bespell their silly tongues to restrain their chatter, but she had not that kind of power.

 
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