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Page 391
held out her hand. But he had kissed her. . . . Simon's eyes closed, and he swallowed.
Mercifully Rhiannon was already asleepor pretending to be asleep. Simon lay down softly a few feet away. It was cold, but he was accustomed to it. He noticed that Rhiannon, practiced camper that she was, had provided herself with blankets from the horses and would be warm enough. It was marvelous to be with a woman for whom you never had to feel concerned. She could go anywhere. She needed no watching or tending. Then grief choked him. What had he done that had changed her mind? Yet she had said it was not his fault. Had the threat of confinement somehow connected itself in her mind with marriage?
If so, it was all the more important to be patient and not to press her. When she was calmed by safety and soothed by freedom, he could approach her again with promises never to take her from Wales, even from her own home, unless she desired to go. He must do everything in his power to keep her from speaking to him about the future. There were reasons enough now to make haste to Llewelyn's court. He could leave her there; her father would send her on to Angharad's Hall with a small escort. Simon intended to ask permission to return to Richard, and he thought Llewelyn would give it, even if he decided to pretend he did not know what his vassal was doing. The tension that had prevented Simon from sleeping eased; he smiled slightly, and his eyes closed. Women were very tender toward a man away at war.
Simon allowed his men to rest until midmorning. Then, when the road was empty for a time, they came out into it and rode openly to Marlborough. Although Simon was questioned minutely and each man in his troop was carefully scrutinizedespecially the wrists and ankles, for all three prisoners had been manacled and would have sores there that were impossible to hideno other problem arose.

 
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