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instructions to the cooks for an extra dish or two to add festivity to the meal. There was nothing in Kicva's voice, expression, or manner to show that she was even aware of her daughter. Nonetheless, Rhiannon felt the mingled amusement and sympathy. She controlled a desire to scream. It never paid to scream at Kicva, who merely looked at one with laughter or scorn in her quiet eyes. |
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Math stalked into the hall, his tail twitching from side to side. He crossed to where Rhiannon sat and looked up at her. There was no sympathy in his eyes and he was not offering the comfort of his roaring purr. Restraining a desire to kick Math, who was not laughing at her, Rhiannon rose to her feet with all the dignity she could muster and did what Math and Kicvaand all the others in the hallwere waiting for her to do. |
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"If you want me," she said to the open space of the hall, "I will be on the hill." |
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Simon did not need to ask Kicva which hill, and eagerness lent wings to his feet. Had Rhiannon intended to hide from him, she would have fled into the forest. This particular hill was one of her favorite spots when she wanted to be away from the bustle of the hall and yet still remain close by. It was some half-mile from the house up a steep rise where some fall of land or ancient excavation had created a cuplike hollow, bare of trees and facing south. The depression caught and held the heat of the sun so that from early spring until the deep snow fell it was warm enough to sit there and read or dream. |
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Never having ridden to the place when he had been at Angharad's Hall in the spring, Simon did not think of mounting Ymlladd. However, when he had gone to the hill with Rhiannon, he had not been burdened with mail and a heavy cloak. He was gasping for breath as he came up the final rise, but the sight of Rhiannon standing tensely waiting gave him one more burst of |
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