Rafferty had imagined Llewellyn's mother, when he had found the courage to think of her at all, as being as long and thin and forbidding as those tall black hats Welsh women traditionally wore. So, when he finally met her, he was prepared for the worst. Although surprised to find that Mrs Llewellyn was a rather elegant woman, tall, small-featured and, at fifty-five, still pretty, he had more than half-expected her to have a sharp tongue and decidedly old-fashioned attitudes. And, with the introductions barely over, she didn't disappoint him, though the attack came from an angle he hadn't expected.
Tapping him on the arm, she said, 'I understand you've been introducing my son to the local public houses. He's told me all about it, and I have to say I'm surprised. I never thought to live to
