The Lady Amalthea beckoned, and the cat wriggled all over, like a dog, but he would not come near… She was offering her open palm to the crook-eared cat, but he stayed where he was, shivering with the desire to go to her”…[later, Molly asked the cat] “Why were you afraid to let her touch you? I saw you. You were afraid of her.” “If she had touched me,” he said very softly, “I would have been hers and not my own, not ever again. I wanted her to touch me but I could not let her. No cat will… The price is more than a cat can pay.
