Read Online Footsteps in Time by Sarah Woodbury - Free Book Online

this all the time, and I hadn’t known it?
Perhaps it was a blessing not to know Middle
Welsh.
    “ I want to know what this
language is they speak,” said a woman sitting across from Anna.
“It’s very strange, unlike any English I’ve
encountered.”
    “ And what about Prince
Llywelyn?” said another. “I heard she healed him at Cilmeri with a
touch of her finger!”
    That was news to Anna.
    “ She’s a witch!” Elen said,
triumphantly.
    “ Don’t be ridiculous!”
Gwladys said. “She’s not a witch. If she were, do you think she’d
be sitting there, taking abuse from you?”
    With that, Gwenllian and her nanny
came into the room, interrupting the discussion. With reluctance,
since Anna was eager to hear more, even if it wasn’t nice, she rose
and took the baby. Deciding that discretion was indeed the better
part of valor, Anna left the room and went into the great
hall.
    She’d just settled on a
bench against the wall when a group of men strode in, her brother
amongst them, and gathered around a table upon which pieces of
parchment lay. Prince Llywelyn came out of his study and joined
them. They talked and gestured over the papers and, once again,
Anna was astonished to find that she understood them.
    One man said, “Our men have reached
Dafydd at Dolwyddelan Castle. Others are coming every day. What are
the total numbers now?”
    “ Many thousands, Cadog,”
the prince said.
    “ When do we join them?”
another man said. “We can’t allow Edward to come this far into
Gwynedd.”
    David turned to look at Anna cradling
a sleeping Gwenllian, and said in English. “Anna, could you come
here for a minute?”
    Surprised, Anna rose.
    David made room for her in front of
the map.
    “ What is it?” she
said.
    David spoke in English. “Do
you remember what Edward did after—” He stopped with a glance at
Prince Llywelyn. “You know.”
    “ Edward
moved down the northern coast and then headed inland, but the
prince—” Here too, she stopped. Anna didn’t think he could
understand her but didn’t feel comfortable saying the prince was dead when
he was standing right in front of them. She looked at David. “Do
you think it’s time we talked to Prince Llywelyn about Wales—about
the future of Wales? Do you think he would speak with us, away from
all these people? In the solar, there’s already discussion that I
might be a witch.”
    David put an arm over
Anna’s shoulder and together they faced the prince. “Could we have
a moment of your time, my lord—in private?”
     
    * * * * *
     
    Anna gave Gwenllian to her nanny and
then joined Prince Llywelyn in his study. David, Goronwy, and
another of Llywelyn’s lieutenants, a young man named Tudur, were
there when she arrived. Prince Llywelyn dismissed Tudur and Goronwy
and then indicated that David and Anna should sit in two chairs on
one side of a table. He sat down across from them, stretched out
his legs, heaved a sigh, and fingered the papers in front of
him.
    Then he straightened,
apparently having come to a decision. “It is time for me to tell
you what you need to know.”
    David and Anna looked at each other in
confusion. They’d imagined themselves telling him the very same
thing.
    “ It
begins and ends with Marged, your mother, who became my friend many
years ago.” Prince Llywelyn used her formal name, instead of Meg which everyone called
her at home.
    “ What?” Anna
said.
    “ What did you say?” David
stared at the Prince, his jaw on the floor. “You knew our
mother?”
    Prince Llywelyn held up his
hand. “Let me get this out. You may have wondered why I’ve not
expressed more curiosity about your sudden arrival in the meadow at
Cilmeri, or pressed you, despite your lack of Welsh, concerning
your strange chariot. In truth, it was not the first such vehicle I
have seen, and you aren’t the first of your kind I’ve come across.
Your mother came to me fifteen years ago, after the death of her
husband. You were with her, Anna,