Footsteps in Time Read Free Page B

belonged to someone else.
    Llywelyn nodded. “You
understand who I am?” Again, he spoke in Welsh.
    Anna’s neck hurt to bend
forward, but she made her chin bob in acknowledgement. She was
frozen in a nightmare that wouldn’t let her go.
    David recovered more
quickly. “You are the Prince of Wales. Thank you, my lord, for
bringing us with you. We would have been lost without your
assistance.”
    “ It is I who should be
thanking you,” he said.
    Anna had been growing
colder inside with every sentence David and Llywelyn spoke.
Llywelyn’s eyes flicked to her face, and she could read the concern
in them. Finally, she took in a deep breath, accepting for now what
she couldn’t deny.
    “ My lord,” she said, in
half-remembered and badly pronounced Welsh, “Could you please tell
us the date?”
    “ Certainly. It is the day of Damasus the
Pope , Friday, the
11 th of
December.”
    David’s face paled as he
realized the importance of the question.
    Anna was determined to get
the whole truth out and wasn’t going to stop pressing because her
brother was finally having the same heart attack she was. “And the
year?”
    “ The year of our Lord
twelve hundred and eighty-two,” Llywelyn said.
    “ You remember the story
now, don’t you, David?” Anna spoke in English, her voice a whisper,
because to speak her thoughts more loudly would give them greater
credence. David couldn’t have forgotten it any more readily than
she could. Their mother had told them stories about medieval Wales
since before they could walk—and tales of this man in particular.
“Llywelyn ap Gruffydd was lured into a trap by some English lords
and killed on December 11, 1282 near a place called Cilmeri.
Except—” Anna kept her eyes fixed on Llywelyn’s.
    “ Except we just saved his
life,” David said.

Chapter Two
    David
     
    I t just wasn’t possible. None of it. David stared into the
fire. The kindling popped, and the sparks flew above the trees. In
his head, he went over the trip from Aunt Elisa’s house, crossing
the black abyss, watching the men go under the wheels. It didn’t
look as if Anna had yet absorbed the fact that she’d driven the van
into three people and killed them. David glanced at her out of the
corner of his eye. He wasn’t going to remind her if she hadn’t
thought of it. She tended to be rather single-minded, and right now
other things were more important.
    Can we really be in
the Middle Ages? If he and Anna were really
in the Middle Ages, everything David had ever thought was true
might not be. What about the laws of
physics? Mathematics? David could
understand Anna’s anger and despair, but didn’t know what to tell
her.
    He looked up as a lone man rode off
the trail to the right, stopping at the edge of the clearing, his
horse lathered. Two men-at-arms ran to him as he dismounted. One
grabbed the horse’s reins and led it away, towards the trees where
the rest of the horses were picketed, but the other walked with him
to Llywelyn’s tent and disappeared inside.
    Llywelyn ap
Gruffydd . David repeated the name, trying
to recall everything his mother had ever told him about Wales, or
he’d gleaned from the bits of her research he’d paid attention to.
It was her
specialty after all. His mother should have been there instead of
him and Anna. She’d kill to have been there instead of
them.
    David ran his hand through his hair, and then clenched
his fists as if that would help him sort out his thoughts. They’d
arrived in Wales smack in the middle of a war between the Welsh and
the English. In fact, Llywelyn’s death tonight would have nearly
ended it.
    Llywelyn had traveled south to Cilmeri
to try to bolster support for his cause while his brother, Dafydd,
was supposed to continue Llywelyn’s campaign in the north. Instead,
in the old world, Llywelyn died when the Mortimers lured him away
from the bulk of his army. They ambushed and slaughtered him and
eighteen of his men. Edward then killed or