Footsteps in Time (The After Cilmeri Series Book 1)

Footsteps in Time (Chapter Fifteen)

Anna

Mom, David, and Anna left Aber on a clear day that for once didn't have a cold wind with it. Anna could almost believe it wasn't going to rain soon, but as this was Wales, it always did. As the crow flies, it was less than twenty miles from Aber to Dolwyddelan, but they wouldn't be traveling as the crow flies. David intended to take a week to make the journey.

Along the way, they'd stop at every hut and hamlet. David would stand for Papa as arbiter and judge in any dispute, Aaron would attend to any ailments, having improved his Welsh considerably in the six months he'd lived in Wales, with Anna herself assisting. That way, she could also translate for him if he needed it. Mom planned on being, as she called it, Papa's 'Cheerleader in Chief'.

Anna was excited to get moving, but for some reason, Mom was apprehensive and not at all herself. Anna thought at first that she didn't want to leave Papa or Gwenllian, but when she asked her about it, she furrowed her brow and complained about the weather and its effect on her skin. For the first time, Mom had found lines around her eyes and on her forehead. Aaron snorted into his cuff at that and promised to concoct a lotion for her to counteract that as soon as he was able.

Anna turned to look at her and then it dawned on her what day it was. "It's your birthday, isn't it?"

Out of nowhere, Mom gave Anna a brilliant smile that was a sharp contrast to her glum look a moment before. "And if I weren't so stubborn, I would have told Llywelyn and he would've done something for me. But then I might have to talk to all the well-wishers about exactly where I was born, and who my father was, and so far, nobody seems to be asking those questions, at least not to my face. On top of which, I'm thirty-eight and getting old, and can't seem to do the math to figure out in what year I'm supposed to have been born."

"It's 19—" Anna said. "Oh ... I guess that would be 1247."

"Ha!" Mom looked away but she was smiling.

It occurred to Anna that her mother might be suffering the same way Anna herself had when she first came to Wales. In truth, except for Papa, David, Anna, and sometimes Aaron, there was no one for her to talk to. Mom had plenty to do as the Princess of Wales, but as she and Anna had lamented many times, twenty-first century women just didn't fit in well in the Middle Ages. It wasn't so much that men treated women poorly, but that they didn't expect anything important of them, beyond an ability to raise children and run a household (which wasn't unimportant, even if some men dismissed it). Men didn't talk to women.

Anna had discussed this with David, and he'd understood, even sympathized. For his part, he had plenty of male friends and acquaintances because they mostly talked about what they'd done that day, or what the plan for the next day was. With the older men, all David had to do was get them going about some battle or other that they'd been in, and there were no awkward silences.

The drawback for the three of them was that beyond superficial conversation, they had little in common with anyone. It wasn't so much that people weren't smart, because many were, especially within their own sphere of knowledge; it was just that they were ignorant. Everyone saw the sun rise and set every day, but those from the twenty-first century knew how and why, and the rest didn't.

Anna had the same problem with the girls who lived at court—it was really hard to make friends with them. As soon as she actually tried to have a conversation, it became clear that they didn't know how to think about things.

David was young and male, but it bothered even him, since he might have liked a girlfriend. To David's embarrassment, Anna had been present for Mom's lecture on the subject: "Most girls are less interested in you, David, than the fact that you are the Prince of Wales."

"I know that, Mom," he'd said.

"Bearing your child would set any one of them up for life."

He'd been mortified and refused to talk about it with Mom anymore. When Anna told Math of it, he'd laughed. "He's a Prince of Wales. Your mother needs to let him do what he wants. More than most princes, I, for one, would trust his judgment."

When they reached the first little village, nestled in the crook of a river, Anna and Mom gazed down at it from their vantage point on the ridge above.

"I don't know about this, Mom," Anna said. "I grew up in Oregon. How can I be a princess? It isn't like they voted for me or anything. I've lived here for just two and a half years. It isn't like I really understand them at all, yet I sit with Math as the lady of the castle."

"That's one reason for making this trip," Mom said. "We all have the same problem. There's a limit to the changes we can make. This isn't a democracy and never will be, not in our lifetime or your children's. The people are uneducated and thus ill-equipped for self-rule. David's job is to campaign for Llywelyn's vision of Wales. Your job is to support him and counsel Math."

"I don't think that helps, Mom," Anna said.

"Why is it you speak of democracy in Wales?" Aaron asked from behind them.

They turned together as Aaron walked his horse closer. "I apologize for speaking out of turn, but I couldn't help but overhear."

"I was just saying that I'm not well acquainted with the people over whom Math rules," Anna said. "I didn't grow up here, and both they and I know it."

"Yes, but democracy?" Aaron said. "There hasn't been a true democratic state since Athens was defeated by Macedon fifteen hundred years ago. Where did you learn of its principles?"

"I don't know if this is a conversation we should be having, Aaron," Mom said. "I realize that there are times when my children and I make you uncomfortable with the extent of our differences, and I'm afraid that this just needs to be one of those times."

Aaron's face took on a look that Anna could only describe as fierce. It struck her that he was deeply insulted. He thought Mom was disparaging his intelligence. Anna wanted to tell him a little piece of truth, but didn't even know how to begin.

David must have thought the same thing, because he prodded Taranis closer. "Listen to me, Aaron. We are from a country which is governed by a democracy as much as it can be. It's a land where all citizens are educated. My mom taught history at a university. There, I was not known as a prince's son, but as a schoolboy. There, much of the knowledge you've spent a lifetime acquiring, is learned routinely by ten-year-olds. We are here by chance and happenstance. If you can bear it, without thinking us witches or devils, someday I will tell you more. I tell you this now so that you won't be offended by our knowledge or our ideas—or by our secrets."

David pulled at Taranis' head and spurred him forward, leaving his mother and Anna to deal with Aaron's questions David had unleashed.

"Where ... where are you from?" Aaron said.

Anna turned her head, following David with her eyes, not wanting to look at Aaron.

"Every day we travel a little closer to it," Mom said.

The future, Mom means. Except that we'll never reach it, not from here.