Anna
David intercepted Anna on the way to breakfast two days later. "How'd you like to learn to ride a horse?" he said, smiling. "I talked to Bevyn and he said that we could take you out in the mornings after breakfast when the weather is good."
As 'good' in Wales meant 'not raining or snowing', Anna didn't know how often they'd get to ride, but the idea itself was enough to lift her spirits. It was still bitterly cold, but she didn't care. She threw her arms around David's neck and hugged him.
"Yes, please!" At last, I can do something!
They rode that very day and it was refreshing to be outside, even if Anna's muscles were so sore the next day she could barely walk, much less sit on a horse. She sat the next day anyway, determined to shake off her gloomy thoughts and focus on what she could do in Wales, rather than what she couldn't. Which is everything. Since their arrival at Castell y Bere, she'd had no opportunity for exercise, other than walking from her room to the solar, to church, to the great hall, and back again. Her karate instructor would have been appalled.
So riding was one good thing in her life, and within the week, Anna discovered another: Prince Llywelyn's only child, Gwenllian. Her mother, whom Prince Llywelyn had married late in life, had died at the baby's birth. Consequently, her caretakers were a wet nurse and a nanny, who were frazzled most of the time because Gwenllian was a fussy child. Although she was six months old, not an infant, she cried at any hour of the day. One afternoon, Anna was sitting and sewing among the women in the solar, listening to Gwenllian's constant wails, when she realized that her head would explode if she had to endure another minute of either sewing or crying. She put her useless work aside and left the room.
Anna went to Gwenllian's chambers and found her wet nurse, Heledd, pacing with her around the room, trying to get her to nurse. The nanny, Mari, was making unwanted suggestions. They looked at Anna as she entered and Anna simply held out her hands for the baby. After shooting a speaking look at each other, perhaps deciding in that instant that she was trustworthy, the nurse handed the baby to Anna and she took her into the great hall. Because it felt like the right thing to do, Anna put Gwenllian onto her shoulder and just by chance, she burped hugely and stopped crying.
"Now that's much better, isn't it?" Anna said. Gwenllian seemed to understand American English perfectly.
She was clearly a bright child, alert and curious, with un-Welsh-like blond, curly hair, blue eyes, and chubby fingers she used to point at anything and everything. They spent the afternoon looking at the huge hearth in the great hall in which a fire burned twenty-four hours a day, poking their noses into the kitchen to steal a biscuit which Gwenlllian managed to spread all over her face, and sitting at one of the tables to watch men play chess while Gwenllian gummed one of the chess pieces.
Two hours later, Gwenllian started fussing again and Anna brought her back to her nanny. The wet nurse had just woken up from a nap and stretched out her arms for the baby. It was a very pleasant day for everyone and from then on, Anna cared for the baby every afternoon. She was happy to do it. It gave purpose to her day, in addition to the riding and her feeble attempts to learn Middle Welsh.
David, on the other hand, continued to make great strides towards becoming a man as understood by the Welsh of the thirteenth century. For him, life in Wales was a real life role-playing adventure. His friends at home would have been falling all over themselves to experience it with him—that is until they realized the swords were sharp and a real war was coming, one in which David might well play a part.
Except for the daily ride, Anna usually saw him only at meals. However, one day in early January, she heard a commotion in the great hall. Anna hurried in and saw David and another boy standing before Prince Llywelyn. Bevyn accompanied them, along with the grizzled older man who'd first taught David to fight on the way north from Cilmeri.
The other boy, who was more than two years older than David as well as bigger and burlier, had a black eye and a swollen nose. It was unlike David to get into a fist fight, but it looked like that was what had happened. Bevyn and the older man spoke calmly to each other. David stood unmoving, staring fixedly ahead with his feet spread and fists clenched. He was doing some of the breathing exercises he'd learned in karate.
Prince Llywelyn, standing straight with his hands clasped behind his back, looked from one boy to the other. He spoke to David, who replied. Prince Llywelyn then put a hand on David's shoulder, leaned down, and looked him in the eye. Whatever he was saying, he enunciated so clearly that had Anna known enough Welsh she could have read his lips. At last, the two boys gripped forearms in sort of a handshake, and the group broke apart.
David spotted Anna leaning against the wall and walked over.
"What happened?" she said.
He half-laughed. "I was in a fight. Can't you tell?"
Anna looked him up and down. "No, I can't. The other guy sure looks like it, though."
"Fychan and I were fighting with wooden swords," David said. "I won fairly. No one has ever defeated him before and he was mad about it, I guess. He shouted at Bevyn that I cheated. I tried talking to him, but he wouldn't listen, so I turned around and walked away. Next thing I knew, he jumped me!"
"Uh oh," Anna said.
"Yeah," David said. "He caught me off-guard and I went down on one knee. His arms were around my shoulders, but I threw him off and turned to face him. I heard someone shout at us to stop, but I was seeing red and I think he was too because he rushed at me. He believed he could overpower me."
"Let me guess," Anna said. "He took a swing at you, you blocked his arm, kicked him in the groin, and when he doubled over you came up into his face with your knee."
"Pretty much," David said. "I was so mad I was ready to hit him on the way down too, but a couple of the guys pulled me off."
"So what did Prince Llywelyn say?" Anna said.
"Fychan was in the wrong," David said, "so there wasn't any question that I had the right to defend myself. But Bevyn was concerned that I let my temper get the better of me and the knee in the face was unnecessary."
"It was," Anna said, "especially since you had people calling you off before the fighting started."
"I know," David said. "Then Prince Llywelyn said that a leader couldn't afford to allow anger to affect his decisions, and that I needed to understand that there was a time for making an example of a man, and a time for showing mercy. He didn't object to the way I'd conducted the fight, but that I'd done it while hot, instead of cold. A leader has to be cold in order to mete out true justice."
"A leader, huh?" Anna said.
"You caught that too, did you? I'm not sure what to make of that."
Anna knew. Her brother was going to succeed in this world even more easily than in the old one. She'd feared that no one would appreciate David's talents, but it seemed that here, stripped of the trappings of modern society and with over seven hundred fewer years of accumulated knowledge, it was impossible not to.
* * * * *
As Anna's misery abated, despite the continued absence of hot showers, she became more aware of the increasing activity in the castle. A martial mentality was in evidence, with men-at-arms moving purposefully through the courtyards and more men peopling the great hall at dinner. David came to her one day to show off his mail armor, though his eyes were hooded with concern. He sat on a bench near one of the tables.
"I may have to kill people," he said. "They expect me to kill people."
Anna had been wondering at what point he'd realize that all the training he was doing would end in actual warfare in which he was destined to participate. She'd hoped he would come to her when it happened. Anna hadn't exactly come to terms with what had happened at Cilmeri, but as it was an accident, she tried not to let it bother her. David would be killing on purpose, knowingly.
"I know," Anna said. "I'm sorry."
David stared at the floor. "Do you see an alternative?"
She'd been thinking about this since David's first mock sword fight with a stick. She shook her head. "We're in the wrong time," she said, "but even in our time it's not immoral to fight if you have to—if you are attacked, or to protect people. You would be defending your people against invaders. If the English defeat us, Wales ceases to exist as a separate country."
"True," he said, and then continued softly. "Killing will change me. It harms the soul of anyone who does it."
"Yes," Anna said. "It does."
But there was nothing they could do about it. Wales was at war. On three separate occasions, a lone man arrived, his horse steaming, having ridden hard from a distant castle. King Edward of England wasn't finished with the Welsh, not by a long shot, even if he'd failed to kill the Prince. Anna's impression was that Prince Llywelyn was waiting for something. She didn't know if the problem lay with his allies, including his own brother, or a change in English strategy.
One day, in the second week of January, David and Anna came back late from their ride, with darkness almost upon them by the time they rode through the gate. David had duties to attend to and hurried through the grooming of his horse, leaving Anna alone in the stables.
After he left, she deliberately delayed her own return to the great hall. Wouldn't it be great if I had something important to do that needed my immediate attention? She combed her horse's mane again and again. He was a gentle fellow, ironically named Madoc for a great prince of Wales, though he was little bigger than a pony. Bevyn had decided he would suit her, and Anna was very happy with him. As a child, she'd dreamed of spirited horses and begged for one of her own, but at seventeen, the reality of them was entirely different. Small and gentle was just fine with her.
Anna was giving Madoc a farewell pat when an odd creak came from behind her. She looked around Madoc's head, but couldn't see anyone except a groom raking hay in one of the stalls. The torch light revealed no unfamiliar shadows.
"Hello?" she called, in Welsh.
An arm slipped around her waist and a gravelly voice said. "Hello, missy." Alcohol fumes wafted past as the man hugged Anna to him.
"Excuse me." Anna batted at the man's hand, but he didn't let go. The stable boy stood twenty paces away and their eyes met. He dropped his broom and raced out the stable door.
Great. I would've liked some help. The man slobbered disgustingly in Anna's ear. She didn't know who he was, didn't recognize his voice, and didn't care. Taking matters into her own hands, Anna stepped to her left, her right hand clenched in a tight fist, and swung it into the man's groin. As he bent over in reflex, she turned and met his face with a strong punch from the left. The man collapsed to the ground, groaning.
Anna poked him with her toe. She'd never done karate in a dress and was glad to see it still worked. She was turning to leave when David burst through the stable door, followed by Prince Llywelyn and Goronwy and a small crowd of people. As it turned out, the stable boy hadn't abandoned her but had gone for help.
"He doesn't look good," David said, in English.
"He was drunk," Anna said. "It wasn't much of a challenge."
"Is he a member of the garrison?" David asked Prince Llywelyn.
Goronwy answered. "He was sent off today, for drunkenness while on duty. He will hang for touching Anna."
Anna opened her mouth to protest, but Goronwy and the Prince had their heads in close conference.
"Hang?" she whispered to David.
"When you make a mistake here, Anna, the price is very high."
Two men-at-arms helped him to his feet while he continued to moan.
"Come on." David took her arm. "There are some things you don't need to watch."
Anna shrugged out of his grip. "I'm not a delicate flower, David! I've as good as killed that man. Shouldn't I watch the result?"
"And what would have happened if you hadn't stopped him?" he demanded.
Oh, I see the problem. David thought this was his fault, for leaving her alone in the stables.
Anna stepped closer and gripped David's tunic. David brought his head down to hers. "I hate this, David. So often I hate this."
"I do too, Anna, but we just don't have any choices."
* * * * *
Nobody but Anna seemed to care about the death of the man and the escapade earned her some distinction among the women for a few days. One of the girls, Gwladys, asked what she'd done to him. When Anna demonstrated, Gwladys stared at her, not so much appalled, as amazed. Her assumption, shared by most of the women, was that other than screaming and struggling, there was nothing they could do to stop a man once he had his hands on them. If Anna could have explained better in Welsh, she would have told them that being the 'weaker sex' didn't mean you couldn't fight if you had to.
Unfortunately, things settled back into their old, dull routine pretty quickly and Anna found herself painfully ripping out the stitches on yet another pathetic embroidery project. As usual, desultory conversation went on around her. Over the last week, she'd noticed that she was better able to follow conversations, and in this case, understood enough to know that it had to do with people and places she'd never heard of.
Then one of the girls Anna's age said, "... the green dress anyway. It was mine."
"Hush, Elen," her mother said. "It's not your place to question the orders of Prince Llywelyn."
Elen refused to be silenced. "I don't see why we have to be so nice to her. She's stupid and ugly. Look at her, she can't even sew a straight stitch."
Anna tried to cover her surprise at this speech by dropping her needle. She didn't want anyone to realize she at long last understood them, not when she was finally hearing something interesting. She had thanked Elen for the loan of the dress, after all. Head bent, Anna continued to sew.
Elen's comment was met with disapproval, to Anna's relief. "She's beautiful and you know it," Gwladys said. "You're jealous that she has found favor with Prince Llywelyn. He will find a husband for her who's more important than the one you marry."
Now another woman spoke, "There have been rumors ..."
Have there? Prince Llywelyn has found a husband for me? Anna was appalled, but at the same time, all ears.
"There are no rumors," Elen's mother said stoutly.
"That's all very well for you to say," said Elen. "Father was with the Prince at Cilmeri and knows all about them. But he won't tell me until he has the Prince's permission. I don't see why it is such a secret. Silly cow."
Shocked silence followed the last statement. Such gossip! Were the women like 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 DolwyddelanCastle. 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," she said. "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. In Welsh, David said, "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," he said.
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," he said. "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, and she appeared in front of me one day, just as you and Dafydd did last month."
Prince Llywelyn held out his hands, upturned towards them. "I've put off telling you this because I haven't known how, but maybe I'd better just say it," he said.
Anna nodded, trying to be encouraging.
"We loved each other," he said. "The result was you, Dafydd. You are our son."
"What?" That was Anna again. David said nothing, just stared at Prince Llywelyn, his face pale. Was he angry? Afraid? Hurt? Prince Llywelyn's story seemed impossible, a delusion.
The two continued to gaze at each other in silence. "Please tell me," David said at last.
Prince Llywelyn eyed David carefully, but took encouragement from his calm words. "It was close to this time of year, late in the day, and already dark," he said. "I stood alone on the ramparts at Criccieth, a seaside castle built by my grandfather. One moment, I was alone with the sea and the birds, and the next, your mother appeared in her blue carriage, her 'Honda,' lights shining from the front. She came out of the woods near the shore and slid down a slope toward the sea. The vehicle became mired in the marsh, and began to submerge. Marged had lost control of the vehicle in her world and slid through a barrier into this one. At least that's how she described it to me.
"Astonished, I raced down the steps, out the postern gate, and onto the shore. Marged had lost consciousness, and her baby—that was you, Anna—was crying in the rear seat. Without knowing how I knew to do it, I opened the door of the chariot and pulled you both free. Soon after, the car sank into the mire and disappeared. I imagine it would still be there, if you knew where to look."
Prince Llywelyn held David's eyes as he spoke, though it seemed as if he saw not David, but the past. Anna kept glancing from the Prince to David. David tended to be unforgiving when other people fell short of his expectations, even Mom. And this was so out of character for her. As far as Anna knew, she hadn't dated anyone after their dad died. Or rather her dad died.
"Your mother stayed with me for less than a year," he said, "almost until your birth, Dafydd. Then one day, I awoke to find her gone and Anna with her. None claimed responsibility for her leaving, or had seen her go."
"She left? Just like that?" said David.
"We ransacked the castle and searched the surrounding countryside for her to no avail. She left me as quickly as she had come."
"But how do you know that I'm your son?" David said. "You've never seen me before, and I am with Anna, not my mother."
Prince Llywelyn smiled. "It's obvious to anyone with eyes. You, of course—" He turned to Anna, "—look just like your mother. I'm sure others have told you that many times."
Anna nodded. It was true.
"And you, Dafydd, look much like my father, Gruffydd, and my older brother, Owain. My men noticed it as soon as they saw you standing in the clearing at Cilmeri—thus the rumors which have spread about your identity."
"I heard of these rumors, just today in the solar," Anna said to David, not able to render this in Welsh. "I thought Prince Llywelyn was arranging a marriage for me."
"Whatever you have to tell me about the fate of Wales," the Prince continued, "I already know through Marged. She warned me of the treachery at Cilmeri; she knew of Edward's deeds and that with my death the dream of an independent Wales would also die."
"But why didn't you do anything about it?" David said. "If not for us, you would have died, just as our history books say."
"It's one thing to know something, it's another to avert the course of the future," Prince Llywelyn said. "These last fifteen years I've worked to shore up my castles and consolidate my power—and resist the advances of the English. But each time I tried to do something that seemed to lead toward a different future, others who knew nothing of what I knew would move to ensure that my efforts failed. My own kin betrayed me more than once."
"That doesn't explain your presence in that meadow," David said.
"In early November," Prince Llywelyn said, "The first rumors reached me that the powerful Mortimer family might consider defecting to my side. On the eighth of December, after our great victory at the Menai Straits, I received a note suggesting exactly that. They offered a meeting outside of Buellt. Your mother had warned me against the meeting, but still, I couldn't pass it up."
"So, you went to the rendezvous," said David.
"Yes, and found it a trap, and one which I allowed them to spring on me," Prince Llywelyn said. "I did not, however, bring my entire army with me to the south, even though the English thought I did. This small thing I could and did control. The men you met that first day were my entire party, save those who died on the hill before you arrived. The bulk of my army has now reached my brother Dafydd at DolwyddelanCastle. If Edward chooses to sweep down the valley of the Conwy, he will find a larger force than he expects prepared to stop him."
Anna had been leaning forward, hanging on the Prince's every word, and with that sat back, heaving a sigh of relief.
"At least you could do something to change the future," she said.
"If you hadn't appeared when you did, I don't know how much difference it would have made," Prince Llywelyn said. "I felt I had to take a chance with the Mortimers, despite your mother's warning. Unfortunately, I was as unprepared this time as in your world. That's the reason, however, that when your chariot appeared in the meadow, I knew you, even before you gave me your names.
"So, Dafydd," Prince Llywelyn said, "may I greet you as my son?"
David sat frozen to his chair, and then sprang up. He met the Prince half-way around the table. The Prince lifted him off his feet and hugged him. When Prince Llywelyn put David down, he looked at Anna.
"Do you remember anything of your time in Wales?" he said.
"My first memories aren't until David was a baby, except—" She paused, thinking hard, "—did I know Goronwy then?"
Llywelyn smiled. "You did. And you called me Papa. You liked me to put you on my shoulders. You would grasp my hair with your fists to hold on."
Anna gazed at him through several heartbeats. "I don't think you want to carry me anywhere, but I will call you 'Papa' again, if you'd like."
"Yes." He smiled. "I'd like that."
Then she skipped back to what he'd said before and jumped to her feet, unable to sit still. "Wait! Wait!" she said, in Welsh, of which she'd understood more in the last five minutes than in the previous five weeks. "You're saying that Mom and I lived here for a time and then disappeared. Could that happen to David and me? Could it happen to Mom again?"
"When I was with her, we talked about it," Prince Llywelyn said. "She had no idea why it had happened in the first place, much less how to make it happen again, or how to prevent it."
"And now it's happened to us," said David. "That's an amazing coincidence."
Prince Llywelyn looked from David to Anna, amused. "Do you believe in coincidences? I confess, I no longer do."