Footsteps in Time (29 page)

“
Rest easy, Mother,” he
said. “It was he who sent the messenger. Dafydd was riding with
some of his men at the time, and they’ve retreated in good order,
south, to find Prince Llywelyn.”

Mom put her hand to her
head and turned away. She walked a few steps, eyes on the ground.
“How do I stop caring? How do I stop worrying about him all the
time?”

Math shook his head. “You don’t,” he
said simply. “You are his mother.” Math smiled down at Anna and put
a hand to her belly.

Yes, that
is
to be my fate,
then.

“
I need your thoughts on a
particular matter,” Math said.

Mom noted the change in
tone and turned back. Math paced around a bit while he gathered his
thoughts, clearly restless, and then came to stand in front of
Anna.

“
I have a situation,” he
said. “Believe it or not, one of my people has murdered
another.”

“
A murder!” Anna said.
“Who?”

“
The miller and his
apprentice. The apprentice claims he was beaten one too many times
by the miller so he walloped him on the head with a wooden staff,
killing him.”

“
In self-defense?” Anna
said.

Math put out a hand and wobbled it in
a ‘so, so’ manner. Anna couldn’t remember if he’d done it before or
learned it from her.

“
Have you heard the
witnesses?” Mom said.

“
Yes, dozens,” Math said. “They don’t change the
issue.”
The way the law worked in Wales was
that both the murderer and the family of the victim gathered
witnesses who were willing to swear either that the murderer was
innocent, or that there were extenuating circumstances such that it
was not murder. Math’s job, as the judge in the case, was to
determine what sort of
proof was appropriate, which of the parties were required to
produce proof, adjudicate on the case, and then impose the
appropriate penalty in accordance with the law.

“
What makes this case different?”
Anna
said.

“
The incident occurred while the two were traveling, just a few
miles east of here.”

“
And?” Mom said.

“
And, as the miller’s family insists the two were in England,
they say English law should apply.”

“
Isn’t that unusual?”
Anna
said.

“
It’s been an unusual
summer.” Math glanced at Anna’s belly, his possessive look
accompanied by another smile.

Yes, yes, yes, I’m
having your baby. Hush!
But Anna smiled
too, as if they shared a secret instead of something that was
sticking out for all the world to see.

“
So they want the
apprentice’s head,” Mom said.

“
By
English law, he deserves death. In Wales, he or his family owes a
payment of
galanas
to the miller’s family.”

“
Your inclination is to
deny the request of the miller’s family,” Anna said, knowing Math
well enough not to ask it as a question.

“
Yes,” Math said. “We’re
Welsh, not English.”

“
If they feel that way,
they should take it to an English court,” Anna said, “and see if
they can get a fair judgment.”

“
They couldn’t,” said Math.
“They don’t speak English and the apprentice is under no obligation
to submit to an English decision or appear in court, since he can
live freely in Wales.”

“
So then why are they
doing this?” Anna said.

Mom saw it. “They’re seeing
how strong you are, Math. You’re a new lord to them, and they’re
behaving like children, testing their parents and looking for
weaknesses.”

“
Yes,” Math said. “That’s
what it felt like to me too, but it is possible that the miller’s
family is within their rights.”

“
Not in Welsh law,” Anna
said. “Papa stood up for our people and our laws when he wrote to
Edward and refused to give up Wales for lands in England. The
miller’s family knows that.”

“
They are looking out for
themselves,” Math said.

“
Then it is your job to
look out for them, even if they can’t see it,” Anna
said.

Math held out his hand to
Anna and she took it. “Thank you. I knew the answer, but it is
helpful to share my concerns with you.” He leaned forward to kiss
Anna’s cheek, nodded at Mom, and turned on his heel, striding away
as he’d come.

When he’d gone, Mom spoke
again. Anna heard the tears in her voice and moved closer. “I
wouldn’t have thought it possible.”

“
Wouldn’t have thought
what was possible?” Anna said.

“
That a man of this century
would look to his wife as Math looks to you.” She put her arm
around Anna’s shoulders and pulled Anna to her. “We’ve all been
very, very lucky.”

“
What about
Papa?”

Mom waved her hand dismissively. “He
is the Prince of Wales and no youngster. He’s learned over time to
listen better, though he still stands on his dignity too much,
thinking he has to go it alone.”

“
A bit like David,” Anna
said.

“
More than a bit,” Mom
said. “I worry about him too; he has far too great a burden for a
sixteen-year old boy, and then he takes on more and more with every
month that passes.”

“
Nobody sees him as a boy,”
Anna said. “He’s a man here, Mom.”

“
And that makes it worse,”
Mom said.

* * * * *

Aaron returned from
Chester a few days later, near the end of June. He was clearly a
bit worse for wear. That night, the four friends gathered in Math’s
office after the evening meal. Anna sat, very heavily now, on a
cushioned bench near the door. That seemed to be
all
she was doing
lately.
Sitting; breathing; getting bigger
and bigger by the second!

“
As you suggested, my lord,
I rode north from Dinas Bran to Ewloe, where I spent the night,
before crossing the Dee into Chester. That bridge is well-guarded,
but a free flow of Welsh into the city continues.”

“
But not back again,” Anna
said, catching the implications of his words.

Aaron glanced at her.
“No.”

“
What happened at the
return crossing?” Mom said.

“
The family in front of me,
clearly Welsh and with little English, was held up by the guards
who reviled them and then appeared ready to arrest the father. So I
intervened.”

“
Oh, Aaron,” Mom said. “You
could have been killed!”

“
I know,” Aaron said. “But
I was angry. I was able to translate the guards’ questions to the
Welshman and vice versa. After some dragging of feet, the guards
grudgingly let them enter Wales. The issue, apparently, was that
the family admitted to being from Rhuddlan.”

“
King Edward’s former
village,” Math said.

“
It was petty, and I think
the guards were bored and amusing themselves at the family’s
expense.”

“
But it wasn’t funny to the
family,” Anna said.

“
Nor to me,” Math said.
“England is too close to Dinas Bran for me to feel comfortable with
English abuse of Welshman on my doorstep.”

“
Did the guards bother you
afterwards?” Mom said. “They would have no love for men of your
faith either.”

“
I followed the family
across the bridge as if I traveled with them,” Aaron said. “It
wasn’t as if I was going to tell the guards I was Prince Llywelyn’s
personal physician.”

“
Wise man,” Mom said,
dryly. “That wouldn’t have gone over well.”

“
I would say that tensions
are high,” Aaron said.

“
As high as they were
after Edward’s defeat in the Vale of Conwy?” Anna said.

Aaron nodded. “I’m used to
having the priests rail against the Jews, but they’re inciting
anger against the Welsh as well. Chester is only a stone’s throw
from Wales. Many Welsh trade in the city, but Chester’s citizens
are not as welcoming as they used to be, despite the money they
bring in.”

“
Now
that
is
unusual,” said Math.

“
It feels like it does in
the lead-up to a pogrom against the Jews,” Aaron said. “My brother
reports that Edward and his Marcher lords are very angry—and I fear
that they have something up their sleeve, something we’re not going
to like.”

“
And to think a Welshman
thought to coerce you into judging a murderer based on English law
instead of Welsh,” Anna said to Math. “What were they thinking? Why
would anyone prefer that Edward ruled here?”

“
Because their lives are
circumscribed by the small world they live in,” Math said. “It’s
only the princes who’ve ever been able to see beyond that very
limited perspective.”

“
And the nobility’s own
desire for power is very real,” Mom said. “It has distracted the
common people from recognizing their overriding love of
Wales.”

“
That’s
changing,” Math said. “Llywelyn consolidates his power with each
passing week, and more and more of our people are beginning to see
what might be possible—what
is
possible, as Welshmen.”

“
We just need to hang on a
while longer,” Anna said.

“
Yes,” Math said, “if
Edward gives us the chance.”

Chapter Ten

David

A
t Crychen Forest, Llywelyn turned north to Buellt. With a
small compliment of men—the initial nine, plus ten bowman from
Llywelyn’s force—David rode east, into the rugged mountains of
Brecon. They would provide a base for his campaign against the
castles of Brecon, ruled directly by the Earl of Hereford, and
Bronllys and Hay, held by the Clifford family, Hereford’s vassals.
The area was heavily wooded, with many rivers and streams.
Fortunately, one of his bowmen was from the area and could guide
the company. Without him, it would have been much more difficult to
maneuver.

Brecon Castle sat on a hill,
overlooking the confluence of the Usk and Honddu rivers, with a
little village crouched at its foot. It was dusk when Bevyn, Ieuan
and David first gazed down on the village. Though the sun still
shone on the castle, shadows had fallen on the huts below. As David
looked at it, he had a sinking feeling in his stomach. Many of the
villagers worked for the English but were not English themselves.
Attacking the castle was one thing, but what they were about to
perpetrate on the countryside could be hideous.

“
We need to be disciplined
about this,” David said.

“
The men know your mind, my
lord,” Bevyn said. “We can begin by firing the fields. The smoke
will bring people out of the houses and reduce the loss of life.
We’re here to annoy and harass, not to kill Welshman.”

And so it began. The fields were still
green, this being June, so the fire didn’t spread as quickly as it
might have in August. As the people left their homes to fight the
fires, however, the bowman unleashed their fire arrows—not at the
people, but at their houses. This was only the first step. The
intent was to cause some damage today, and then retreat, moving
down the valley to Bronllys. In a few days, they’d return to cause
more damage.

They didn’t even stay to see the
results of their handiwork.

The next night, it was the
same thing again. The town and castle of Bronllys weren’t on their
guard, not knowing what David’s men had done to Brecon. They fired
the fields and then the village. Like Brecon, Bronllys was built at
the confluence of two rivers (the Llynfi and Dulais), so the rivers
limited the spread of the fire, but it devastated the village
nonetheless. Because only eight miles separated Bronllys and Hay,
Bevyn suggested they break the pattern and move on immediately,
hitting Hay a few hours before dawn.

Hay was different from the
others in that it was a walled town fronting the Wye River on the
English border. Llywelyn Fawr had burned the town, once upon a
time, before the stone walls were built. Now it was much more
defensible. Bevyn, however, saw no reason for that to stop them.
The fields were still outside the walls, and the roof of the
buildings were made of thatch. Like the other villages, it burned.
The fire arrows arced through the murky sky. They were as beautiful
as fireworks, until they hit.

Even from a distance, David could see
the panic they caused. An arrow would hit the thatched roof, begin
to smolder, and then catch. The red flames grew, licking at the
wood. Each bowman shot only five arrows, but within fifteen
minutes, they’d severely damaged the town.

None of the villagers fought back. How
could they? There was nobody to fight as David’s men disappeared as
quickly as they’d come, retreating north along the Wye. At dawn,
they turned west and picked their way to the wooded foothills just
shy of the plateau of Mynydd Epynt. They camped there the rest of
that day to give everyone a well-deserved rest, though Bevyn posted
sentries and sent out scouts to ensure that nobody followed or
discovered them.