Daughter of Time: A Time Travel Romance by Sarah Woodbury Page A

my ally,
Simon de Montfort, against King Henry. The shifting loyalties of the English
nobility were often hard to keep straight.
    Humphrey nodded. “He is
well. He will pay for my release.”
    “ I bet he will,” Hywel
said.
    The boy’s directed a sharp
look at Hywel, who gazed back at him, his face blank.
    “ His Welsh is better than
I would have expected,” Goronwy said, in aside to me, “but perhaps
it would be better to speak in French.”
    At my nod, Goronwy pointed
his chin at the boy. “ Fran ç ais, then?”
    A look of relief passed
through Humphrey’s eyes before he mastered it. “Thank you,” he
said. “I expect you to return me to my grandfather’s house
immediately.”
    Hywel snorted. I smiled at
that and shook my head. Goronwy needed to break through Humphrey’s
upright equanimity. However much I distrusted the boy’s grandsire,
I respected him, and could see his training in the
grandson.
    “ What in the name of
heaven were you doing at Coedwig Gap, involved in such a cowardly
and ill-favored venture?” I said.
    Humphrey’s chin quivered.
Then he visibly steeled himself. The look was one I’d seen before,
most recently in Marged’s eyes. Did he expect a backhand across the
face? I found my temper growing hot at the thought that any man had
hit her. I forced it down. Humphrey was not Marged.
    “ For the time being, it
seems you are my guest,” I said, “provided you explain your
participation in the events of today.”
    “ May I stand?” Humphrey
asked.
    “ I think not,” Goronwy
said. “The quicker you talk, the sooner you can get off your knees.
I’m sure they’ve started to ache on this hard floor.”
    No torture indeed. I smirked, remembering my Latin master forcing me
to recite verbs on my knees over and over again until I got them
right. The pain certainly sharpened my mind. We’d see what it did for
Humphrey.
    Humphrey swallowed hard.
“It started out as a lark, really. Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn’s son,
Owain, proposed venturing into Gwynedd to probe your defenses and
see how far we could penetrate. It was easy; the roads are nearly
deserted this time of year and the snowpack sparse, even in the
mountains. Two days ago, Owain received a message that called him
away. He left me in charge of the men. We had camped at the foot of
Rhobell Fawr when one of the men who’d left with Owain returned to
camp with word that you had left Castell Criccieth.”
    “ So you prepared the
ambush?” Goronwy said.
    “ Owain left the rider with
instructions as to what to do.”
    “ And the village?” Goronwy
said.
    I nodded. I’d not
forgotten the odd absence of people there, and our uncertainty as
to their fate.
    “ If
they’re dead, it wasn’t our doing!” Humphrey said. “We came upon
the empty village the day before Owain left. In his note, Owain
suggested burning the village as a distraction. We
did not kill anyone.”
    “ Just my men,” Hywel
said.
    “ As to that,” Humphrey
said, “from our end, it was worth the cost if we could take you, my
lord Prince, as a prize. Our intent was not to kill you. Owain said
that you would be a valuable hostage.”
    Goronwy glanced at me. I
raised my eyebrows, willing to take the boy at his word, for now.
If the villagers had left of their own accord, we didn’t need to
add their deaths to his list of crimes.
    But Goronwy wasn’t done.
“Owain said? Why is that all that I have heard from your mouth?
What Bohun hides behind another man, no matter who he is, unable to
think for himself? I would have expected more from you. So would
your grandfather.”
    Humphrey blinked. His face
was impassive still, but a bit of doubt had crept into his
eyes.
    “ And where is Owain now?”
I said. “Obviously not here.”
    “ No,” Humphrey said, his
voice curt. “He is not.”
    “ He found it convenient to
have you do his dirty work,” Hywel said.
    “ And how do you feel about
that ignoble fact?” Goronwy said. “To your grandfather, a man is
one