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

who stands up for all his actions, whether for good or ill. It
is why you chose not to lie about who you are, isn’t it. You’ve
learned something from your grandfather anyway.”
    And why the boy might
become a formidable enemy for me when he came into his inheritance.
“Does your grandfather know where you are?” I said.
    Humphrey didn’t answer at
first. He stared at Goronwy, and then me, his jaw clenched and
stiff. Then the fight went out of him. His shoulders sagged. “No.
You could kill me now and put out that I fell in the battle. None
would be the wiser.”
    “ Is that what Owain would
do?” Goronwy said, not willing to make this easy on him.
    Humphrey looked down at
the ground, shifting uncomfortably. “I think he would.”
    “ One measure of a man,”
Hywel said, “is with whom he associates. You might consider your
choices more closely in future.”
    “ Are you going to kill
me?” Humphrey squared his shoulders, aiming for an authority and
manhood he’d just discovered he hadn’t quite achieved.
    “ We could,” I said. “But
we won’t.”
    Humphrey gazed at me, hope
etched in his face.
    Hywel’s eyes showed
resigned contempt, but he stood and held out a hand to help the boy
to his feet.
    “ Do you swear not to
attempt an escape?” Goronwy said.
    “ I swear it,” Humphrey
said. “On my honor as a Bohun.”
    Goronwy nodded. “And
perhaps you’ve suddenly discovered what that means, and you care
more about it than you thought you did. You may sleep in the hall
with the other men.”
    “ Who is your companion in
the other stall?” Hywel said.
    I’d forgotten
him.
    “ He’s one of Owain’s men,
one Dai ap Maredudd.”
    “ He’ll keep, then. He will
make a good messenger to your grandfather,” Hywel said.
     
    * * * * *
     
    We were into the early
hours of the morning before I managed to escape my duties and find
my bed. With no maid to assist her in undressing, it looked as if
Marged had fallen asleep in what she stood up in. I made a note to
myself to remedy that in the morning. There had to be a local girl
Goronwy could conscript. It was unseemly that she was unattended. I
watched her breathe slowly in and out before blowing out the candle
and crawling into bed beside her. Or rather, beside Anna. The
thought made me smile and for the moment put away the concerns of
the day.
    I’d decided that we would
stay in the lodge for several days, hoping for the recovery of some
of my men and for reinforcements from Criccieth and Castell y Bere.
We needed to spread a wide net in hopes of picking up Owain ap
Gruffydd Gwenwynwyn and the men who remained with him, and to
quickly determine what had happened to the inhabitants of the
village. Why had they left their homes in the dead of winter? It
could be for a dozen reasons—disease, famine, marauders—any one of
which would require keeping a close eye on the events in the
surrounding countryside.
    It seemed I’d hardly
closed my eyes before I woke to sunlight trickling through a crack
between the wooden shutter and the frame. Anna still slept, but
Marged was awake, her eyes open, studying me.
    “ Did you sleep well?” I
asked in French. Goronwy had informed me that her Welsh had
improved over the course of the ride from Criccieth—as if she were
remembering something she’d merely forgotten instead of learning it
from scratch—but she was more comfortable in French and I wanted
precise answers this morning.
    “ Well enough,” she said.
“I don’t know that I really expected to, after
yesterday.”
    “ It was your first
battle,” I said. “One hopes that it will be your last.”
    “ The older man who died
was your friend. I’m sorry.” She fingered the embroidery on the
pillowcase, not looking at me, and then glanced up to check my
face.
    “ He was my seneschal,” I
said. “My steward. His father served my grandfather and my Uncle
Dafydd, and then when he died, Geraint took his place.”
    “ I’m sorry I couldn’t