Footsteps in Time (17 page)

“
I’ll come too.” Anna
swung her legs out of bed.

“
Anna,” Math said, “there’s
no need.”

Anna walked to him and reached up to
clasp her hands around his neck. He wrapped his arms around her
waist and pulled her close. “We’ve talked about this before,” she
said. “I’m not a glass doll. I’m not broken.”

“
You tell me this, Anna,”
Math said, “and I know it’s true. But I don’t feel it.”

“
There will be another
baby,” Anna said. “I was only nineteen last week. I realize that
many girls here have three children by my age, but I’m not worried.
It’s only the old busybodies in the solar who look at my belly and
wonder why I haven’t yet given you a son.”

“
Part of me would choose
for you to never give me one, rather than lose another in the same
fashion. I can handle anything but your tears, Anna.”

It was Math, in fact, who’d kept
better track of the days and had known Anna was pregnant before she
did. Even though she’d assumed a child was inevitable, the
responsibility for it had brought her to her knees at first. But
then as the weeks progressed, she’d accepted it, and then embraced
the growing life inside her as a natural result of the love between
her and Math. When the pregnancy, which had lasted all of fourteen
weeks, had ended three weeks ago, Anna had sobbed through many
days, desolated, while Math had stood by, helpless.

In truth, Anna had needed her mother,
but as always, she was in another world and too far away to help.
The dream of her was fading now. If Anna focused, she could recall
the black abyss and the sense of despair, both of which were very
familiar, though she thought she’d conquered her fear of them in
the past year. But she couldn’t control her dreams and perhaps the
miscarriage had brought those feelings bubbling to the surface
again.

Math’s request to
court her had caught Anna completely by surprise. She and David had
discussed Papa ‘marrying her off’ when they’d first arrived in
Wales, but Anna hadn’t seriously considered it again. She’d thought
it ridiculous, really, not only because she was only seventeen, but
because she wasn’t Welsh, because she was from the future, and
because telling Math about who they were and where they were from
meant she’d have to commit to
this
life as the only one she was going to
get.

As the months passed, Math was
persistent in his attentions, and heaven help her, Anna grew to
like him—more than like him. She began to miss him when he was off
somewhere with David, patrolling the border or fighting the
English, and found herself atop the battlements, waiting for a sign
of his return. Math was upright and straightforward, honest and
trustworthy, a knight in the truest sense of the word. And whenever
he looked at Anna, it was with a thoughtful expression, intense and
gentle at the same time—as if he saw something in her that was
special, and perhaps special only to him.

Finally, it was David who’d
intervened, understanding what was going on as only he could. So
they’d sat Math down and told him the truth, and he’d shaken his
head at Anna, not because he didn’t believe that she was from the
future, but because she’d been silly to think something like that
would make him change his mind about her. Anna had long since
changed her mind about him.

“
If you help me get
dressed, I won’t have to wake Nell,” Anna said. Her maid slept on
the floor in the women’s chamber. Nobody there would want to be
awakened at five in the morning. Anna didn’t like needing a maid at
all, but she couldn’t do all of the laces up the back of her dress
by herself. Anna pushed open the shutter to see what the day looked
like. After the heavy rain of the night before, the sky was clear,
though more clouds hovered on the western horizon.

With Math’s help, Anna got into her
clothes, twisted her hair onto the top of her head, and pinned it.
Not exactly a ‘lady of the manor’ look, but they were going to the
beach and she could clean up better when they returned.

David was waiting for them in the
courtyard, Taranis already saddled. Math boosted Anna onto Dyfi,
and then mounted Mael. As always when traveling with David, a dozen
other men-at-arms came with them. Even a morning stroll on the
beach could turn into something malevolent if English were about
and Papa insisted David not take unnecessary chances.

“
Hey, Anna,” David said.
“What’s up?”

Anna smiled back at him, loving the
familiar greeting, though it didn’t quite have the same ring to it
in Welsh.

“
Why should you have all
the fun?” she said. “I need to get out and move around.”

“
Okay,” he said. “But I
don’t think this is going to be fun.”

“
Yes,” Anna said. “I do
realize that, but perhaps I can be of help.”

In the nine months that Math and she
had been married, they’d made a full circuit of the half dozen
estates which he controlled, plus the two he held for Papa. Because
many of the lands were in Deheubarth, they’d been lost in the years
since 1277 and had only recently been regained.

In each estate, Math had near total
power, sitting as judge and jury in all disputes, overseeing the
management of the land, and all-in-all acting as an almost-king.
Anna, in turn, was a combination hostess, housekeeper, and
substitute mother to the people who worked the land or served in
the castle or manor. In the process, she found that everyone
expected her to act as doctor when the herbalist wasn’t available.
Anna had brought her satchel with clean bandages and a water sack.
People on the beach this morning might need them.

Rhuddlan Castle, which Papa had gladly
made his main power base in north Wales, was a monstrosity, but at
this point, one Anna could really get behind. Edward had built it
after destroying the old castle—the one in which Papa had made his
obeisance in 1277 to his humiliation. Now, if one were to use Mom’s
terminology, the castle resembled ‘the finest example of Edwardian
castle architecture ever constructed.’ They rode out of the main
entrance at the northwest corner of the castle, above which flew
both Papa’s banner and David’s.

Because the ocean tended to throw its
refuse on the beach east of the Clwyd estuary, they didn’t cross
the river, but headed north along the river’s eastern bank until
they reached the shore of the sea two and half miles downstream.
When they arrived at the beach, even though it couldn’t have been
more than six in the morning, a dozen people combed the shoreline
for whatever the sea had thrown up.

Anna dismounted where the
cheat grass turned into beach, which, now that the tide was out,
was a hundred feet deep. She let Dyfi’s reins trail and left her
cropping the short grass on the landward side of a dune. As Anna
faced the sea, the sun shone from behind her. Logs, broken pottery,
and planks that perhaps had once been part of a ship littered the
beach, but no bodies that she could see. Anna breathed in the sea
air, and Math took her hand.

“
Let’s walk this way,” he
said, pointing northeast.

Anna lifted her skirt rather than let
it trail in the wet sand and wished for sandals she could easily
remove. They crunched along anyway, away from the other people,
though behind her Anna could hear David making disposition of his
men. It was nice to be alone with Math, with just the seagulls
calling and the sound of the surf crashing on the shore. It was
hard to believe that a storm had raged here in the night, driving
men and boats into the deep. The beach narrowed as they went north,
and they followed the shore around a mini-headland that bulged into
the sea. Further on, the beach projected northeast again, and it
was here that they finally saw the bodies.

Five people lay in the sand, each
contorted awkwardly. Anna and Math moved from man to man but all
were beyond their help except for the one farthest down the beach
whose arm moved as Anna reached him. He had brown hair and beard
and wore a long robe. She dropped to her knees beside him and as
her shadow loomed over him, he opened his eyes. Crow’s feet showed
in the corners of his eyes as he smiled up at Anna.

“
It’s you,” he said, in
English, and then blinked. Anna sat back on her heels, surprised,
and he pushed himself up on his elbows.

“
How do you feel?” Anna
said in the same language, uncertain of who he was or what he’d
meant.

He blinked again, tipping
his head to one side as he studied her. “I apologize, my lady. I
mistook you for someone else.” He turned his head from left to
right, surveying the beach, but nobody moved along it. The man
pushed to his knees, and then stood, swaying, so that Math reached
out and caught his elbow to hold him steady.

“
I’m Math ap Rhys Fychan,”
Math said carefully, also in English, “the prince’s nephew, and
this is my wife, Anna.”

“
Aaron ben Simon, a
physician, at your service,” the man said.

Math nodded, but continued in Welsh
while Anna translated for Aaron. “Can you walk with us down the
beach? Our horses are near and we can provide you with lodging at
Rhuddlan Castle until you’re well enough to make your way
elsewhere.”

“
Rhuddlan, is it?” Aaron
looked away, his brow furrowed, focusing first on the water and
then again on the beach around him.

“
Is something wrong?” Anna
said. “Beyond the obvious, that is?”

“
I had a companion, a
friend who journeyed on the ship with me. We were thrown into the
water together, but the sea pulled us apart as we neared shore. I’d
hoped that she too reached land safely, but I don’t see
her.”

“
I’m sorry,” Anna said, not
knowing what else to say.

He nodded and bowed his head,
obviously troubled. Math took his arm and the trio walked back
around the headland to where David was waiting with the
horses.

“
Four dead men lie further
up the beach,” Math said. “This is Aaron, a Jewish physician. I’ve
offered him refuge in the castle.”

“
Good,” David
said.

Aaron had bowed when he heard his name
spoken, but Anna didn’t think he understood the rest of the Welsh,
so she reverted to English.

“
Please meet my brother,
David, Prince Llywelyn’s son.”

“
My lord!” Aaron bowed
deeply. “Thank you for your hospitality.”

“
I’m sorry it’s necessary,
but you are welcome to stay as long as you need,” David said. “Was
Wales your original destination, or Ireland?”

“
Wales,” Aaron said,
“though I’d not intended to arrive as destitute as the storm has
left me.”

“
Do you have family here,
or someone who is awaiting word of your arrival?” Anna
said.

Aaron shook his head. “My wife and
daughter died some years ago. I have a son, Samuel, who remains in
England.”

“
Then why Wales?” David
said.

Aaron couldn’t mistake his
tone, and hurried to explain. “People of my faith are no longer
welcome in England, my lord. I’d heard that Wales might be more
obliging.” He kept his head bowed, not looking at David.

David gazed down at him and
then looked at Anna. “You heard right.”

Aaron’s head popped up. “I
am relieved to hear it. Please allow me to be of service to you, or
your father.”

“
We can always use a
physician,” David said.

“
So my companion assured
me,” Aaron said.

“
Companion?” David
said.

But Aaron was looking toward the sea
again, and this time he appeared to find what he was looking for,
because he took several steps away from David. A small figure—a
woman—moved along the beach, coming from the river. Aaron
hesitated, peering into the distance and squinting.

“
Meg!” he said.

Aaron hiked up his robe and took off
at a run towards the woman. She waved and veered toward him. They
met half-way up the beach, each taking the other’s arms in a
decorous hug. Aaron then turned her towards David and Anna. The
closer they got, the more Anna’s eyes watered; tears poured down
her cheeks and blurred her vision.

“
Oh my God, it’s Mom.”
David choked.

His words released Anna and
she raced across the beach, her boots slipping in the sand.
Sobbing, Anna threw herself at her mother and knocked her
backwards. Mom held her, her cheek against Anna’s hair, rocking her
as if she were a baby.

“
Oh, my darling daughter,”
she repeated over and over. Anna couldn’t stop crying, even when
her mother took her face in her hands and kissed her eyes, trying
to get Anna to stop. “It’s okay. It’s me. I’m here.” Mom looked
past Anna to David, who’d come to a halt five paces away, as if he
couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “And your brother too.” Mom
held out one arm and he came into the circle of it.

“
How did you get here?”
Anna said.

Mom shook her head. “Same
as always. I can’t believe you’re here too. I didn’t let myself
believe it.” David’s shoulder muffled Mom’s voice.

They hugged and rocked
until the tightness in Anna’s chest loosened and she was able to
relax her hold enough to look into her mother’s face. “You must
have been through a lot.”