Footsteps in Time (The After Cilmeri Series Book 1)

Footsteps in Time (Chapter Sixteen)

David

As the company traveled inland from the sea, the people of Gwynedd flocked to them. With every day that passed, the news of their coming spread. Most days, a following of men, women, and children traveled with them for a few miles and then would melt into the landscape, only to be replaced by others who strode, rode, and sidled out of the forest to walk for a time at David's side. It seemed the entire countryside was on the move.

David's presence was a novelty and it drew people to them. Everyone wanted to touch him, talk to him, and tell him their life story. Of course, David would be Prince of Wales one day, but because he was young and had less authority than an older man, the people showered more welcome and love on him than his father might have experienced.

In the first three days, David mediated everything from a dispute over a fishing line, to a marauding bull, to a marriage contract for a young couple whose fathers couldn't agree on price. That was not something David had encountered in twenty-first century America!

But marauding bulls aside, David thought being the Prince of Wales was okay. The thirteenth century would never give him a life of luxury and ease, but he'd adjusted to it. He was busy. He was needed. For the first time in his life, he had both parents in the same place. Perhaps David was too young to be a knight, really, but he was a knight, and he would do his duty as the Prince of Wales. For the most part, that aspect of the job was within his scope.

Although the responsibilities of command had ceased to be quite as intimidating, the need to kill other men was another matter. It wasn't really that life was worth less here, though it was, but that lives were taken more easily here. Babies died. Children died. Women died in childbirth all the time, though Mom and Aaron were working on that. David had overheard her and Anna talking about it, and David tried not to dwell on the worry he heard in Mom's voice. Anna was happy and optimistic, but Elinor, Gwenllian's mother, had died in childbirth and David didn't think that knowledge was ever far from Mom's mind.

The men with whom David worked generally avoided thinking about death too, not out of fear, though there was that too, but because it went without saying that death rode at their shoulders every day. Sometimes, through the loud talk and bravado, a soldier was able to admit his fear—and that men died from the most minor injuries and illnesses in addition to dying in battle.

David had never been as sick and scared in his life as when his company attacked the English at the Vale of Conwy. Bevyn had told him that the first time he lost it, the men would respect him and understand. He'd been only fourteen then, after all. But there was a fine line between disliking the need to take a life, and being thought weak. Weakness is unforgivable in battle. That was David's new reality. And that was something that haunted him constantly. Killing, like anything else, became easier the more a man did it.

What kind of man will I be when it begins to come easily? What kind of prince can I be if it never does? Can God forgive me for offenses that I repeat over and over, and can I ever forgive myself?

Now David understood why the Catholic Church prescribed confession. A man could tell a priest his sins and walk away clean every time.

When they reached Dolwyddelan, people set up huts, tents, and even a small fair where summer grazing normally took place. David had thought that their stay would be something of a rest, but there were even more demands on his time and more people who wanted to see him. Mom tried to ease the burden, but only the women wanted to talk to her.

They followed the same procedure after the company left Dolwyddelan, following the thirty-five mile spine across Gwynedd to Dinas Bran. The Roman road on which they'd traveled to get to Dolwyddelan didn't go that way, so they took the Welsh track that was as old as the hills it wended between. Each day, they set up camp in the early afternoon and spent time with whatever inhabitants were in the area, before moving on the next day to another location.