Footsteps in Time (25 page)

“
Justice and mercy, Bevyn,”
David said, “justice and mercy.” And then, “Look at me.”

Bevyn raised his head; tears leaked
from his eyes.

“
You failed me less than
you failed yourself. Am I to believe that you would allow such a
thing to happen again?”

“
Of course not, my
lord!”

“
I will trust you to see
that it doesn’t. Stand up, man. The sun sets and I’m hungry again.
I would hear your story, and tell you mine.”

* * * * *

Mom and Anna sat together
in Math’s office as Mom wrote to Papa of what had happened to
David. It was almost like a poem, the way she wrote it, and Anna
longed for the freedom to write what she wanted—a journal, a story,
even a letter that didn’t have to be carefully crafted—as every
scrap of parchment was so precious that it needed to be scraped and
reused, treasured until it literally fell apart in her hands. David
came to find them before he went to bed, and when he asked to read
it, Mom hunched over the letter, at first not wanting him to see
it.

She and Anna shared a look, a silent
communication in which they told each other how far they’d all come
in adapting to the world in which they found themselves; then she
nodded and relinquished it. “You should know the truth, David,” Mom
said. “You of all people need to see it.”

David took the paper and read. Anna
watched his face. She and Mom had suffered in his absence, Mom
sobbing in Anna’s arms at David’s loss. It wasn’t something they
could have gotten used to, not ever.

...Your son came to Dinas
Bran today. A host of his people accompanied him. They seem to
follow him wherever he goes now. I find that I barely recognize the
boy I once knew. I see glimpses of the child, but the man who
inhabits his body is someone who bears more resemblance to you than
me. Do not think I regret this, Llywelyn, for if he is to become a
man, I can think of none better for him to emulate. But the boy is
gone, sooner than I would have thought or wished ...

When he’d finished,
David put down the paper and looked at his
mother
.
“Father is
going to freak.”

“
Again,”
Anna said.

* * * * *

Aaron surprised Anna in her
quarters the next day. He hovered in the doorway of her solar,
uncertain. Mom had gone off somewhere and Anna was laboring over a
christening dress. She wouldn’t have been sewing at all, but
apparently the dress was one of those things that she had to do
herself or people would talk. As Anna was different enough as it
was, she made a conscious effort not to call unfavorable attention
to herself.

“
My lady,” Aaron
said.

It was the first time Anna had spoken
with him since David came home. “What is it, Aaron? Do we have a
patient?”

“
Not today, my lady. I
need to speak to Prince David, but—” He paused. “Is your mother
near?”

“
Not at the moment,” Anna
said. “Perhaps I can help?”

Aaron bowed his head. “I
have something to discuss with Prince David.” He hesitated again.
“If you could come with me to his rooms, be with me when I talk to
him, I would be grateful.”

Delighted to put the needlework aside,
Anna escorted him to David’s room and poked in her head. “Can we
talk?”

David looked up. He was bent over a
small table, dictating a letter to a scribe. Handwriting was an art
form in the Middle Ages, and as Anna had anticipated, everyone who
saw David’s had long since deemed it illegible. “Sure,” he said,
straightening. “Gentlemen.”

Bevyn sat in a chair he’d tipped back
against the wall, picking at his fingernails with his belt knife.
Hywel polished David’s armor in one corner. Neither showed any
interest in leaving the room. Anna understood completely. Everyone
repeatedly reassured themselves that David was back in one piece.
Anna had caught Mom hovering outside David’s door the previous
night. “We almost lost him,” she’d whispered.

“
Please.” David tried
again.

“
Yes, my lord,” Bevyn said.
“I’ll bring a meal when you’re finished.”

“
Thank you, Bevyn.” David
turned his attention to Aaron who stood in the middle of the floor,
shifting from one foot to the other. “What is it?”

With a hand on her belly, Anna settled
onto a cushioned chair in the corner and prepared to keep quiet. It
was a technique she’d developed in dealing with Math’s affairs. If
she sat still—the quiet wife—men rarely noticed her presence, but
afterwards Math and she would be able to talk as partners about
whatever the men had discussed.

“
I’ve kept something from
you, my lord,” Aaron said. “I accept that telling you of this now
might mean my death, but I can no longer withhold this
information.”

David looked pained. “Don’t even say
that, Aaron,” he said. “Why do my friends keep insisting that I
kill them?”

“
Just wait, my lord,” Aaron
said. He took in a deep breath. “It concerns my son,
Samuel.”

“
You mentioned him once,”
David said.

“
I speak rarely of him
because he responded to the deaths of his mother and sister by
turning from me, and from God. Samuel ran away four years ago and
I’ve had no contact with him since he left.” Aaron glanced out of
the corner of his eye at Anna. She nodded back,
encouragingly.

“
I’m sorry,” David
said.

Aaron swallowed. “What I’ve kept from
you is that a month ago a traveler brought me a letter from Samuel.
It informed me that you had a traitor in your midst, that one of
your men had made inquiries regarding payment for your
capture”

Anna stared at Aaron,
shocked.

“
And you didn’t think to
tell me this before?” David said.

Aaron held out both hands to David in
supplication. “I didn’t open the letter until after your capture,”
he said. “It was seeing your mother’s fear that prompted me to
soften my heart towards Samuel enough to read what he’d
written.”

Aaron’s face had gone gray,
and suddenly he looked very old. David noticed too. He pointed to a
chair and Aaron sat. “Rest a moment, and then tell me
more.”

“
I cannot explain to you
what it means to be Jewish,” Aaron said. “We’ve lived a life apart
for centuries, no matter what country took us in. My son never
liked that; never wanted it. He fought me and his mother from the
time he was five years of age and old enough to run free with the
other boys of the town in which we lived. He never followed our
teachings well, or any teachings, for that matter.

“
Every time King Edward
handed down new restrictions against us, he chafed at them more
strongly than other members of our community. When his mother died,
just after he turned sixteen, he took his rebellion further.
Because he was broadly built, with fair skin and hair, he was able
to ‘pass’ as a gentile and so took the path that had always
appealed to him. He became a soldier, lying about his ancestry of
course in order to do so. While I disowned him, my brother arranged
a position for him among the Earl of Lancaster’s men.

“
However,
he
is
still Jewish.
He is circumcised, so any gentile seeing him in a state of undress
would know his antecedents. This is a constant source of danger to
him and makes him wary of everyone.

“
Now that he has lived in
the world, among those who would revile him if they knew his
history, he has seen fear, hatred, and brutality among the
gentiles. A soldier’s life has shown him what he would not learn
from me. In his letter, he apologizes for leaving me and asks my
forgiveness. I’m sorry I was not able to find it in my heart to
forgive him earlier.”

Aaron fell silent, studying the
floor.

“
We’re sorry for your
troubles,” Anna said. “But is there more?” She moved to the bench
next to Aaron and rested a hand on his arm.

“
Is that not enough? But
yes, there’s more.”

“
Wait a minute.” David
walked to the door and poked his head into the hallway.

“
Yes, my lord?” Bevyn was
at the door immediately.

“
Ask my mother to come
here, if she will,” he said. “I need to speak with her.”

“
Thank you,” Aaron said.
“Your mother will be most helpful.”

“
More so than you think,”
David said.

A few minutes later, Bevyn held the
door open for Mom.

“
What is it?” She settled
herself in a chair near the desk and looked around at the
companions in the room.

“
Aaron was just telling us
that his son has written him with news of a traitor in our midst,”
Anna said.

“
What?” Mom started up
from her seat. “Another one besides Marchudd?”

“
No, no.” David put out a
hand to stay her. “But Aaron didn’t open his son’s letter until
after Marchudd captured me.”

Aaron turned to Mom, regret
in his voice. “I told you of my brother, Jacob, while we were at
sea. He and his son, Moses, are physicians for King Edward’s
brother, Edmund, the Earl of Lancaster. My son, Samuel, who is one
of Lancaster’s men, wrote to me to warn me of this traitor, knowing
that I had found safe haven in Wales.

“
Samuel also tells me that
there is a rumor that King Edward is preparing for a new pogrom
against the Jews. He doesn’t know exactly what it is, but the
priests in their sermons are inciting hatred at every mass, and he
feels there is little time before Edward hands down a new edict.
Edward may already have done so.”

Mom steepled her hands together and
tapped her lips with her fingers.

“
It’s very difficult to
know what to say to this, Aaron,” Mom said. “I believe you, but I’m
not certain as to what we can do about it.”

“
Does Samuel expect
something specific from us? Or perhaps from me?” David
said.

“
Hope, I think,” Aaron
said. “There is something special about you, my lord, that everyone
can see. In both England and Wales, people tell tales of your
exploits and deeds. This, combined with your treatment of me, have
made you a hero to my son. In truth, I have also come to expect a
great deal from you. You and your mother are both wise beyond all
expectation. You give my son and me hope for the
future.”

Anna had been looking into the fire as
Aaron spoke, distracted by thoughts his words had prompted, and
almost missed Mom’s next sentence.

“
... time we tell him the
truth?” she said.

“
What?” Anna
said.

“
What truth?” Aaron
said.

“
I have wanted to tell
Aaron from the first time I met him,” Mom said. “He needs to make
some decisions about his family and his future, and if we are to
help him, he deserves the truth.”

“
Will he believe us, if we
tell him?” Anna said.

“
Believe what?” Aaron
said.

The three of them shared a long look,
and then David took the plunge. “Believe that the country from
which we come exists.”

Mom nodded. “Aaron,” she said. “We’ve
traveled here from the future. I lived with Prince Llywelyn
seventeen years ago and conceived David. I told you the truth about
that. I then returned to my time for David’s childhood. We are back
here again, though how or why we neither know nor
understand.”

Aaron stared at her.

“
Thank you for not
immediately accusing us of witchcraft!” she said. “I could take
anything but that.”

Aaron collected himself. “I don’t
believe in witches,” he said, “but I know of no science or religion
that can explain what you’ve just told me.”

“
Neither do we,
unfortunately,” Anna said. “Believe me, we would gladly hear any
logical explanation, but we can’t explain what’s happened to us.
Our superior knowledge doesn’t help us in this.”

“
And ... when exactly is
your time?” Aaron kept his eyes on David’s.

“
I was born in November,
one thousand, nine hundred and ninety-six years after the birth of
Christ,” David said.

Aaron put his hand to his
head, twisting in his seat. “1996.”

David gave him time to recover. Aaron
sat, his face in his hands. Finally, he looked up. “Somehow, I
believe you. I am beyond surprised, yet not surprised at all.” He
paused again. “You have seen many wonders?”

He was looking for some kind of
confirmation. Mom took up the challenge. “We have vehicles that fly
through the air,” she said, “and others that travel along the
ground, some at hundreds of miles an hour; we have sent men to the
moon, and they have sent back pictures of earth, which shows it as
an orb, floating in space. In our time, the earth is home to nearly
seven billion souls. Our country, the United States of America,
exists on a continent that most of Europe has yet to discover. It’s
a democracy, ruled by a parliament elected by all people in the
country, regardless of race, religion, class, or gender. In our
country, women have the right to vote in elections, all children
must attend school, and I went to a university and studied for many
years to receive my doctorate in history.”