Footsteps in Time (The After Cilmeri Series Book 1)

Footsteps in Time (Chapter Eighteen)

David

"You're looking forward to this trip, aren't you?" David said.

Bevyn rubbed his hands together. "If we are to pay a visit to Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn, it will give me a chance to see what that traitorous bastard is up to. I hear his son and daughter-in-law have fled to her family in England, but he stays for Prince Llywelyn. A dubious proposition at best."

"Gruffydd holds Dolforwyn for us and has reestablished the town," David said. "My father keeps him on a short leash and intended to visit him on his way north. We'll see him on our way south, instead."

Dolforwyn was roughly thirty miles south of Dinas Bran. They made it in two days of easy riding. It was another thirty miles to Buellt, which Gruffydd also held, and a further thirty to the flatlands of south Wales, near where David hoped to find his father. Where exactly Father was David didn't know, but the people there would direct him. Mom expected that his business in the south would take all summer, so even if David stayed a short time with Gruffydd, he should still be able to take part in whatever maneuvers Father was planning.

Gruffydd himself came out of his newly built gatehouse to welcome David's company. After the initial greetings, he brought David into his hall, seated him, and launched into an exposition of everything he'd achieved in the months since David's parents' wedding. Bemused, David leaned back in his chair and listened. Gruffydd was enthusiastic and fiery, pacing back and forth, waving his hands in the air, forcefully presenting his points.

Finally, he swung around to David. "I hear you were taken prisoner for a time," he said.

"Yes," David said. "The ringleader was one of my own men, in fact."

"A bad business." Gruffydd shook his head. "You can never be too careful, even with those you deem most loyal."

David leaned forward. "Is that some kind of warning, Gruffydd? Do you have more to add to that statement?"

"No! No!" He waved his hands again. "I was only making an observation on the perils of leadership."

David sat back, unsatisfied. Father thought Gruffydd had spent too much of his life in the company of the English to work against them so passionately now. Perhaps sensing David's discontent, Gruffydd hastened forward and took a chair in front of him.

"This brings me to some new business; something on which I'd like your opinion," he said.

"I'm happy to help." David hadn't thought that Gruffydd would ever want his opinion on anything.

"A week ago, three families of Jews crossed into Wales from England. They found their way here and asked to settle in our village."

"What did you say to them?" David said.

"Well ... one is a doctor, and I welcomed him into my household. The other two are both well-educated, but their former profession as goldsmiths is completely useless to me. I made one an overseer of the castle accounts, and the other a scribe. I refuse to waste such knowledge, just because of their religion."

"Excellent!" David slapped a hand on the table. "That's exactly as I hoped. We had a similar situation at Dinas Bran. A wool merchant and his family arrived. Math is seeing to establishing his trade on behalf of Wales, instead of England."

"Just be prepared for trouble," Gruffydd said. "Two days ago, my priest railed against Jews as the killers of Christ. I told him if he said another word I'd rip out his tongue."