Between Two Worlds [Excerpt Only] | NOW A PUBLISHED NOVEL

Chapter I Pt. 2

My father arrived that evening with the men of his bodyguard. After speaking briefly to my mother, he went straight to the council and did not return until far into the night.

I heard my brothers and my father come in, but they said little for fear of waking my sisters, who were snoring softly beside me. My father and mother talked long into the night after the others had fallen asleep, but I could not decipher their whispered words, and soon I too was slumbering.

In the morning, my father and brothers were gone before I was awake, helping the others prepare the fields for the spring planting. My mother would not speak to me of what had been said last night, but I soon found an excuse to escape the dimness of our bothy and venture out into the daylight. Bearing food for my father and brothers in a bundle upon my back, I set out upon the track that led up the hills from our valley to the next one, humming a simple tune in rhythm to my footsteps.

The day was warm in comparison with the chill of yesterday, and perspiration soon rolled down my brow as I struggled up the steep incline. Damp leaves from last year's autumn made the many rocks scattered on the hillside slippery, and often I had to clamber up using my hands as well as my feet, lest I lose my footing and fall.

'Hail and well met, Enid!' A familiar voice crying from above startled me and I nearly tottered headlong off the leaf-strewn stones. I heard someone scrambling down from the heights and a moment later, Telyn stood before me, offering a hand to help me up.

I murmured my thanks as we struggled to reach the top, feeling a quiet knot of pride that he was helping me, even though the way was not so difficult. A pleasant warmth shot through my veins from where his hand gripped mine. Were it not for the exertion of climbing the steep hill, I would have found it difficult to keep a smile off my face.

At the top of the ridge, he let go of my hand and we both paused, panting to catch our breath. I cast my gaze from my beloved home valley to the one with the fields beyond, staring against the sun. Naked forest and grassy moorlands stretched as far as the eye could see, chariot-ways and rivers snaking their meandering way across the landscape to the dim, hazy shadow where hills rose far in the distance and where, some said, was the sea. But Rome had not left even this untamed wilderness untouched; one of their straight roads was partly visible in the rolling sweep of the land, and I fancied that I could see people and horses walking on it.

'Thou shouldst be more careful.' Telyn broke the peaceful silence between us, looking at me with concern.

'Why? I know the way well enough.' While I was flattered that he cared for my well-being, I felt a twinge of annoyance. Did he not believe me old enough to go by myself? Did he indeed see me as still a bairn?

'Aye, that well may be, but there are Redcrests close by. Oft we can hear the din of their town while we work.'

'What was decided at the council last night?' I hoped he would tell me, and I hoped also to shift the subject away from myself.