Free Footsteps in Time by Sarah Woodbury

and
mentioning, offhand and casually, that he was late for sword play
today because he’d just left his father in his office where they’d
discussed important business. His father .
    Despite his fantasies,
dinner the night before had been the most awkward meal of David’s
life. Anna had joined the high table too, sitting between him and
Goronwy. She’d seemed completely relaxed and had talked animatedly
with Goronwy, whose usually severe expression had been transformed
by his joy that Anna remembered him.
    David, for his part,
hadn’t known how to act. He didn’t know how to be a son; how to be a Prince of Wales. Prince
Llywelyn— Father— had
asked David to sit beside him, and he’d done so, but he’d knocked
over his water glass, dropped parsnips down his front, and
generally made a fool of himself within the first five minutes.
Father had then grabbed David’s arm as he was reaching for his cup
and held it.
    He’d smiled, though his
eyes were serious. “Are you a different person from this morning,
son?”
    “ No,” David had said, “and
yes. I don’t know how to be a prince.”
    “ Don’t think of it that
way,” Father said. “Just be my son.”
    “ I don’t know how to be
that either,” David said. “I’ve never had a father.”
    “ Then be
the man you were this morning,” Father said. “That man is a Prince of
Wales.”
    That was an oddly comforting thought,
other than his use of the word ‘man’, which was still taking some
getting used to. Then Father spoke again. “When your mother
returned to your world, she didn’t marry?”
    Anna stilled beside him at the
question.
    “ No,” David
said.
    “ Ahh,”
Father sat back in his chair. Then David thought he heard him
mutter under his breath, “Good,” but he wasn’t sure. Did he still think of her too, or was it just that
now I was here, he was thinking of her? He had married someone
else.
    Anna poked David’s leg
under the table and leaned closer. “His whole life, Wales, and the
Middle Ages is what Mom studies! She talks about him all the time
and nobody suspects a thing!”
    “ There’s no way we could
have known,” David said, “but it feels like we’ve been
blind.”
    “ It was your heritage,”
Anna said, “but she couldn’t tell you anything about
it.”
    “ And how does it make you
feel?” David said, suddenly concerned. “We’re only half-siblings
now.”
    “ I’m still your older
sister,” she said, starch in her voice. “Don’t think just because
you’re the Prince of Wales that it makes any difference to
me.”
    Father overheard. “You’re a
princess, my dear. I’ll not hear otherwise.”
    Anna ducked her head and
focused on her food.
    Ha! “Accept it, Anna,” David said, leaning close
again. “It might get you out of some sewing.”
    She didn’t say anything after that,
but she was smiling.
     
    * * * * *
     
    The next morning, David was pulling on
his shirt, knowing he’d slept far too late, when a tentative knock
came at the door.
    “ Come in!” David
said.
    Owain and four of the other boys from
David’s contingent pushed open the door and stood hesitating in the
doorway. David straightened and they studied each other for a long
ten seconds.
    Owain was the first
to speak. “My lord,” he said, and David felt that the words came
awkwardly to his lips. They felt awkward to hear . “Sir Bevyn requests your
presence at the practice ring.”
    David raised his eyebrows. “Is that
what he said?”
    Owain shifted from one foot to
another. “Um, no, my lord.”
    “ So what he really said was
‘tell his lordship to get his noble ass out here right now or I’ll
make him wish he’d woken earlier, Prince of Wales or no Prince of
Wales.’”
    Despite themselves, everyone laughed.
David laughed with them and waved them into the room. He’d tried to
do Bevyn’s accent and gruff voice and gotten it nearly right. Now,
with the tension broken, the boys spread out. One stoked the fire
in the