The Brothers of Gwynedd Read Online Free PDF

England. But in secret. No one outside these walls must know."
      "To England?" I said. "What, all? The children, too?" A foolish question, as I saw, for it was because the children were to be of the party that she, their nurse, must go with them, and would and must take her son with her. And if the lady was thus preparing to remove herself and what family she had about her furtively into England, it could only be into King Henry's care, and there could be but one reason. No wonder the expedition was being mounted by night, and in the expectation of a long exile. How long, the king's army and the Welsh weather must decide. Only dimly did I grasp the meaning of this move, but she did not question it at all. What the lady ordered was her law. "How many go?" I asked her. "She and the children, and we—how many more? The steward? And a guard? She'll never ride unprotected."
      "Twenty are gone ahead," my mother said, "to make ready and meet us along the way. Three officers ride with us, and ten more men."
      A large party to make so secret and desperate a move. She did not mean to appear
    before the king of England without some remnants of royal state.
      "And Llewelyn?" I said, for I had not seen him yet about the llys. "Is he in this, too?"
      "He is on his way now, he should have been here already. She sent for him yesterday from Carnarvon. And you are to go to her," she said, "and she will tell you what your part is to be. Go to her now, she will have heard you are here, she does not like to be kept waiting."
      So I went, for indeed that lady was not one to be trifled with, especially with so grave a business in hand. But as I turned to go on past the hall to the lady's apartments, my mother suddenly called after me, in the child's voice that suited so ill with this learned-by-rote business she had been expounding for me, and with the most hushed and bitter awareness of having somehow offended: "Child, forgive me—forgive me!"
      I went back to her, greatly shaken, and held and reassured her that my only wish was to be with her, that I had no reluctance or regret, while my heart wept in me for longing. There was something deep within my mother that understood more than other men do, while all the shell of her mind was without understanding.
      Then verily I went. The Lady Senena was sitting in a great chair in her solar, with a coffer before her, into which she was carefully laying away small packets of valuables, while her steward came and went with certain parchments and consulted with her, discarding some for burning, and adding others to those she would take with her. When I came in she looked up, and I louted to her, and signified that I had come, in duty bound, in answer to her summons.
      She was not a tall woman, nor beautiful, but she had a great dignity about her, and was accustomed to being respected and obeyed. She had thick brows that all but met over her nose, and made her seem to frown, and her voice was cool and strong, so that I had always been in some awe of her, and still was, however good she had been to me.
      "So you are here," she said, considering me. "Have you spoken with your mother?"
      I thought it best to know nothing but what the lady herself chose to tell me, so I said: "Madam, I have, and she sent me here at once to hear what your wishes are."
      She began then to question me closely about my studies, and all I had learned at Aberdaron, and what I told her seemed to content her, for she nodded repeatedly, and twice exchanged glances with her steward and they nodded together. I was indeed more forward in letters than most about her court, and might be of use as a clerk, she said, but in particular I was to earn my place, since her children's nurse would not go without me, as groom and attendant to the young princes. I said I would do my best in whatever work she chose to give me, and go wherever she willed that I should go.
      "You do not ask me where," she said