Chapter 09

Wales

On the Monday after the Christmas party the Owen family are driven into Rivers by one of the Manor staff then dropped off at the airport with their large special trunk and their three carry-on bags for their trip to Wales. The trunk is larger than most modern luggage, but it will fit into the luggage containers the airlines use and it has built-in handles and wheels so it can be moved around as if it’s a hand trolley. It also has two strong handles, one on each end so it can be carried by two people.

They have a choice of airports to travel to in the UK and they choose Birmingham to reduce the ground travel time to their final destination.

Birmingham, United Kingdom

Due to the long flight time and stopovers the Owen family arrive in Birmingham a few days after departing Rivers. On arrival they collect their trunk in the luggage area. After the girls help Llewellyn lift it off the luggage conveyor he tips up one end while he pulls the built-in wheels out of their recessed holders on the main sides of the trunk, rotates their axles ninety degrees so they’re now sticking down from the main body of the trunk instead of along the sides of the trunk, then he pushes the axles back in to lock them into place under the trunk. With that end now sitting up a bit due to being on the wheels he takes the handle at the other end to lift it up to sit the trunk on the wheeled end so he can do the same thing with the two handles recessed into the sides of the other end of the trunk to make it into a wheeled hand trolley he can push.

When they reach the Border Control checkpoint Llewellyn holds out a letter he was told to show the Customs official when he got there. The lady reads the letter, checks something on her computer, makes a phone call, then she processes the passports for the three of them. A moment later four other officials are on hand to lead them to a special interview room where their carry-on bags are checked and put to the side before the trunk is unlocked, everything taken out and inspected as it’s placed on the long table in the room, including the sword and dagger, then the trunk and their guitars are passed through an x-ray machine. After it’s all checked and passed Llewellyn packs the trunk again, locks it up, stands the trunk on it’s end, puts their carry-on bags on the end that is now the top, and uses some straps through recessed strap holders to tie the bags down to the top of the trunk so their luggage forms a single load.

Two of the people checking their luggage are police officers who’ll be staying with them until the sword and dagger are handed over to their permanent new owners. Then they’ll ensure those people have all of the security they’re supposed to have for the weapons and their details are placed in the appropriate records. Llewellyn isn’t sure if this is because they’re weapons or because they’re very old ancient artefacts, but that’s not his concern, so he leaves it up to them to sort out later. What he is happy about is he now has two local drivers for the rental van they’ll be using. He’ll have them drive to start with so he has time to get used to the UK traffic and road rules before he has to drive on the International Licence he got last month.

From the Border Control area they go to the vehicle rental agency Will booked them a van with to finalise the paperwork and to get the keys to the van. One of the police officers goes to collect the van then drives it back for them to load the trunk into, along with the bags of clothes the two police officers have, then they start their drive to Wales.

Due to it being late in the afternoon they’ll drive partway to the valley and stay in a hotel over night, then complete the trip in the morning.

The First Days in the Valley

Llewellyn’s rental van stops in front of the inn they’ll be staying at in the valley mid-morning of the Friday after they left Rivers. They all get out of the van, unload their luggage, and take it into the inn. Llewellyn walks up to the small counter serving as the front desk and says, “I’ve a booking under the name of Light Mist Music from Rivers, New South Wales, Australia. The confirmation email is for a two bedroom suite and two rooms.”

The young woman behind the counter doesn’t even glance at her book as she says, “Yes, we’re expecting you. However, can I interest you in the five bedroom Lord’s Suite for the same price as your booked rooms? The large suite is normally dearer, but this week we’ve had a higher demand for rooms than usual and I can let out your rooms more easily than the suite, if you agree to swap the rooms.”

Llewellyn turns to one of the police officers and asks, “Are you OK with that, Sergeant?” The woman behind the counter is surprised by the rank being used in the question.

Sergeant Ann Wills turns to look at her partner, Constable John Wall, and gets a nod before saying, “Since we’ll have our own bedrooms it’s not a problem, Lew.”

So Llewellyn nods to the woman at the counter as he gets out his and the girls’ passports to perform the registration process. Then the police officers complete their part of the registration before the young woman hands them all a key with a tag each then leads them up the stairs to take them to the large suite which takes up the front half of the top floor of the inn. Luckily there’s only the ground floor and two floors of rooms, so Llewellyn hasn’t got all that many stairs to carry the trunk up. It’s a lot easier for him when John grabs the handle on the other end to help lift the trunk while Llewellyn pulls it up the stairs by the handles.

They’re soon shown the suite and Llewellyn simply stands in the main room while Alice, Gwen, and Ann look through all of the rooms to select their rooms, then Llewellyn and John get to choose from the rest.

After putting their things away in the cupboards and drawers the five members of Llewellyn’s groups are back at the front counter talking to the young woman they now know is Lilith Gwynedd finding out what there is to look at in the valley while they wait for the dining room to open for lunch when a spry old lady walks in the front door. Lilith smiles as she says, “You’re early today, Granny! How come?”

The old lady smiles back as she says, “I hear you have a full house, so I thought to get an early start.”

Lilith addresses the group as she says, “This is Granny Owen. That’s all we’re allowed to call her, although she’s my great grandmother and the oldest resident of the valley. When you see how busy she is you have a hard time believing she’s over a hundred years of age. If there’s anything going on in the valley and Granny doesn’t know about it, then it’s less than five minutes old. Granny is a Fortune Teller, I’m not sure how good she is as she told me I’d be leaving the valley, and I never intend to leave.” She turns to Granny and introduces everyone to her.

Granny grins as she says, “Believe me, Girl, you’re leaving the valley, and a lot sooner than you expect. Now who wants their fortune read first? I usually charge five pounds, but I’ll read the five of you for twenty pounds.”

Llewellyn smiles as he reaches for his wallet while saying, “Ann why don’t you go first so we can get your professional opinion on Granny’s work as a fortune teller.”

Slowly shaking her head as Llewellyn hands over the money Ann moves to the small office Granny waves her to. Several minutes later Ann walks out with an odd expression on her face while saying, “Your turn, John.” He walks into the office for his reading, and he has a similar odd expression when he comes out and Alice enters the office. Then Gwen has her reading, followed by Llewellyn.

After he sits down at the table Granny takes his hands in hers, looks at his palms, and says, “Very soon you’ll be offered a great responsibility. For the good of the people here you’ll take it for a while. Talk to Bridget.”

Llewellyn asks, “Who’s Bridget?”

“Bridget Owen is the Clan’s Head Genealogist and the Keeper of the Records, so she has to see the records you have and she’ll tell you about your position. I see a lot more here about your future, but I won’t tell you about it as it may affect how you act. However, know your general plans will happen as you wish, almost.” She grins wide with the last word.

“Well, that’s nothing like I expected from a fortune teller.”

“True, as it’s not what I normally tell people. However, I see too much in your future that can be adversely affected by your prior knowledge of them, so I won’t tell you about your future. I will say: you should stay true to your heritage, your training, and yourself. Also, know the spirits look after you and are happy with you, especially both of your mothers.”

Granny lets go of his hands and waves to the door. Llewellyn stands as he asks, “Will you have lunch with us and tell us about the people here in the valley?” She grins as she nods and stands up as well.

A few minutes later they’re all sitting at a table in the dining room having lunch while Granny tells them about the key people in the valley.

Afternoon Visit

After a pleasant lunch Llewellyn collects two copies of the notes made by his ancestor, the dagger, and three very thick larger binders from their rooms and Granny takes them to see Bridget Owen. Llewellyn is leading them when they reach the large three story building that would be more at home with a moat and wall around it, and the man at the front door isn’t going to let them enter the Manor without an appointment until Granny walks around the rest of the group and says, “Morgan Owen, just stand aside and let us go talk to Bridget.”

The young man smiles as he says, “Granny, why didn’t you just lead the group so we all know to get out of the way?”

“I was at the back having a good conversation with the girls until you made me stop it to clear the way. Now show us to Bridget.”

Morgan slowly shakes his head as he opens the door, waves them in, then he takes the lead to show them to a large office toward the back of the ground floor. The very old sign on the door says, ’Steward’s Office,’ so it’s clear it’s been an office for a long time. Morgan knocks, waits to be told to enter, then opens the door and waves them inside before closing it behind them.

They enter and all but Granny stop to look at the office with a huge table in the middle of the room, two desks under the windows, and the walls lined with shelves that are mostly filled with books and papers of many styles. Many of them look to be very old. Granny points at the table as she says, “Llewellyn, put your plunder on the table then I’ll take the rest on a tour of the Manor while you talk with Bridget.” Llewellyn does as he’s told while one of the room’s two occupants, a woman of about fifty years of age stands up from her chair at a desk and walks forward as she slowly shakes her head at Granny’s behaviour.

Llewellyn puts down the binders he’s carrying while Granny opens the door and takes the rest of his party off to look at the Manor. He places the binders in order, opens the first one, gets out a DVD, then hands it to the woman as he says, “I’m Llewellyn Owen from Australia. I’m the head of the Owen sub-clan in Rivers, New South Wales. Our genealogist has made copies of all of our relevant records for the Clan Family Tree for you. Here are copies of the official documents and a DVD copy of all of the data in the genealogy program she uses. According to some recently found records every one of us in these records are descended from one man and his wife who travelled from this valley in the eighteen hundreds. So I’m here to provide you with these records plus a few other artefacts we found and believe should be kept here.”

Bridget approaches the table and frowns as she looks at the binders while the occupant of the desk, a man about the same age as Bridget says, “I’m Allyn Owen and this is Bridget Owen, as you probably guessed by what Granny said. What do the records say to make you think your ancestors came from here? And what sort of artefacts did you find?”

Llewellyn takes the dagger from his pocket and puts it on the table as he says, “We found a journal by our first ancestor in Australia which tells of his journey to Australia from here. The artefacts are this dagger and its matching sword which we believe, from what the records say, are called the ’Lords’ Arms’ which are ancient weapons that belong here in Wales.”

Both Bridget and Allyn stare at Llewellyn for a moment then they look at the dagger. They’re stunned by his words. Llewellyn opens the first binder to the first two document sleeves to show the Birth Certificate and Death Certificate of Llewellyn Owen, then he turns the document sleeve to show the same certificates for his wife, Lillian Gwynedd, and the next two sleeves have their Marriage Certificate and the Birth Certificate of their first son, David Owen. Bridget is almost in a trance as she examines the first documents while Allyn stands there slowly shaking his head. Llewellyn pulls a copy of the journal from his pocket and hands it over while he says, “Here’s a copy of the journal.”

Allyn takes the copy and starts to read it while he says, “During a few months Lord Daffyd Owen and five of his sons died while the sixth went missing. It’s always assumed the sixth son, Llewellyn Daffyd Owen, was also dead but the body wasn’t found. He’s in our records as ’Llewellyn the Missing.’ Now you tell us he left the valley. Lord Owen’s brother claimed the title due to the death of his brother and his sons. He was not happy when the Clan Leaders made him wait two years in case the sixth son was still alive. Then he was angrier when he couldn’t claim full power due to not having the Lord’s Arms to wear as proof of his authority.”

After checking a few of the documents Bridget takes the DVD and goes to the computer sitting on her desk. She puts it in, checks it, then copies the files to her computer, opens the genealogical program she has, selects a person in it, then links her program to the data on the DVD. She leans back and smiles as the computer merges the two programs.

Llewellyn sits on a stool he pulls out from under the table while Allyn continues to read the journal and Bridget works with the genealogical data. After a few minutes she turns from the computer and says, “Lew, we have a problem in we’re due to select a new Clan Head in two weeks and we’ve three candidates with equal claim on the title. However, you have a much stronger claim and I’d like you to make the claim.”

“Why, Bridget?”

“The one with the strongest political support within the Clan is the worst possible candidate, Cadwalader Rhodri Owen. The best for the valley and the Clan is David Rhys Owen, but he doesn’t have the support of enough of the Family Heads. I suspect a lot of people who would vote for David are supporting Cadwalader due to pressure from Cadwalader. The third is Morgan Magog Owen. He’s a close cousin of Cadwalader and he’s standing solely to split the support for Cadwalader. All three are from two of the sub-clans that are further from the main Owen line than you are. Being a direct descendant of Llewellyn Daffyd Owen you have a ’Right of Birth’ claim they don’t. Thus you can claim the title right now to put an end to the voting when we announce your acceptance of the title. Will you help us with this?”

“I have duties and responsibilities in Australia. I hate the idea of an absentee landlord and I can’t stay here.”

Allyn says, “You can take the title and appoint a Steward to manage in your stead, or you can take the title then abdicate in favour of another after a few weeks of serving. If Cadwalader is voted in he’ll destroy the valley and the Clan with his personal greed.”

Llewellyn sighs then says, “I need to discuss this with my family, first, but I think I will do as you ask. If Granny hadn’t warned me this might be happening I would probably have refused.” This has Bridget and Allyn giving each other odd looks before they both shrug their shoulders.

For half an hour they discuss the situation while Bridget goes through the records, then the others return from their tour of the Manor and the first thing Gwen asks as she walks into the office is, “Did you accept the title yet? We agree with Granny that you should.”

Sighing Llewellyn looks at Bridget and nods. She smiles and says, “We’ll announce it at church on Sunday. We’ll leave the weapons until the Clan meeting in two weeks time. You keep them safe until then.” A little after that Llewellyn and his group leave the Manor.

It’s late in the afternoon when Llewellyn and his party return to the inn and walk in to find Lilith being harassed by a man in his late thirties insisting she has dinner with him tonight and she keeps telling him, “No, go away and leave me alone.” Llewellyn doesn’t like the man’s behaviour or attitude, despite never having seen him before.

Granny is almost the last in the door because she’s talking to Alice and only John is behind them. When she hears and sees what’s happening at the counter Granny is clearly unhappy when she says, “Cadwalader, go home and leave Lilith alone. You have no reason to be here, so go away.”

The man turns as he says, “You don’t tell me what to do, you old crone. I go where I like.”

Llewellyn steps forward to be between the man and his group as he says, “I heard Lilith tell you to leave. She’s in charge of the inn right now, so you refusing to leave is the crime of trespass. So either leave right now or face being arrested and charged.”

The man is angry as he starts toward Llewellyn, but he stops when John holds up his Police ID as he says, “Police. You’ve been told to leave by the person responsible for this property, so go or be arrested.”

The man heads for the door while saying, “I’m Cadwalader Owen and the next Lord of this valley. You’ll pay for getting in my way.”

Granny goes to say something, but Alice puts a hand on her arm and shakes her head to indicate for her to be quiet and leave it be.

After the man leaves Llewellyn says, “Lilith, I have a need to learn a lot more about the people and the valley. Will you please have dinner with us and tell me about the people here? I want a different perspective to the one Granny has been giving me.” She grins and nods agreement.

Granny goes to the office, puts her sign out in the foyer, then goes back to sit at her table while the rest go upstairs to get ready for dinner.

With the inn full of guests Granny is very busy most of the evening, so she stays at her table nibbling on sandwiches between clients. John and Ann choose to eat at a separate table, so it’s Llewellyn, Lilith, Alice, and Gwen at their table. The conversation ranges across many subjects, but the key subject is when Llewellyn asks, “If you could pick anyone in the valley to be Lord Owen, who would it be?”

Lilith replies, “Of the proposed candidates David Rhys Owen is the best of them. However, if you open the field up to anyone in the valley who can be nominated, then I’d say Rhys Llewellyn Owen. He cares for the valley and people more than the others and he’s a lot closer to the original bloodline. However, he’s not close enough to make a ‘Claim by Birth’ bid and he’s upset too many of the Heads of Families to get enough votes to be elected, so he hasn’t nominated. You’re only here for a month or so, but you seem very interested in the valley. Why?”

“I’m the Clan Head for a branch of the Clan that moved to Australia a long time ago. I’ve brought Bridget copies of all of the records of the Clan to be included with her records. So I’ve an interest in how things are here in the valley of my ancestors.”

Slowly shaking her head Lilith says, “No senior member of a family has left the valley since the Clan first moved here, so you can’t be a Clan or Family Head.”

Gwen grins as she says, “Lilith, one did leave. Our ancestor, Llewellyn Daffyd Owen the sixth son of Lord Daffyd Owen. Miss Bridget called him ’Llewellyn the Missing.’ She’s talked Lew into accepting his birth right so he can fix a few things then he’ll abdicate in favour of another. So he now needs to know who to nominate. The formal announcement will be made on Sunday, so please don’t tell anyone before then.”

Alice, Gwen, and Llewellyn have wide grins at Lilith’s very wide-eyed expression on being told about Llewellyn’s heritage. Then she smiles and laughs before saying, “You should also ask your question of Morgan and David as they have a good knowledge of the possible candidates.” The talk moves to other subjects soon after that.

Saturday

When Llewellyn’s party comes down for their breakfast they find two men in their mid-thirties and a late twenties man waiting for Llewellyn. After they introduce themselves Gwen, Alice, and Llewellyn laugh and he asks them, “Why are you here looking for me?”

David replies, “Last night I had a call from Lilith saying I should seek you out and talk to you today. She was very insistent. On arriving here I found Morgan and Rhys here for the same reason. None of us know why she insists we talk with you.”

Slowly shaking his head Llewellyn says, “Come and join us while we have our breakfast.” They agree to having tea and toast as they all had their own meal a little while ago.

After having the main part of his meal Llewellyn turns to to David and asks, “If you could choose any member of the Clan to be the next Lord Owen, who would it be?”

David immediately points at Rhys while saying, “He’d be best for the Clan and the valley, but the Family Heads won’t agree with him as he puts the welfare of the entire Clan and valley ahead of their family needs. Thus they won’t support him.”

Llewellyn turns to Morgan, and before he can speak he’s told, “I agree with all David said. Why?”

Gwen grins as she says, “Rhys, you better start getting ready to take on the responsibility of being Lord Owen in a few weeks.”

They all frown for a moment, then Rhys says, “Llewellyn the missing did a runner to Australia, after all. Didn’t he?” That gets shocked looks from David and Morgan, followed by wide grins.

“Yes,” is Llewellyn’s reply. “However, I can’t stay here for more than a few weeks while I resolve some things Bridget wants done. Then I need to appoint a new Lord Owen. the several people I’ve spoken to all put you in for the job, Rhys. So you’ll be getting it, get used to it.”

Gwen says, “Tomorrow Bridget will be making the announcement of Llewellyn’s claim, then the fur will fly. So please keep it quiet until then.”

All three men smile as they nod their agreement. Then the rest of the morning is spent by the group looking at various parts of the valley and being introduced to people by the three men. They depart for their own lunches just after midday.

After lunch the original Llewellyn party goes for a walk up the side of the valley wall to what’s called the ’Lord’s Lookout.’ This is a set of stairs cut into the stone side of the valley to a lookout point near the top of it.

Gwen has a copy of one of the parchment maps from the notebook which she often looks at and compares with what they see, then frowns. At one point she shows it to Llewellyn while asking, “Why doesn’t this look like the old map of it?”

Llewellyn looks at the map, then looks around the lookout point. A moment later he smiles and says, “Because it’s not been properly looked after so there’s a lot of excess growth obscuring things. Next week we’ll come back here with a work crew and clean out the overgrowth.” Gwen nods and smiles at having the matter resolved for her.

Sunday

Llewellyn and his party join Granny, Bridget, Lilith, and Allyn outside the church and attend the morning service with them. At the end of the service the minister says, “Bridget Owen has an announcement to make to us all before we go to the hall for fellowship today.”

Those who had already started to stand and leave return to their seats as Bridget makes her way to the front of the church. She waits a moment for all to quiet down before she says, “During the week I received data from people in Australia about Clan members living there. I’ve taken the time to check and confirm the information provided to me. Due to the detail and quality of the records it was very easy to confirm and validate that there were members of the Clan who travelled to Australia.”

She stops to let her eyes rove over the congregation. While most have frowns while they try to work out the importance of this, a few have big grins, and some are just waiting for the rest of the information. Bridget continues, “The group who travelled to Australia included four families, one of them was Llewellyn Daffyd Owen the sixth son of Lord Daffyd Owen, the man we call Llewellyn the Missing. He was not killed because he left the valley. His journal makes it clear he did so on the orders of his father. Present with us today are two of his descendants, one of whom has a Right of Birth claim on the title of Lord Owen. At the request of the Clan Stewards he is exercising that right and is now the new Lord Owen. He will head a Clan Meeting at the coming festival instead of a vote of the Family heads. I present to you, Lord Llewellyn Evan Owen.” At which point Llewellyn stands and walks to the front of the church then turns to face the congregation. He smiles on seeing the sour look on Cadwalader Owen, and the smiles on many of the congregation. Bridget continues, “With this claim we now have a Lord and we can stop worrying about the problems caused by the nominations and votes. Even were Lord Owen to die tomorrow the very existence of this sub-clan and their birth rights greatly changes the entitlements of eligible future nominees.” She returns to her seat, and Llewellyn does likewise.

The after service fellowship in the hall is a very interesting time with many people walking up to Llewellyn and speaking to him. He does take the time to talk with some of the Heads of Family he’s told have issues with Rhys. Llewellyn opens the talks with, “I’m thinking of appointing Rhys Llewellyn Owen to be my deputy, but I’m told you have an issue with him. Can you tell me what it is, please?”

In each case the problem is much the same and goes along the lines of, “In past discussion on matters of conflict between families he’s not been in favour of the traditional ways of dealing with them.”

To which Llewellyn responds, “Would what Rhys proposed been better for the whole Clan and the whole valley than the traditional way?”

The person stops and thinks, then grudgingly says, “Thinking back, I would have to say his answer would have a better overall answer for the whole Clan, but at the expense of the family I lead.”

“Tell, me, should the person leading the Clan be more focussed on what is best for one Clan Family or the Clan as a whole?”

After a little thought the person Llewellyn is talking to slowly nods and says, “The Clan as a whole. I also see what you’re saying about Rhys. While he would not make a good Head of Family he would be good at leading the Clan. I’ll support him as your deputy.” They talk on a few other matters then they both move on to talk to others.

Overall, the fellowship talks go well for the plans of Llewellyn and Bridget in getting people to think more about the Clan as a whole.

Sunday Afternoon

In the mid-afternoon Llewellyn’s party is walking past the community hall where some of the band that played there last night are loading their gear in their van to take away while four people and Lilith are arguing beside the van. It seems to be a three-way argument with two young men as one group, two young women as another, and Lilith as the third.

The first words they can clearly make out are a young woman saying, “There’s no way Eileen or I are playing at Marlow’s place, so you need to cancel there and honour the agreement to play here weekend after next.”

One of the young men says, “If that’s how you want to play it, I’ll get Sean and Will to play with us. Marlow is paying double for the two days, so we’re playing there.” He turns to the others still loading gear and says, “Unload Mary’s guitars and Eileen’s drums.”

The other young woman says, “I’ll have my keyboards and amps too.” The young man giving orders isn’t happy with that so she adds, “Leave them here or I’ll tell the cops you stole them.” The two young men go and start unloading some of the gear and leaving it on the ground. One of the young women goes to a box near the open side door of the van and starts getting some leads and other items out. Llewellyn’s group watches while the two young women check all of their gear is stacked to the side, then the young man in charge slams the doors shut and the rest drive off.

One of the young women asks Lilith, “Can we lock our gear up in the hall, Lilith?” While nodding at her Lilith picks up a drum case and starts to walk into the hall. Llewellyn waves at the gear, so all in his group pick up gear and follow Lilith and the two women into the hall with it.

In a few minutes all of the gear is locked in a storeroom and the young woman now in charge says to Lilith, “I don’t know if you can still get a band for the festival weekend, but we’ll play for you if we have to.”