AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Sniggers.
“Where you headed, lovie?”
“I’m to alight at…” She reached into her pelisse pocket for the secretary’s letter and breathed deep. “Lla… Llaned…wyn village.” She cleared her throat. “Where the Duke of Aberdare will have a carriage waiting at the inn. I’m headed for his abode of Castell y Ddr… Ddra…raig which I’m led to believe is three miles further.”
“Ooohhh,” cried the stalwart lady who’d survived the lion.
“Aaahhh,” gushed the intrepid one who’d endured the snowstorm of ’08.
Isabelle’s heart pattered an uneven beat. “Is that ooohhh good…or aaahhh bad?”
“Depends, lovie. That duke’s fine looks would make a Methodist’s wife quiver, but…” Her voice lowered. “There be tales…”
“Tales?”
Mrs Bespectacled leaned close, the stagecoach’s movement weaving her from side to side like a pendulum. “Aye. So there be. Mysterious goings-on, like. Wandering ghostly maidens and raven-clad witches. And Castell y Ddraig means Castle of the Dragon in your English tongue, did you realise? ’Tis said in those tales that the head of the Llanedwyn household carries a terrifying burden from days of yore. That he mutters incantations to the sea before transforming into the Ddraig and soaring from the cliffs with fire in his nostrils to hunt down his prey.”
“What a load of ffolineb,” stated the other. “Where did you hear that?”
“No smoke without fire, Mary, that’s what I say.”
Isabelle wondered how anyone could even light a candle, let alone a fire with all this rain.
“Well, I’m to be the new governess there so thought I’d learn some Welsh phrases.”
“Most likely the household won’t speak Welsh when you are about,” said the woman opposite. “Those over the border don’t want us to use it no more, though it’s all some of the older folk know. Where are we, Anne?”
Mrs Bespectacled squinted past Isabelle to the window. “Skirting Bala Lake?”
An expanse of foul blackness choked the view, reminding Isabelle of the river in Hades that Charon ferried souls across.
Never to return.
She quelled the whimper.
“Well now, lovie,” said Anne, “we’ve at least six hours for a few lessons. We’ll have you chatting like a Welsh lass in no time.” She snatched the book and pointed. “Ah, now, these are useful to you, so they are.”
Isabelle peered at the lines and frowned.
Y mae hi yn bwrw-glaw– It is raining.
Y mae hi yn bwrw cenllysg– It is hailing.
Y mae hi yn bwrw eira– It is snowing…
