Sarah Woodbury - Hidden in Time

A novel from the After Cilmeri series

Hidden in Time

by

Sarah Woodbury

Copyright 2022 by Sarah Woodbury

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Hidden in Time

When Meg time traveled to 1268 Wales and landed in the arms of Prince Llywelyn, she changed the course of history forever. For most citizens of Earth Two, those changes were for the better, but one family in particular was torn apart ...

Orphaned since the death of her parents when she was three, Lizzie has spent years praying for someone to rescue her and her sisters from a life of drudgery in their isolated convent. She knows they were meant for greater things, and if only the right person were to discover their suffering, they would once again be treated like the princesses they were born to be.

But when strangers arrive in the middle of the night promising to restore them to their former way of life, Lizzie surprises herself not only by running away, but by turning for help to the very person who'd ruined her life in the first place: Queen Marged of Wales.

It just went to show, as Lizzie's old abbess told her more than once, that she needed to be careful what she prayed for. God answered every prayer, but sometimes that answer was noand sometimes the answer came in a wholly unexpected fashion that made a girl wish she'd never prayed at all.

Complete Series reading order: Daughter of Time , Footsteps in Time , Winds of Time , Prince of Time , Crossroads in Time, Children of Time, Exiles in Time , Castaways in Time , Ashes of Time , Warden of Time , Guardians of Time , Masters of Time , Outpost in Time, Shades of Time, Champions of Time, Refuge in Time, Unbroken in Time, Outcasts in Time, Hidden in Time. Also , This Small Corner of Time: The After Cilmeri Series Companion.

www.sarahwoodbury.com

To my sister

Cast of Characters

David/Dafydd King of England

Lili Queen of England

Meg/Marged Queen of Wales

Llywelyn King of Wales

Gwenllian Princess of Wales

Elen Megs niece

Christopher Megs nephew; Elens brother

Humphrey de Bohun Earl of Hereford

William de Bohun Humphreys son

Goronwy Llywelyns friend

Tudur Welsh lord; Llywelyns steward

Dilys Megs steward

Edmund of Almain Earl of Cornwall

Gilbert de Clare Earl of Gloucester (deceased 1293)

Bogo de Clare Gilberts brother

Margaret de Clare Gilberts sister; Almains wife

Edward and Eleanors Family

Edward King of England (deceased 1285)

Eleanor Queen of England (deceased 1285)

Eleanor Dowager Queen of England (deceased 1291)

Edmund Earl of Lancaster, Edwards younger brother (deceased 1285)

Daughter b. 1255 deceased 1255

Katherine b. 1264 deceased 1264

Joanna b. 1265 deceased 1265

John b. 1266 deceased 1271

Henry b. 1268 deceased 1274

Eleanor b. 1269 deceased 1288

Juliana b. 1271 deceased 1271

Joan b. 1272

Alfonso b. 1273 deceased 1284

Margaret b. 1275

Berengaria b. 1276 deceased 1278

Daughter b. 1277 deceased 1278

Mary b. 1278

Son b. 1280 deceased

Elizabeth b. 1282

Edward II b. 1284 deceased 1288

Chapter One

25 September 1295

St. Margarets Convent

Day One

Lizzie

T his way, my lords. Abbess Helens commanding voice sounded in the corridor outside the dormitory. The smooth wood of the floor was cool on Lizzies cheek as she held herself still and breathless, listening. All is well with the girls, I assure you. Weve taken good care of them.

We will need to see for ourselves. A mans voice answered in French, low and harsh.

Are you sure they are who you say they are? I find it hard to believe they could have been here all this time, and we didnt know it. The abbess sounded more put out than worried. If these men had told her the sisters real identities, she would feel affronted that shed been lied to all this time.

We are sure.

The vindictive part of Lizzie hoped the abbess was going over in her mind all the times shed striped Lizzies palm, deprived her of meals, or locked her in a closet. To be fair, Lizzie had sometimes deserved her punishments. Even more, that the abbess had been fooled wasnt her fault. While the old abbess had known the truth, she had died within a year of the girls arrival at St. Margarets.

With her demise, the only people who could attest that three princesses lived at St. Margarets were Gilbert de Clare, the man whod hidden them there, and the three princesses themselves.

Or so they had all thought until tonight.

Lizzie remembered well the urgency with which Earl Gilbert had spirited them away from their old convent of Amesbury after their grandmothers death. He had indelibly impressed upon each of the sisters the need for secrecya secrecy theyd maintained without exception all this time, even after Earl Gilbert had died too.

Maybe especially after.

Up until a few moments earlier, Lizzie had been curled up at the foot of her sisters bed. At the sound of the mens heavy footsteps coming up the stairs, shed been startled upright, moving in an instant from almost asleep to wide awake. That sounds

like men. Daisy had sat up too, pushing out of her face stray strands of light brown hair that had come loose from her long braid. Go, Lizzie. Then shed squeezed Lizzies hand once, shooing her off the bed and onto the floor beneath it. Hide.

For once, do as youre told. This had come from Molly, Lizzies other sister, who was almost exactly three years younger than Daisy, as they were both born in March. That made her seventeen, Daisy twenty, and Lizzie thirteen. Unlike Daisy and Lizzie, Molly had entered the convent with some degree of willingness, having been promised to it from the age of six. All these years later, she barely remembered anything else.