Epilogue - One Last Spring

Vyrnwy Dam, May 1891

Gwen leaned against the low stone wall and stifled a giggle. “Catch him, Lewis,” she called.

She watched as her husband’s long stride quickly caught up with the escaping two-year-old, whose chubby, short legs were pumping as fast as they could. She heard the little boy squeal with delight as Lewis grabbed him, swung him into the air, and planted him firmly on his broad shoulders.

“Come here, you little scamp,” Lewis said, turning and walking back toward Gwen.

“Mam! Mam!” The little boy clapped his hands with glee.

“Robert Lewis Morgan, you’re getting too fast for your own good,” Gwen said.

Lewis groaned. “I thought it was bad enough that he was as mischievous as his namesake, but now he’ll stop at nothing to get to the water.”

Gwen laughed. “Look, Robert, you can see the water from Dadi’s shoulders.” She pointed to the vast lake that filled the valley behind them, and as Lewis slowly turned, Robert’s eyes widened, and his little mouth formed a perfect O as he caught sight of the water cascading like an enormous waterfall through the arched overflows and down the outer wall of the dam.

“Even after living here when the dam went up, it’s still a miraculous sight,” Lewis said.

Beside him, Gwen nodded. The Liverpool Corporation had done their job well. The road on which they now stood traversed the dam and was lined on either side with a low stone wall decorated with pillars and ornamental pieces of stone.

They couldn’t see the far end of the long reservoir, but off to one side, the straining tower that Gwen had seen in diagram form so many years before stood sentinel, adding a hint of fairy-tale magic to an already picturesque scene. On the hillsides all around the lake, conifers grew tall and proud, and rhododendron bushes thrived along the lakeside.

“I sent Thomas and Edith a few drawings of the dam as a wedding gift, but I hope Thomas brings her back here to see it,” Gwen said. “He should be proud of his work.”

Lewis put his arm around her. “We’ll bring our children back often too,” he said. “Pen-y-Bont Fawr will be their home, but they need to know what lies beneath the water here and understand the sacrifices their family made for others.”

Gwen rested her hand on her swollen abdomen and smiled. “They may not ever be able to see the village we knew, but they’re part of a wonderful legacy.”

On Lewis’s shoulders, Robert started bouncing up and down. “Water! Water!” he cried.

Lewis lifted him down and placed him on his feet. “All right, lad, we’ll take you down to the water.”

Gwen and Lewis each took one of their son’s hands, and together they followed the road across the dam and around the edge of the lake to a narrow footpath that led to the water’s edge. Lewis crouched down, picked up a handful of tiny pebbles, and handed them to Robert. With a chortle, the little boy started tossing them one at a time into the water.

“When Dadi, Uncle Robert, and Mami were young, there used to be a river here,” he told his son. “We’d come here to go fishing.” He winked at Gwen. “Actually, Uncle Robert and I fished. We only let your Mami come because she was so pretty.”

“Lewis!”

Lewis laughed. “Well, all right,” he admitted. “Dadi and Uncle Robert fished, and Mami was here because she wouldn’t let us go without her.”

“That sounds a little more like it,” Gwen said with a smile.

“Maybe,” Lewis said as he got to his feet. “But she really was beautiful.” His eyes never left Gwen’s as he gently pulled her into his arms. “Which only goes to show,” he continued softly, “that no matter what else has happened since then, there are a few things that truly never change.”

Then, with their young son standing beside them, he lowered his head and kissed her.