The Fourth Horseman (10 page)

Hywel bowed. “You are correct, of course. I
give way to your better sense.”

Gwen looked down at her feet to hide her
expression. It had her worried that Hywel didn’t seem to mind how
Mari talked to him as long as she did and in fact seemed to enjoy
sparring with her. Gwen took her friend’s hand, and they left the
room, though not before Mari threw yet another admiring look over
her shoulder at Prince Hywel.

“
He is a very handsome
man,” Gwen said.

“
Who?” Mari
said.

Gwen glanced at her friend. “Prince
Hywel.”

Mari blushed. Gwen
shouldn’t have had to clarify who
he
was, and Mari knew it. “Yes. Very
handsome.”

They’d reached the lower landing in the west
wing of the castle and came to a halt when a guard, who’d been
leaning against the wall with his arms folded across his chest,
straightened at their approach.

Gwen nodded to him. “We’re looking for Prior
Rhys,” she said in her halting French.

The man pointed to a door. “At the end of
the corridor.”

Gwen thanked him, but Mari
swept past him like he wasn’t there. Such behavior was expected of
high-born Norman women, and here at Newcastle, Mari was Norman, not
Welsh. With that thought, Gwen’s brow furrowed
,
suddenly unsure as to how it was
that Mari was accepted as a Norman. Gwen had never asked her friend
what exactly her relationship was to Lord Goronwy. It had never
been important to know before.

They reached the door. Mari hadn’t looked at
Gwen since the mention of Hywel, and her color remained high. She
lifted her hand to knock, but before she could, Gwen asked, “Did
you grow up in England, Mari?”

Mari’s hand stayed suspended before the
door, and Gwen wished she could take back her words. Mari’s face
had crumpled. She looked down at her shoes and took a breath,
smoothing out her features and returning to her usual composed
self. “I am as Welsh as you, Gwen.”

Gwen put a hand on Mari’s arm. “I know
that.” Her voice was as gentle as she could make it. “I didn’t mean
to ask you so abruptly. I would never mean to imply that we did not
share a love for Wales.”

Mari blinked twice, and the tears that had
threatened to spill out of her eyes receded. “My mother was a
Welshwoman. She died before I was ten.”

Gwen ducked her head. “I asked because I was
admiring your poise. You look as if you belong at Newcastle far
more than I do. And then for the first time it occurred to me that
as a cousin to Cristina, whose mother was Norman, that you might
have Norman blood too.”

Mari looked away. “I do.” She cleared her
throat. “My mother was Uncle Goronwy’s sister, but my father’s
family came from Normandy. Although they lost their lands there
several generations ago, my father served in King Henry’s retinue,
and later in his son’s.”

“
You mean he served Henry’s
son, Prince William? The one who died when the White Ship was lost
at sea?”

“
No.” Mari pursed her lips.
“I thought you knew all this. My father was one of Robert of
Gloucester’s men.”

Laughter bubbled in Gwen’s throat at getting
such an unexpected answer, and yet one which so perfectly explained
what she hadn’t understood before. “No wonder you feel so
comfortable here.”

“
It is only because of my
father’s introduction that Lord Goronwy married my aunt in the
first place.” Mari gave Gwen a sheepish smile. “I’m not sure that
this was my father’s intent. He was very proud of his Norman
ancestry, and in introducing his wife’s brother to his Norman
friends, he sullied their bloodline.”

“
And yet he married a
Welshwoman himself,” Gwen said.

“
He did.” Mari shrugged.
“He loved my mother. I know he did.”

“
I believe you.” Gwen bent
her head close to Mari’s. “If he hadn’t married her, he wouldn’t
have had you for a daughter.”

Mari’s tears threatened to undo her again.
“My father died as the war between Empress Maud and King Stephen
was getting started.”

“
I am so sorry,” Gwen said.
“May I ask how he died?”

“
Drowned. They never found
the body,” Mari said.

Gwen wanted to hug her friend, but the
stiffness in Mari’s shoulders told her to keep her distance. “You
must have been just a girl.”

Mari nodded. “I came to live with Lord
Goronwy immediately thereafter.”

Gwen could picture Mari, small and shy, not
yet grown into womanhood, faced with her outgoing cousin, who was
two years older and already attracting—and inviting—male
attention.

“
This is all so much more
recent than I’d supposed. For some reason, I thought you never knew
your father,” Gwen said.

“
I don’t talk about him,”
Mari said. “And since he left me nothing, Lord Goronwy doesn’t talk
about him either.”

“
But you are here because
Lord Goronwy is landed, didn’t you say?” Gwen said. “Lands he
acquired when he married?”

“
Yes. Uncle Goronwy and his
wife lived on the English estates she inherited. They have friends
among Earl Robert’s court, and Lord Goronwy takes pleasure in
remembering those times. Because his estates come through his wife,
it’s important that he stay on good terms with the
earl.”

“
If your father introduced
your uncle to his wife, he must have been more than a knight, too.
Was he a nobleman in his own right?” Gwen said.

“
Yes.”

“
So … if your father was
one of Earl Robert’s men and your mother Lord Goronwy’s sister, I
don’t understand why you were left with nothing. Why don’t you have
a dowry—”

Mari pushed open the door to Prior Rhys’s
room before Gwen could finish her sentence. Left out in the
corridor, Gwen took in a deep breath. Even as close as she felt to
Mari, she had skirted, and then overstepped, the boundary between
them. Although Gwen thought of herself as Mari’s friend and
believed that Mari viewed her in the same way, Mari was of the
superior social class. She’d terminated their conversation, as was
her right. Gwen was glad she knew more about Mari’s past, but she
wished she’d asked her questions more delicately.

By the time Gwen had collected her thoughts
and entered the room, Mari had slipped onto a stool beside Prior
Rhys and was holding his hand. A woman Gwen didn’t recognize sat in
a chair in the far corner of the room, working silently on a
needlepoint square.

Gwen tipped her head towards the door.
“Madam, could you excuse us? We’ll sit with him a while.”

The woman curtseyed and left the room
without Gwen ever getting her name, which she supposed was her own
fault for not asking. Gwen hesitated for a moment, mustering her
courage to risk more conversation with Mari, and put a hand on her
friend’s shoulder. “I’m sorry. I overstepped.”

Mari patted Gwen’s hand. “Don’t be sorry.
I’m too sensitive, but I would rather not talk about my
father.”

The cramp that had formed in Gwen’s stomach
at the tension between them eased. She squeezed Mari’s hand before
walking to the other side of the bed so she could put her hand to
Prior Rhys’s forehead. It was cool.

“
I am awake.”

Gwen jumped. Hywel had implied that Prior
Rhys was at death’s door. “I’m glad!” Gwen was so relieved, she was
tempted throw her arms around the prior and hug him. His austere
expression restrained her, however. “How do you feel?”

“
My head hurts.”

He said it with such an injured tone that
even Mari smiled. “Someone hit you very hard,” Mari said. “Did you
see him?”

“
I’ve been lying here going
over what I remember,” Prior Rhys said. “I recall praying beside
David’s body in the little room off the chapel. Then Gwen entered
the room, hoping to examine the body.” His eyes flicked to Gwen and
then away again, back to Mari. “I admit that surprised
me.”

“
I’m sorry,” Gwen said. “I
didn’t mean to disconcert you.”

Prior Rhys turned his head, very carefully,
to look fully into Gwen’s face. “You were very matter-of-fact about
it. I didn’t know what to make of such behavior in a woman, and I
confess that I didn’t like the idea of you undressing the body in
front of me. I chose to take a walk while you worked.”

Gwen, for her part, didn’t know how to
answer him. She could have used his help, and as before in the
chapel, his squeamishness surprised her. Still, the fewer people
who knew about the emerald, the better.

Prior Rhys didn’t seem to need a response
from Gwen. He continued, “By the time I had strolled some distance
from the chapel, I had come to terms with what you were doing. In
fact, I made a list in my head of a dozen other women whom I had
known in my days as a soldier who might have had the capacity to
behave as you were. I was wounded fighting in France and left to
heal among a community of nuns. You reminded me of them.”

“
Gwen is not a nun,” Mari
said.

Now it was Prior Rhys’s turn to smile,
canting his head in acknowledgement of the truth of Mari’s
statement. “Still, she has some of the same qualities I admired in
them. Did you find anything important on his body? Anything that
might tell us why he was killed?”

“
A man subdued me too,”
Gwen said, taking Hywel at his word that the emerald was not a
topic for discussion. “When I awoke, the body was gone.”

“
What?” Prior Rhys
struggled to push himself more upright on the soft bed. “Gwen! I am
so sorry! I should have been there to protect you.”

Gwen knew that Gareth thought much the same
thing and might even speak to the prior about it eventually. She,
however, wasn’t going to admonish him. “It isn’t your fault.”

“
Are you all right?” He
looked her up and down. “You look well.”

“
I am well. He didn’t hurt
me. I’m still not entirely sure what caused me to faint, but he put
his arm around my neck—” Gwen broke off, stroking her throat and
remembering what it had felt like. She was afraid that the memory,
and the feeling of helplessness the man’s action had engendered in
her was going to haunt her for a long time to come. At the very
least, she needed to be more careful about leaving her back to
doors in strange castles.

Prior Rhys reached for Gwen’s hand. “My
dear.”

“
We have been assuming that
Gwen and you were both harmed for the same reason—because you were
watching over David’s body,” Mari said.

Prior Rhys shook his head. “But what is it
about David that would make someone do that? It’s nonsensical.”

“
Not to the man who did
it,” Mari said.

Prior Rhys lifted his eyes to look into
Gwen’s. “If I could stand, I would take you home to Wales before
the sun sets. Why hasn’t Gareth sent you home already?”

“Because he’s afraid she wouldn’t reach the
border safely.” Hywel pushed through the door and entered the room.
“I thought I heard your voice, Prior. It’s good to see you
awake.”

Chapter Ten

Hywel

“I
am glad to be awake,” Prior Rhys said. “It is my understanding
that whether or not I would ever wake was an open
question.”

“
So it was.” Hywel closed
the door behind him. “You were speaking of what happened to
you?”

Prior Rhys nodded. “Do you have an idea as
to why someone would want to steal David’s body from the
chapel?”

“
We don’t yet know.” Hywel
caught Gwen’s eye for a moment but then quickly looked away. He was
glad to know she’d stayed silent on the topic of the
emerald.

“
Can you think of anyone
who might want to hurt you in particular, Prior Rhys?” Gwen said.
“The man didn’t cause me any lasting harm, but he almost killed
you.”

“
If it was even the same
man,” Mari said.

“
I’m not sure it matters,”
Hywel said. “If two men were responsible, then they were working in
concert. To steal the body, our culprit needed the prior out of the
way long enough for him to get inside the chapel and get out with
the body, which come to think of it, would have been quite a feat
in and of itself. There’s no reason to think he targeted Prior Rhys
specifically, other than that he had taken on the task of watching
over David.”

While Hywel was speaking, Gwen had moved
closer to Prior Rhys, going so far as to sit on the bed. Something
about the way she was looking at the prior made Hywel stop talking.
He’d been showing off in front of Mari, making a logical argument
because he could. But Hywel trusted Gwen’s instincts, and he
realized that he and Mari had jumped into the conversation before
Prior Rhys could answer Gwen’s question. Prior Rhys still hadn’t
answered it.

“
Prior.” Gwen kept her
voice soft. “May I ask you something?”

The churchman turned his head to look at her
and as his gaze sharpened, a wariness came into his face. “Of
course, my dear. Anything.”

“
When did you join the
monastery in St. Asaph?”

“
Gwen—” Mari leaned forward
as if to shush her friend, but Hywel stepped closer and caught her
hand.

“
Let her be,” he said, his
voice low.

“
It was a long time ago,
Gwen,” Prior Rhys said.

“
I’m thinking it wasn’t so
long ago as all that. You were a soldier, weren’t you?” Gwen said.
“Whom did you serve?”

Prior Rhys scoffed under his breath and
looked down at his hands as they rested on the bedcovers. “Gareth
spoke to me of your intelligence. I should have listened.” He took
in a breath and let it out. “You have asked the right question, my
dear. Empress Maud was my mistress.”