The Uninvited Guest (22 page)

“
No,” Huw said. “And not
since. I might not have noticed her at all, since she came in with
her hood up and didn’t put it down the whole time she was here, but
one of the patrons knocked into her and spilled his drink. I
cleaned it up myself and saw her face. She’s pretty.”

“
Was
pretty,” Gwen said. “She’s the girl who was murdered, along
with Ieuan.” As Gwen and Huw had been talking, the noise level had
risen again in the tavern. “Did Ieuan have a family?”

Huw shook his head. “Not here. Not that I
know. As I said, he kept to himself.”

“
Could you ask around?”
Gwen said. “Find out if any of your regulars remember seeing him
with someone else? Or overheard his conversation with
Enid?”

“
I’d be glad to.” Huw
studied the paper. “Who drew the pictures?”

“
Gareth,” Gwen
said.

Huw nodded. “He’s a good man. I was paying
attention when Prince Cadwaladr took you to Dublin. I’m glad Sir
Gareth came home with you.”

“
I am too,” Gwen
said.

The tavern patrons wouldn’t
let Gwen leave right away, and she was willing to stay to find out
more about Enid and Ieuan. She learned more about Gareth instead,
another side of him she hadn’t yet seen. Huw had been telling the
truth when he’d said that Gareth was a favorite in the village. If
two men needed cooling down after too much mead, or when a dispute
arose, Gareth was often the one called to deal with it.
Stern, but fair
. That was
what everyone said.

By the time Gwen left the tavern, it was
mid-afternoon. Even then, the villagers had protested that she
should stay, seeing no reason for her to reenter the winter
weather, which was keeping all but the most hardy of them
indoors.

“
More mead, Gwen?” Huw said
as Gwen eyed the door.

“
I must go.”

“
It’s raining. There’s no
need to go out in it just yet.”

“
Prince Hywel will be
wondering where I am,” Gwen said. “Besides, the rain is tapering
off.” Gwen was glad to see it since it meant that Gareth, too,
wouldn’t be riding through a downpour. She hoped he was having at
least some luck, as she had.

Huw let her go. As she made her way to the
door, she found Lord Tomos just coming through it into the tavern.
“Hello.” He stopped on the threshold to shake out his wet
cloak.

“
What brings you here?”
Gwen said.

“
With no wedding today
either, I fancied a change of scenery,” he said. “And you? Asking
questions for Hywel, were you?”

“
Yes.”

Tomos nodded. “That’s good. We need to stop
this madman before he does any more damage.”

Gwen had been ready to walk through the
door, but now she hesitated. “Do you have any thoughts about whom
he might be?”

“
I wouldn’t want to say,”
Tomos said. “All I know is that Owain and I have spent forty years
in each other’s company. I don’t want to lose him.”

“
I didn’t realize you’d
known him that long,” Gwen said.

“
Oh, yes.” Tomos brushed a
hand through his wet hair. “My father sent me to Aberffraw when I
was a lad. Owain and I were the two runts of the castle and
befriended each other. Later, we were squires together, and then
knights. Owain has gone to war with me beside him every time he’s
fought a war.”

“
He’s very lucky to have
you, then,” Gwen said.

Tomos bowed slightly at the waist, though
his eyes flicked to the mug of mead Huw had just set on the table
for him. Gwen smiled. “I won’t keep you.”

“
Nothing like Huw’s warm
mead.” Tomos held the door for Gwen and ushered her into the
drizzle.

A short while later, she strolled through
the entrance to the great hall, looking forward to warmth and
(foolishly) a quiet stint by the fire, to find the hall in an
uproar. Cadwaladr and King Owain were faced off against each other,
shouting. King Owain’s temper was legendary—Gwen herself had seen
it multiple times—and she would have thought that Cadwaladr would
have known better than to set it off.

Cadwaladr pushed close to his brother until
they were nose to nose. “If you think that I’m going to stand here
and listen to your false accusations—”

“
You will stand here and
you will listen!” King Owain said. “I hold your purse strings and
if you think you can instigate another scheme like last
summer’s—”

“
Last summer! You hold that
against me still?” Cadwaladr said. “How long will I have to pay for
a single—”

“
A single indiscretion? Is
that what you were going to say?” King Owain’s voice was
thundering. “You … murdered … Anarawd!”

“
I don’t have to listen to
this.” Cadwaladr turned on his heel and marched towards the exit,
passing within inches of Gwen, who skittered away. The great doors
slammed shut behind him.

King Owain pointed at the
several members of his
teulu
who stood near the door. “Don’t let him leave the
castle.”

They didn’t
yes, my lord
him, just
bowed their heads and instantly obeyed, following after Cadwaladr.
For a moment, the doorway framed the mist and the darkening sky
that filled the courtyard. Gwen could also see to the gatehouse and
watched as the portcullis fell into place with a thud. Nearby,
Hywel spoke to Alun. “Double the guards on
all
the exits.”

“
Yes, my lord.”

Rhun and Hywel exchanged a glance and then
looked at their father. He stood before the fire, staring into it.
His face was flushed from the heat of the flames and his anger was
fading only now. He thumped his chest with one hand and coughed.
“That man will be the death of me.”

“
He will not.” Cristina
glided into view and put her arm through King Owain’s
elbow.

“
You bring comfort, as
always, my dear.” King Owain patted her hand. “You shouldn’t have
had to witness that.”

“
Your troubles are my
troubles, my lord,” Cristina said.

King Owain patted her hand again and
whispered into her ear. Cristina nodded and left the hall, though
not before firing a sharp look at Gwen.

What?
Such a look made Gwen nervous.

Once Cadwaladr had left, the hall had
emptied. Everyone had wanted to watch the argument between the
royal brothers, but nobody wanted to be present for the aftermath.
Owain looked towards Hywel and Rhun and lifted his chin. “Come
closer.”

They came, but not before Hywel took Gwen’s
arm and tugged her with him. “You too.”

Gwen allowed herself to be herded nearer to
the king.

“
What can we do, Father?”
Rhun said.

“
See what’s become of your
uncle, if you would, Son,” King Owain said.

“
Of course.” Rhun clapped a
hand on Hywel’s shoulder and departed. He had to know, as both
Hywel and Gwen did, that his father was getting rid of him so that
he wouldn’t be a party to what King Owain wanted to talk about
next.
Something unsavory, no doubt.
But it wasn’t what Gwen expected.

“
Tell me what has become of
Gareth,” King Owain said.

“
What do you mean, Father?”
Hywel said. “The men didn’t find him.”

King Owain wasn’t having
any of it. “You say,
the men didn’t find
him
, do you
?
Since the last time you lied to my face, you were
seven years old, I’d say you found him, or Gwen did—and that he is
alive.” King Owain turned his glare on Gwen.

Gwen tried to look down, or away, or at
Hywel, but couldn’t manage it. Nor could she overtly lie to King
Owain. “Yes,” she said.

“
And you didn’t tell me?”
King Owain’s temper was rising again.

“
We thought it best,” Hywel
said.

Gwen continued the thought, “The man who
felled Gareth and left him to die shouldn’t know that he still
lives.”

“
When, exactly, were you
going to tell me, your own father and king?” King Owain
said.

Hywel swallowed hard. He was having trouble
answering again.

“
How did you know?” Gwen
said.

“
I am observant,” King
Owain said. “I believe I know most of what goes on in my
castle.”

That wasn’t comforting, actually, given what
did go on that Gwen knew about.

But then King Owain put up a hand. “I am not
here to question your methods, Son. I want to know if my brother
murdered Enid and this servant, Ieuan. More, I want to know if he
hired that youth to kill me.”

“
We want to know that too,”
Hywel said, “but we have nothing that ties Enid to Cadwaladr. We
haven’t been able to trace Enid’s movements after she put poppy
juice into Lord Goronwy’s drink.”

King Owain looked away and with that glance,
Gwen’s stomach hit the floor. “My lord?” she said. “Did you see
Enid on the night she died?”

Hywel hissed through his teeth.

King Owain clearly didn’t want to answer,
but Hywel prompted him. “Father?”

“
She came to me.” King
Owain’s shoulders sagged.

“
When?” Hywel
said.

“
After midnight. I wouldn’t
know the time because I was asleep. She roused me when she slipped
into bed with me. At first I thought it was Cristina—for all that
she had refused to come to my chamber until then. I had a spark of
hope that she saw no reason to wait with only one night before the
wedding.”

King Owain couldn’t know
Cristina very well if he thought she might really share his
bed
before
the
wedding, but Gwen didn’t say anything. She was a maiden herself and
the King shouldn’t be speaking like this in front of her. But she
didn’t want to stop the flow of his story by calling attention to
herself.

“
But then Enid spoke to
me—I don’t even know what she said—and I realized she wasn’t my
bride. I leaped from the bed,” King Owain said.

“
You what?” Hywel
said.

King Owain’s brow furrowed. “I turned her
out. I am a man of honor. I had a liaison with Enid years ago, but
it was short-lived. I certainly didn’t want her the night before my
wedding to Cristina.”

“
There would be hell to pay
if Cristina found out.” A smile twitched at Hywel’s
lips.

“
There would have been a
scene,” King Owain said. “Cristina might have called the wedding
off.”

Or … murdered
Enid
. The thought rose unbidden in Gwen,
not for the first time, and Hywel stilled beside her. “Father,
could Cristina have seen—”

“
No, she couldn’t have!”
Owain said. “I booted Enid from my room and threw her dress after
her. She stood in the corridor, glaring at me, before I slammed the
door in her face—well, closed it quietly, given the hour and that I
didn’t want to draw attention to the incident.”

“
And there was nobody in
the corridor with her?” Hywel said.

Again, Gwen was glad to let Hywel ask these
questions for her.

“
Not that I saw,” King
Owain said, “and I checked carefully because I didn’t want her
associated with me, even in the eyes of one of my closest friends.
I barred the door behind her.”

Hywel turned to Gwen. “That means that Lord
Goronwy was gone by then.”

King Owain nodded and a stunned expression
swept across his face. “You’re right. He was.”

Hywel snapped his fingers. “Enid slipped
poppy juice into Goronwy’s drink to get him out of the way so that
she could—”

“—
enter my room and seduce
me!” King Owain said.

“
But why would she do
that?” Gwen said.

King Owain appeared taken aback. “Isn’t it
obvious? She hoped I’d call off the wedding with Cristina and marry
her. It was her last chance.”

“
Had she contacted you
before this?” Hywel said. “Tried to renew your
acquaintance?”

“
No.” King Owain
said.

Gwen shook her head. “How can that be the
whole story? Enid ended up dead shortly thereafter—”

The door to the great hall burst open and
slammed back against the wall. “Father!” It was Rhun. “Uncle
Cadwaladr has barricaded himself inside the chapel and won’t come
out!”

Chapter
Eighteen

G
areth’s horse, Dewi, stood placidly in the middle of the
ferry, uncaring of the water crossing or anything else as far as
Gareth could tell. It didn’t bode well for the horse’s ability to
get up to speed if Gareth needed it, but perhaps said something
about his loyalty and willingness to travel all day, which Gareth
figured was what faced them.

This man he was chasing—boy really, though
he was old enough to count as a man—might have feared that someone
was following him, but as time went on, would have begun to feel
more secure. He’d have stopped for the night somewhere on the other
side of the Conwy River, thinking himself safe. Maybe the rain had
discouraged him from progressing far today. He would sleep inside
tonight. And if he’d done any of those things, it meant Gareth
could catch him.

“
Wind’s picking up,” Daff
said as he poled the ferry towards the eastern pier. “Getting
colder for your journey.”