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Day Four
Miles
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Talking to Roger, about why he hadn’t told the truth, was the last task of the day. Fortunately, as promised, the brothers had been doing their job, and he’d been sitting on the other side of the common room all along. Miles, Hywel, and Rhys hadn’t had to do more than stand and weave their way through the increasingly raucous crowd to his side.
On the way, Miles was blocked by two men arguing in a fashion that implied they knew each other well. “Of course the judging is fair. The king expects it to be fair.”
These were two of the judges he’d seen on duty today at one of the contests, albeit not the main one in front of the central viewing stand.
The other man gave his friend a hard look. “Does he?”
The first looked disconcerted. “Doesn’t he?”
“The king wants the outcome he wants, which you must realize has nothing to do with who is best, particularly if that bard is someone he finds politically unacceptable.”
These were brave words, firmly spoken. This judge probably thought they were safe thoughts to voice in a crowded tavern in French, which most of the people here wouldn’t speak. Miles had heard a great deal of Welsh and English, but French was reserved for those who worked for Normans or sold to them. The Mare was an inn for common folk. The king’s men generally drank somewhere else. Miles was glad he was wearing a workman’s clothes, the better to eavesdrop.
The face of the first man to speak fell. “I suppose I did know that. Gruffydd might be the best, but you don’t think he’s going to win?”
“Again, it depends. Does the king want to favor Llywelyn’s former bard? I doubt it. But he might want to appear magnanimous to the people of Gwynedd, who are already suffering under his yoke. In that case, a win by Gruffydd would be like throwing them a bone.”
“It would please Lord Tudur.”
“But does the king want that?” The second man had a theory about everything. “What I told you earlier about Hugh wasn’t the full story. What you don’t know is that he had a change of heart this year about giving men like us money and has spent the last year trying to make amends for the previous thirty. Believe me, five years ago, you could have made yourself rich judging a festival for him.”
The younger judge looked disconcerted. “Nobody has ever offered me mon—”
Then several other men arrived to interrupt their conversation, and Miles slipped away, arriving at Roger’s table after the others.
Rhys wasn’t wearing his tunic emblazoned with the king’s crest, and none of them wore their swords. But Roger must have recognized either Rhys himself or the look on his face, because as they settled around him he licked his lips and glanced quickly about, looking for an easy exit. If his back had been to the door, he wouldn’t have seen them coming, but he also might have had an opportunity to slip away amongst the crowd.
As it was, Rhys sat on a stool opposite, Miles leaned against the wall Roger had chosen to sit against, and this time it was Hywel who dropped onto the bench next to him. Honestly, watching Rhys work was always an education. Even having been involved in the investigation at Windsor, Miles was never sure what idea or thought Rhys was going to come up with next.
In this instance, Roger needed little prompting to start spilling out the truth. All Rhys really had to do was look at him hard. “As I told the other two earlier, I took the horse from Hugh because he gave it to me. I swear it!”
“You lied about why. You were a threat to his daughter, which means the horse wasn’t given freely at all. Did you demand it in exchange for staying away from her?”
“No! Nothing like that. I love her.”
“And yet, a horse was enough to make you stop loving her?” Rhys said.
Roger replied in something of a sulky voice, “Horses are valuable.”
“Why did you lie?” Hywel said. “Why did you think the excuse you gave would be believed?”
“It was believed, wasn’t it?” Roger glanced around at the three of them. “Everybody knew what Hugh had been about this last year. Why couldn’t I have been a beneficiary too?”
“It’s been that public?” Rhys said.
Miles could have told him that it had, given the conversation he’d overheard between the judges. As it was, Roger tilted his hand back and forth. “Maybe everyone doesn’t know, but it was known among the merchants that Hugh could be bribed for the best spot at the fair. In fact, extra payment was required. And then, when we got here, he refused to take my money. He refused to take anyone’s money!”
That answered a question that had passed through Miles’s head earlier, that they should be inquiring of the merchants what payments they’d made. There was no question it cost money to have a market stall. It was one of the many ways the festival wasn’t entirely a drain on the exchequer. The question was if anyone had been required to pay Hugh personally a little more to get the best spot.
And now they knew they hadn’t, at least not to Hugh. So far, they had found no evidence of bribery of any kind at this festival.
Miles bent forward and whispered in Rhys’s ear. “Was this the reason Hugh is dead? Had he uncovered a bribery scheme, just one not run by him? I hate to suggest it, but could Osborn, Simon’s brother, have seen a way to line his own coffers? After all, the festival is taking place on lands he manages. He, or the queen, must be getting something out of it.”
Rhys absorbed these observations for a moment, and then leaned forward to put his elbows on the table. Even as he’d listened to Miles, he’d kept his face expressionless and his eyes on Roger. “So you had money, but nobody to pay it to.”
“Who else could I have paid? Everyone is all so ethical.”
“What about Osborn, the queen’s steward?”
Miles settled his shoulders, pleased Rhys had been listening, even as Hywel’s eyes widened at the question.
But Roger merely shook of his head. “I’ve never even met him. I don’t know why you’d ask me that.”
“Were you angry?”
“We had a system. There were the public rates and then the private ones. Those of us who got here first and were willing to pay a little more could override what had already been set. But Hugh refused to participate! Maybe I flirted a bit with his daughter to get back at him. It isn’t my fault she fell in love with me.”
“And you with her?” Miles said dryly.
“Maybe I exaggerated my feelings.”
“You got a horse out of it,” Rhys said. “Or you did until we learned the truth. You can’t keep it.”
Roger’s chin jutted out. “How is what I did any different from what he did for all those years?”
Hywel was glaring at Roger as if given half the chance he would run him through. “Is there a possibility the girl could fall pregnant?”
Roger finally looked sheepish. “Maybe.”
Miles remembered that Hywel had a daughter the same age as Jane. “She either could or she couldn’t.”
“She could.”
Now Miles also wanted to punch Roger in the nose. “And if that were to occur, what would you do then?”
Roger couldn’t look Miles in the face, but he wasn’t finding a safe haven in Hywel’s or Rhys’s either. “Provide for the child, of course.”
Rhys put a heavy hand on his arm. “You will give back the horse first thing in the morning.” When Roger’s expression turned sullen, Rhys added, “I assume I don’t have to threaten you with consequences if you don’t?”
“No, my lord. I will do as you say.” The words were right, but Miles saw a wiliness in Roger’s eyes he didn’t trust. It might be wise to speak to Bari and Einion before they left the inn about making sure Roger kept his word. He didn’t appear to have murdered Hugh, but he wasn’t a good man.
Then the door to the common room was flung open, and they all turned as a young boy stood in the doorway, red-faced and breathing hard. “Fire! The castle is on fire!”
