Gareth
“A merry chase you’ve led us on, my lord,” Dai said, his grin a mile wide.
Llelo and Dai bounced up and down before them, accompanied by a third boy, who towered above them. It was Prior Rhys’s servant, Tomos, to whom Gareth had never spoken more than a few words. Hardly older than the boys, he was as thin as a flag pole and dressed in a monk’s robe. His brow was furrowed in concern.
Not so Dai and Llelo.
Gareth studied the boys, his hands on his hips. “Llelo. Dai. It’s nice to see you. You, too, Brother Tomos.”
Tomos nodded his head. “My lord.”
“What are you doing here?” Gwen said.
“Not that we aren’t pleased to see you whole and well,” Gareth said, softening Gwen’s stance, “but you were supposed to stay in the camp.”
The boys looked at each other, and then Dai answered for his brother, as he often did, even though he was the younger of the two. “We’re sorry we disobeyed, but we knew we had to find you.”
Gareth’s eyes narrowed. “Why would you be looking for us?”
“It is my fault entirely,” Tomos said.
“Llelo thought something might be wrong,” Dai said. “He was almost in tears just thinking about what might have happened to you.”
Llelo shoved at his little brother’s shoulder. “Shut it, Dai. That’s not it at all. It’s the fault of that guard on duty, Ieuan. Tomos came with a message from Prior Rhys, which he said was important. He had already tried to find Evan, Gruffydd, or the princes, but they were nowhere to be seen.”
Tomos nodded. “They weren’t in their rooms or in the hall.”
Gareth made a growling noise low in his throat. “Ieuan was supposed to refer anyone who needed me to Evan.”
“We know,” Llelo said. “Dai and I overheard you this morning. But Ieuan did nothing! He didn’t even try to find you!”
“What was the message?” Gwen said.
Tomos cleared his throat. “Prior Rhys asked that you come to him at Newcastle.”
“Did he say why?” Gwen said.
“He didn’t tell me, though I asked.” Tomos shook his head. “I was to find you and bring you as soon as I could. When Ieuan didn’t know where you were, I would have returned to Newcastle then and there, but the boys convinced me that you might be in danger.”
“What of the other men? Did you try to speak to someone else?” Gwen said.
Tomos cleared his throat. “The boys seemed to think your mission required secrecy. I see my mistake now, but they convinced me that we’d be better off searching for you on our own.”
“Nobody listens to boys.” Dai’s lower lip stuck out.
Gareth rubbed at his chin. “So you took matters into your own hands.”
Dai said, “We did the right thing, didn’t we?”
“I didn’t know what else to do but to stay with them,” Tomos said, continuing his apology. “I feared they would try to find you whether I came with them or not.”
Gareth turned to his wife. “There’s no point in speculating what Prior Rhys wanted. We should simply return to the castle.”
“What about Ieuan?” Dai said.
“I will deal with him when I see him.” Gareth checked the sky. “We’ve been gone all day. I don’t understand what’s happening here.”
“How did you get here?” Gwen said.
“Tomos rode. We ran,” Dai said.
Gareth laughed and ruffled his hair, no more able to stay angry at the boys than Gwen.
“Do you know Ieuan well? Could he be some kind of traitor, too?” Gwen said, as Gareth boosted her into her saddle. “Or a spy?”
“He’s been attached to Prince Rhun’s company since last autumn.” Gareth adjusted Gwen’s foot in her stirrup. “It was foolish of me not to have been on the lookout for treachery in our own camp. I just don’t know what else I could have done to avert it.”
“I’ve felt lost since we entered Newcastle,” Gwen said. “I think our problem is simply that we’re in England.”
“Why do you say that?” Llelo said.
“The rules aren’t the same,” Gwen said, “and I don’t just mean that our laws are different from the ones the people live by here. If David had been murdered at Aber, we know exactly what would have happened: King Owain would have turned to Hywel, who would have turned to Gareth. We would have questioned everyone in the castle and systematically chipped away at the lies to get to the truth. But here … ever since yesterday morning, we’ve been fumbling about in the dark, with no authority, no ability to question anyone properly, and yet we’re still involved with spies and multiple murders. It feels all wrong.”
Gareth patted her leg. “I fear it’s going to get worse before it gets better. I can send you home if you would prefer it.”
Gwen wrinkled her nose at him. “And leave you to settle this yourself? I don’t think so.”
“It’s a genuine offer.” Gareth tossed Llelo up to ride behind Gwen, mounted his horse, and pulled Dai up behind him. “I would feel better if you were home, but I’m concerned about you getting there.”
“Which is why you aren’t going to send me away,” Gwen said.
“If he sent you, he’d probably send us too,” Llelo said from behind her. “We don’t want to go either.”
Gwen put out a hand to Gareth. “Alard could be watching us right now.”
“I don’t think so,” Gareth said. “He heard something, or sensed someone approaching, and either met them or fled from them. I have the feeling that in his mind, the farmhouse has served its purpose. Besides which, I don’t find the idea that Alard is spying on us as worrisome as I might have when we woke up this morning. He wants something from us, and as long as we appear to be doing as he asks—”
“—though not because he asked it,” Gwen said.
“—then we’re safe from him,” Gareth said. “In fact, I would be more surprised if he didn’t find a way to keep an eye on us than if he did. He can’t ask questions himself at this point, and it’s his name, not ours, that needs clearing.”
“What about the safety of Prince Henry?” Gwen said.
“Prince Henry is a concern, but what happens to him is almost entirely out of our hands,” Gareth said. “If his mother and Earl Robert don’t have him well protected, they’re fools.”
“You already thought she was foolish for allowing him to come to England in the first place,” Gwen said.
“True, though for all that she’s his mother, it might not have been entirely up to her.” Gareth grinned at the trio of young boys with them: strong-willed sons were rather thick on the ground at present.
They’d come out of the wood on its western side and followed the trail the boys had taken from the camp. Reversing their steps, they now approached the Lyme Brook at a point almost equidistant between their encampment and the castle. Gareth stopped at the ford they would need to cross to return to the castle. “Tomos, I need you to escort the boys back to camp.”
“But sir! I must see to Prior Rhys!” Tomos said.
“Not today.” Gareth said, putting as much authority as he could into his voice. He poked Dai’s leg. “This is where you get off, boys.”
Llelo and Dai slid to the ground.
“What? No complaints?” Gwen said.
Dai shook his head. “You’re going to the castle. I don’t want to enter there. We might never get out again.”
“And why would that be?” Gareth said.
“Too many Saxons,” Llelo said.
Gareth laughed. “I can’t disagree. Be off with you, then.”
The boys took off running, but Tomos still hesitated. “My lord—”
Gwen leaned in. “Thank you for taking them under your wing when we couldn’t—and for listening to them. I would feel better if you stayed with them.”
Tomos swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down. “My duty is to my master.”
“We will see to him,” Gareth said. “I want you out of harm’s way.”
Tomos bowed his head. “Yes, my lord.” He spurred his horse after Llelo and Dai.
Once Gareth and Gwen were sure the boys were well on their way, they trotted their horses across the ford and turned their heads towards Newcastle. As they approached the gateway, the sun low in the sky behind them, Gareth found himself a little ahead of Gwen. She’d slowed, and he pulled up to wait for her to come abreast. “I feel as reluctant as those boys,” she said.
“You could have gone back to the camp with them,” Gareth said. “You could go now.”
“And wish away the evening waiting for you to return?” Gwen said. “Anything I face in there is better than that.”
“We’ll see if you still think so by the time the sun sets,” Gareth said. “At least we have some news for Hywel.”
“I’m glad we heard Alard’s side of the story,” Gwen said, “though it doesn’t make me trust these Normans any more than I did before.”
Gareth laughed. “You didn’t trust them at all before.” He reached out and squeezed her hand.
They passed under the gatehouse. Gruffydd had been keeping an eye out for them, because he came to meet them as they reined in. “Thanks be to God, you’re here.”
“We feared something was wrong. What is it?” Gareth tossed his reins to the stable boy who waited for them and dropped to the ground. He caught Gwen as she dismounted.
“Prior Rhys and Mari have disappeared,” Gruffydd said.
Gareth’s expression darkened while the blood drained from Gwen’s face. Gareth pulled her to him in a brief hug. “We’ll find them. Don’t worry.”
His words of comfort could only be a kindness. She couldn’t help but worry and he knew it, but she came with him up the steps to the keep, limping a little on her wounded ankle.
“This way.” Gruffydd eyed Gareth as they crossed the anteroom. “What happened to you?”
“It’s a long story,” Gareth said. “Who saw them last and at what time?”
“A maid brought Prior Rhys a meal some time after noon,” Gruffydd said, “but no one has seen them since.”
“That must have been about the time he sent a message to you, Gareth,” Gwen said.
Gruffydd knocked on a door and entered at Hywel’s command. They found themselves in a room Gareth hadn’t seen before, not that he’d spent very much time in Newcastle so far. It was furnished with a table and several spindle chairs but little else. No fire burned in the grate, and the shutter was open to the eastern sky. They had no more than an hour until sunset.
At their entrance, Hywel, who’d been looking out the window, turned to face them. “At last. We were just about to send out a search party for you.”
“We’re safe,” Gareth said. “What has happened to Prior Rhys and Mari?”
“We don’t know,” Rhun said, rising from one of the chairs. “The maid reports that when she brought him a tray of food, the prior was sitting up in bed, awake, with Mari beside him. Nobody has seen either of them since then.”
“Could this have something to do with Alard?”
Gareth glanced towards the voice. Sir Amaury leaned against the wall in the corner of the room.
“How could it?” Gwen said.
“Prince Hywel has informed me of Prior Rhys’s former identity as one of the horsemen,” Amaury said. “Perhaps he went to meet Alard?”
“Alard may have contacted Prior Rhys,” Gareth said, “but I find it unlikely that Alard abducted them. If they went with him, they did so of their own accord.”
“How would you know that?” Amaury took a step forward.
“Because of the hour,” Gareth said. “When did the maid say she brought the tray?”
“All she remembered was that the bell had rung for sext some time before, but not for none,” Prince Rhun said, referring to the mid-afternoon toll of the chapel bell, which at the friary would have called the monks to prayer.
Gwen tugged on Gareth’s sleeve and spoke in Welsh. “We were at the farmhouse by then, and likely, so was Alard.”
“You went to the farmhouse?” Hywel said, in the same language. “The horsemen’s farmhouse?”
Gareth nodded. “Gwen told me of it, and she and I decided that we would find it this morning.”
Amaury joined their little circle, his brow furrowed. “What are you saying? Speak French so I can understand!”
Gareth pursed his lips, sorry that he had angered Amaury. He’d never seen the Norman knight so worked up. “Gwen and I went looking for Alard today. Instead, Alard found us.”
“You spoke to him? What did he say?” Amaury said.
“A great deal,” Gareth said. “He insists that while he did kill David, it was because David tried to murder him. He also claims to still be loyal to Maud.”
“He would say that,” Prince Hywel said.
“As would any man, guilty or not,” Gareth said.
“But we believed him—at least enough to keep digging deeper,” Gwen said.
Amaury looked at Gareth warily. “Is that why you let him go?”
“I wasn’t in a position to gainsay him when he wanted to leave,” Gareth said.
With a nod, Amaury bowed. “If you’ll excuse me, I must report to Philippe and instruct my men. We should continue the search for Prior Rhys and Mari outside the castle.” Amaury departed.
“I’ve looked everywhere inside Newcastle,” Hywel’s brow remain furrowed, “even to the point of inspecting the barrels in the cellar for bodies instead of drink.”
“Why didn’t you tell Amaury about the farmhouse, Gareth?” Gwen said.
“Because he has superiors,” Gareth said. “I didn’t feel it was my place to reveal that particular secret if Alard and the other horsemen had kept it for so long: not to Amaury, not to Philippe, not to anyone.” He looked at Prince Hywel. “I’m surprised you told him that Prior Rhys was a horseman.”
“I needed something to reveal,” Hywel said, “to encourage his confidence in us. It was either that or speak of the emerald.”
“This investigation would be less complicated if everybody would just tell the truth,” Gwen said.
“Heaven forfend!” Hywel said. “How unusual that would be!”
“Whatever has happened to Prior Rhys and Mari,” Gwen said, “at least we know that Rhys never intended to disappear without telling someone where he was going.”
“How so?” Prince Rhun said.
“After he was unable to find you or your brother, Gruffydd, or Evan, he sent Tomos to the camp to find me,” Gareth said. “We weren’t there, and your man, Ieuan, never passed on the message.”
“What?” Prince Rhun said. “Could you be mistaken?”
Gareth shook his head. “Now it seems we have a traitor among us too.”