Gwen
“I am honored to receive you.” Earl Robert bowed low and held the pose longer than he might have if he hadn’t wanted to convey his deepest respects.
The Welsh folk who faced him honored him in the same way. Gwen held her curtsey until she sensed Prince Hywel rise.
“We were pleased to be of service,” Prince Rhun said.
From beside Gwen, Mari reached for her hand and squeezed it once as they followed Hywel and Rhun towards the high table to take their places on either side of the earl. Hywel sat on the earl’s right, with Mari in the next seat down, while Rhun took the seat on Earl Robert’s left. Alard and Ralph, though invited to the meal, still preferred the private to the public and had chosen to dine at the friary with their good friend Prior Rhys. That was one conversation Gwen would have very much liked to overhear.
Prince Henry, known as ‘Richard’, sat to Gwen’s right, with Gareth on the other side of him. Everyone at Newcastle had been overjoyed to learn that Prince Henry was still alive, except the explanation the earl had given his people was that the prince had never left Bristol and the entire journey had been a ruse from beginning to end to draw out the assassin. ‘Richard’ remained one of the retinue and otherwise unremarkable.
“Are you well?” Gwen asked Richard/Prince Henry.
“More people have asked me that in the last few days than in my entire life. I am well.” He looked at her with a fierce expression that belied his age. “I will not forget the service you and Sir Gareth rendered to the Crown of England. If you ever need anything from me, you have only to ask.”
Gwen was happy to hear that—although if Henry did become king one day as his mother wished, that might be an oath he’d come to regret. Kings shouldn’t make promises they couldn’t keep.
“We could not have done otherwise,” Gareth said.
“What I don’t understand is how John and David could have betrayed the empress so profoundly after all their years of service,” Prince Henry said, following the custom of referring to his mother—and himself—as if he wasn’t himself and she wasn’t his mother.
“I have spoken long with Amaury,” Gareth said. “Once Philippe told his men that Alard was a traitor, they became pawns in Amaury’s game. David and John never knew they were serving King Stephen instead of the empress.”
“How could they not know?” For all that he’d been raised a prince, Henry was still only ten years old. Truth came in black and white to him.
“Because Philippe had begun to rely more and more on Amaury over the past few months,” Gwen said. “When Amaury told David and John that the emeralds were payment for their long years of service to the empress, and they had only this one last task to do for her—to kill Alard—they believed him.”
Prince Henry’s brow furrowed as he thought. “Why give the emeralds to David and John at all? If they thought the order came from Philippe, they’d be doing no more than their duty to obey him. At the very least, Amaury could have paid them once Alard was dead.”
“Ah, but then it would look as if the emeralds were payment for murder, not for long service,” Gwen said.
“Amaury needed to keep them quiet and send them on their way once Alard was dead,” Gareth said. “Reporting to Philippe would have been their natural instinct, and Amaury hoped they would be so focused on the emeralds, they would accept his instruction not to do that. They were to meet Amaury later at the farmhouse.”
“At which point Amaury would have killed them and taken back the emeralds,” Henry said. “Even I can see how Amaury thought this would work.”
“Thanks to Alard, that part of the plan failed before it started,” Gwen said.
“Amaury tried to recover the emeralds, to salvage what he could,” Gareth said. “He arranged for his men to take David’s remains from the chapel and had already removed the emerald from John’s body by the time I examined it.”
“But why kill Alard at all?” Henry said.
Gareth rested his elbows on the table and took a sip of wine. “This is where Amaury started to think too hard about what he was doing. He was afraid that Philippe, despite his infirmity, was growing suspicious of him. The messenger from William of Ypres had said Alard was the traitor, but Amaury was afraid that if Alard was alive to defend himself, Philippe would begin to doubt the authenticity of the messenger’s claim.”
Gareth shot Prince Henry a sardonic smile. “In addition, Amaury hoped that killing Alard would allow him closer access to Henry’s retinue and perhaps even authority over his security at Newcastle. ‘Prince Henry’ would have been easy pickings for Amaury at that point.”
“All the rest of what Amaury did that had us chasing our tails was his attempt to patch the holes that had been rent in his increasingly complicated plot,” Gwen said.
“Distract, delay, and divert were his exact words,” Gareth said, “even to the point of bribing that guard, Ieuan, at the camp to do whatever he could to obstruct me. It didn’t matter to Amaury what that might be.”
Mari leaned forward to speak across Gwen. “I am glad that you had the presence of mind to identify Amaury as the assassin, my lord.”
“Thank you,” Prince Henry said.
“What I don’t understand,” Mari said, “is why Bernard wasn’t better protected.”
Gwen’s brow furrowed. “I assumed Earl Robert left Bernard open to attack because he was bait. That’s not true?”
“Young lady, you have a quick tongue.”
Gwen started. The earl, sitting beyond Mari and Hywel, had turned his steely blue eyes on her. She swallowed hard. “I apologize, my lord, for speaking out of turn. But Sir Amaury was playing a long game and didn’t fool only you.”
“That is no excuse in my case.” Earl Robert stabbed a turnip with his knife and bit off the tip. “Bernard was my responsibility, and I failed to predict the possible danger that he might face in the bailey of my own castle. I didn’t anticipate how the treachery of one man could be so hard to defend against.”
“What I’d most like to know,” Prince Henry said, “is why Amaury did it?”
“Every man has his price, and loyalty is more often about promises and payment than love,” Earl Robert said. “Some men come cheaper than others, though for four emeralds, even small ones, Amaury didn’t come cheap.” He put down the knife and turned his full attention to their end of the table, his eyes this time on Prince Henry. “You should know that the empress has departed for Devizes with the traitor.”
Gwen’s heart hurt when Prince Henry’s face crumpled at the news. “She never spoke to me, not even once.”
“The empress is nearly as loving as my father,” Mari said, in Welsh and under her breath.
Gwen shot her friend a wide-eyed look, afraid Earl Robert had heard her. “What will become of Amaury?” she said to change the subject.
“He will lose his head,” Earl Robert said, having returned his attention to his food, “as an example to those who would betray the empress.”
“What is to become of Prince Henry?” Henry said, sounding like the ten-year-old boy he was.
“As soon as it is feasible, I mean to send him back to his father in France,” Earl Robert said. “He is too important to our cause to risk.”
“You might send Alard and Ralph with him,” Gwen said. “You know them now to be unwaveringly loyal.”
“I intend exactly that.” Earl Robert glanced down the table yet again, this time with a smile twitching at his mouth. “That may mean a slight delay, however, since Ralph’s first responsibility will be to attend his daughter’s wedding.”
Mari and Hywel froze in identical postures of shock, food halfway to their lips. Slowly, Prince Hywel put down his knife, wiped the corners of his mouth with a cloth, and glanced at Mari. Gwen’s heart leapt to see the smile they shared.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Gwen elbowed her friend in the ribs.
Mari just smiled and looked down at her lap.
Prince Hywel cleared his throat. “I must confer first with my father before anything can be decided.” Then he grinned and his eyes lit, turning them to blue sapphires. Gwen hadn’t seen such happiness in him in a long time. “But Earl Robert is right. I have spoken to Mari and she has agreed, despite the numerous flaws in my character, to become my wife.”