Chapter Seven

Gwen

 

 

Gwen pushed up onto her hands and knees, moaning. The wood floor beneath her was worn smooth from many years of treading feet and felt good beneath her fingers. It gave her something to think about besides the pain in her head.

“Shush, Gwen. You’re safe now.”

Gwen managed to separate her eyelids enough to find the face of the woman crouching in front of her.

“Mari? What are you doing here?” Gwen stared at her beautiful friend, thinking she must still be dreaming. Mari wore a gown of deep green, and her long, dark hair was wound elaborately around her head in a manner Gwen couldn’t have begun to emulate. The style was similar to those Gwen had seen on a few of the women who’d passed through the hall while she’d been waiting for Gareth.

“Looking for you.” Mari smiled and put a gentle hand on Gwen’s temple. “Are you all right?”

“I don’t know.” Gwen couldn’t think straight. She touched her throat, feeling for marks, but she felt nothing but smooth skin where the man had pressed on her.

Mari spoke to someone behind Gwen. “Find Sir Gareth. Now.”

Gwen turned her head to see a young man hovering in the doorway of the room. “My lady—”

He looked from Gwen to Mari, who waved a hand. “Go, Edmund!”

Mari’s sternness made Gwen smile. She was glad for it. Gwen wanted her husband to come here too.

Mari brushed back a loose strand of hair from Gwen’s face and said, “Let’s get you up.” She put an arm around Gwen’s waist and helped her to the stool on which Prior Rhys had been sitting when Gwen had entered the room earlier. “I won’t ask if you’re all right, but are you feeling a bit better than you did?”

Gwen sagged against the wall at her back, still finding it hard to take full breaths and focus her thoughts. She touched her throat again, remembering the man and the fear, and looked into Mari’s eyes. “By what chance did you find me?”

“I’ve come to Newcastle with Lord Goronwy. His wife was Norman, if you remember, and he still holds lands that tithe to England—specifically, to the Earl of Gloucester.”

Gwen rubbed at her temples, struggling to remember what she knew about Mari’s complicated family relations. Goronwy had become Mari’s foster father when her parents died, but he was her uncle too.

“Can you tell me what happened to you?” Mari said. “I’ve never been so scared in my life as when I entered the room and saw you on the floor.”

“I remember … everything.” Gwen straightened on the stool as she realized that she did—or thought she did. “I was examining the body of the dead man, David—” Gwen glanced to the table where David’s body lay. Except that nothing lay there now, not even the cloth that the guards had used to cover his face.

“What body?” Mari said. “What dead man?”

Gwen’s head hurt more than ever. “That’s exactly it, isn’t it? What has happened to the body?”

“Have you involved yourself in another murder?” Mari’s voice held disapproval and concern, but then her eyes lit. “Can I help you solve the mystery this time?”

Gwen choked back a laugh. “I don’t think you really want to do that. I wouldn’t want you to get hurt. Besides, you helped last time, you know.”

“I did?”

“Very much so. It was you who realized that the purpose of the murders at Aber was to prevent King Owain from marrying Christina, and everything else that happened was in service to that.” Then Gwen leaned forward, her head in her hands, forcing down the bile that had risen suddenly in her throat.

“What’s wrong?” Mari put an arm around Gwen’s shoulders. “Is it your head?”

“My stomach is queasy—”

The door, which Edmund had left half-closed, flew open and slammed into the wall behind it. Gareth bounded into the room. He took in the scene with a single glance, and then his eyes fastened on Gwen. He reached her in two strides. Mari moved out of the way so Gareth could kneel in front of Gwen and put his arms around her.

“Cariad!”

Gwen pressed her face into Gareth’s neck, holding on to him with all her strength. She’d been struggling with control before he came, but now, just by his presence, he’d brought her to tears. He pulled back briefly to study her face and then kissed her forehead and both eyes.

“What happened here?” he said. “Where’s David’s body?”

“She hasn’t yet told me,” Mari said, her voice matter-of-fact. “I felt at her head, and there’s no lump—”

Gareth had been looking Gwen up and down, and now he put his fingers under her hair at the back of her head.

“There’s nothing there.” Gwen patted Gareth’s chest to get him to stop feeling at her head. “Shortly after I arrived in the chapel, when I was still removing David’s boots, Prior Rhys stepped out of the room for a moment. I thought he’d returned. Instead, someone else entered the room. I never even saw him. He came up behind me and pressed on my neck.” Gwen gestured to her throat to show him where.

Gareth nodded. “I know what he did. Put pressure there, and it renders a person unconscious after a few heartbeats. It’s a way to silence a man without killing him.”

Gareth’s knowledgeable tone suggested that he might have done it himself a time or two, but now wasn’t the moment to ask him about it. “He spoke to me softly,” Gwen said. “The experience was almost more terrifying because he was so sure of himself—and treated me gently.”

Gareth held Gwen’s face in his hands and looked into her eyes. “Can you see me fine? How do you feel?”

“I found her unconscious on the floor,” Mari said. “How do you think she feels?”

Mari’s tone was one that Gwen had heard her use a few times, especially in conversation with Prince Hywel. It spoke of no-nonsense thinking and impatience with anything but the facts. Gwen found Mari’s lack of drama soothing.

“I have a headache, though it’s already beginning to fade,” Gwen said. “I will be fine in a moment if I can sit here a bit longer.”

“Gaah.” Gareth slapped his hand on his thigh and got to his feet. “This gets worse by the hour. First David, then John, and now this—”

Gwen looked up at her husband. “Who’s John?”

Gareth shot her a worried look. “Amaury’s men found another body outside the castle, near the place where it looks like Alard came out of the water.” He leaned in close to her and lowered his voice. “He told me some things that I shouldn’t repeat here. David’s murder seems to be a piece of a larger puzzle, one which we haven’t even begun to find the edges of.”

“I still don’t understand why someone would take a dead body,” Mari said.

Gwen glanced at her friend and then back to Gareth. “Do you think Alard could be responsible for the removal of David’s body?”

“I don’t want to presume that he was or wasn’t,” Gareth said. “My instincts argue against it. Why flee the castle only to return an hour later? And with everyone on the lookout for him, he would have found it nearly impossible to get inside, much less out again with a dead body.”

“He might have taken it if he was worried about us examining it,” Gwen said. Hywel himself had removed a body from Aber Castle the previous summer, rather than risk Gareth uncovering his role in the murder of King Anarawd.

“Then why dump it at our feet in the first place?” Gareth said. “No, we are missing too much of our puzzle. To suggest that Alard harmed you is like adding two and two and reaching five. I am thankful, however, that whoever this man was, he had the grace not to kill you or Prior Rhys.”

“Prior Rhys!” Gwen had forgotten about the prior’s absence in thinking about herself. “What has happened to him?”

“Moments ago, one of Ranulf’s men found him unconscious near the postern gate,” Gareth said.

“Oh no! I would never have wanted him involved in something like this—” Gwen made to push to her feet, but Gareth crouched down again, rubbing at her arms to settle her and keep her on her stool.

“What happened to Prior Rhys is not your fault,” Gareth said.

Gwen swallowed. “You give me too much credit if you were worried I was thinking that. I don’t believe it was my fault, but you and I both know that wherever we go, murder follows. I don’t like seeing him caught up in it.”

“He wasn’t always a monk,” Gareth said.

“I know that,” Gwen said, “but he is older now and used to a quiet life in the monastery.”

Gareth grinned. “I won’t tell him you said that. I suspect he takes pride in remaining as fit as he ever was.”

“Where is he now?” Gwen said.

“He has been given a room in the keep.” Gareth turned to Mari. “Thank you for caring for Gwen. We had just returned to the castle when I learned of the attack on Prior Rhys. My first thought was of Gwen, of course. I’m so glad you were here to find her.”

“What is the hour?” Gwen said.

“It is not yet noon,” Gareth said.

Gwen’s brow furrowed as she thought. “I spent some time examining David before the man came. It felt like Prior Rhys was gone a long time. Perhaps I wasn’t unconscious for more than a quarter of an hour.”

“It was too long for you to lie on the floor,” Mari said.

“Prior Rhys may have lain unattended at least that long,” Gwen said.

Mari frowned. “You would think that in a castle this crowded, someone would have noticed him sooner.”

“Our culprit had hauled his body behind a stack of wood.” Gareth focused on Mari. “How is it that you found Gwen?” he said, and then added before she could answer, “Why are you even at Newcastle?”

“I came with Uncle Goronwy,” Mari said, answering Gareth’s second question first. “I found Gwen because I asked—” She stopped, and her face suffused with color. Gwen had never seen her look so embarrassed before.

Mari tried again. “While my uncle saw to our accommodations, I spoke with Prince Hywel. He was in the hall, having recently completed an audience with Earl Robert. He didn’t know where any of you were, but the guard at the door had seen Gwen enter the chapel with Evan.” Mari smiled and touched Gwen’s cheek. “You can’t go anywhere unremarked, you know.”

Gwen didn’t know what to make of that, but Gareth’s jaw clenched, and he hugged her closer. “Do you think you can walk, Gwen?”

“I’m fine, really.” Gwen allowed Gareth to help her stand and then took a step. In so doing, she realized that she really was fine. She didn’t even weave on her feet. “You survived worse last winter and walked home to Aber after.”

Gareth’s eyes narrowed. “I swore to your father that this trip would not be dangerous.”

Suddenly, Gwen found herself smiling. “Did you forget whom we serve, husband?”

Gareth gave a snort of laughter but then immediately sobered. “You would have told me if you’d seen anything that might help us, right? Even if you didn’t see the face of the man who took David’s body.”

“I can’t think of anything that would help.” Gwen gave a short laugh too. “I assumed Prior Rhys had returned to the room, and I was trying to figure out how to tell him—”

Gwen broke off as the rest of her memory came flooding back.

“What? What is it?” Gareth said.

At that moment, Mari bent to the floor. “What’s this?” She held out her hand. The emerald lay nestled in her palm.

Gwen fumbled for the purse at her waist. The strings hung loose, and she remembered that she’d never closed them around the stone.

“How came this here?” Mari said, awe in her voice.

“I dropped it,” Gwen said. “I had just put it in my purse when the man grabbed me. David had sewn it into the hem of his cloak. It must have fallen out of my purse when the man sent me to the floor.”

The three friends stood together, looking down at the stone.

“Do you think the person who took the body knew about the gem and wanted it—or wanted it back because he had given it to David in the first place?” Mari said.

“If that is true, when he examines David’s body and doesn’t find it, he may come looking for you, Gwen,” Gareth said.

Gwen didn’t like the sound of that. “No. No, he won’t. Prior Rhys was shocked to learn that I planned to examine David’s body. He left the room because the very idea of it made him uncomfortable.”

“Really?” Gareth said.

Gwen shrugged. “Or so it seemed at the time. Regardless, if the man who took David’s body was worried that I’d found the emerald, don’t you think he would have harmed me more?”

Gareth made a growling sound deep in his throat. “I like Newcastle less and less with every hour that passes.”

“You’d better take this.” Mari dumped the emerald into Gareth’s hand.

Gareth clenched his fist around the stone. “I must speak to Prince Hywel. We have two bodies now and a gem so valuable I’m afraid to keep it with me.”

“How would David have come by an emerald?” Gwen said. “He didn’t appear to me to be a rich man.”

“This would make him rich, but—” Mari tapped Gareth’s fist so he would open it, and she peered at the gem again, “—not that rich. It’s very small.”

“You mean it isn’t worth as much as I thought?” Gwen said.

“I don’t know how much you thought it was worth,” Mari said. “Certainly, it could buy David some land. It has a value of more than most villages.”

“So does my sword,” Gareth said.

“Was David a thief, do you think?” Gwen said. “Or could the gem have been meant as payment for a task?”

“If the latter is the case, it would be nice to know if he still had to complete it,” Mari said, “or if it was for services already rendered.”

“I can’t answer that, but I know more about David than I did when I saw you last.” Gareth stowed the gem in his scrip. “According to Amaury, David was a spy, and not just for Earl Ranulf.” He pointed at Mari, a sternness in his demeanor that he usually reserved for the men under his command. “And that knowledge does not leave this room, do you understand?”

Mari’s eyes widened, but she nodded.

Gareth turned to Gwen. “That goes for you, too. I don’t want you involved in this anymore.”

Gwen thought about getting angry, but then she decided to take Gareth’s attitude for what it was: concern for the welfare of his wife. She put a hand on his arm. “I’m already involved, as you well know, and short of sending me home—which isn’t necessarily the safest proposition either—your only choice is to leave me at our camp. It’s full of men, but a lone intruder could reach me easily if you’re not there with me.” She gestured to the room around her. “Certainly, I wasn’t safe today in a chapel in a guarded castle. Whoever removed David’s body did so without calling attention to himself. How easy would he find it to enter our encampment if he chose?”

Gareth looked as if he was going to argue with her as a matter of principle but swallowed down any response beyond, “I don’t like it.” And at Gwen’s shrug, he added, “We’ll see.”