The Fallen Princess (18 page)

“But what does Bran’s affair with Gwladys
have to do with Tegwen’s disappearance and death?” Gwen said, not
acknowledging his jest. Gareth wasn’t sure that she or Hywel had
even heard it. “Why does telling us this clear Cadwaladr of
wrongdoing?”

“Bran was very angry when Gwladys wouldn’t
see him anymore,” Alice said. “One night, he snuck into her room
through the window and asked Gwladys what she would do if Tegwen
and King Owain were no longer among us.”

Hywel surged to his feet so quickly that he
knocked over his stool. “He threatened the life of the king? You
can’t be serious?”

“I am.” Alice looked like she was biting
back a smile, enjoying the effect she was having on Hywel.

“Why would you wait five years to tell us
this?” Gareth said. “King Owain’s life could have been in danger;
Tegwen’s clearly was.”

“I admit that when Tegwen disappeared
shortly after that incident, I had some concerns,” Alice said. “I
kept an eye on Bran, but since Tegwen wasn’t dead—and he was still
married to her—I thought she was out of his reach. Then when
everyone returned from Powys, Cadwaladr took me away to Ceredigion.
By the time we returned a full year later, Gwladys was dead, and I
saw no reason to tarnish her memory with accusations of
infidelity.”

Alice finished this last sentence, still
looking pleased with herself. Gareth had seen the same look on
Cristina’s face when she’d come to them with information. He
understood it. Who didn’t feel satisfaction at airing a long-kept
secret? Perhaps she was also relieved to be rid of it.

“Thank you for your assistance, Aunt.” Hywel
held out his hand to Alice to help her to her feet. He escorted her
to the door, bowed her out of it, and then shut it with a gentle
click, after which he rested his forehead against the wooden slats
for a long count of ten.

Hywel

“Y
ou must know that
I’m not happy about any of this.” Hywel paced to the table upon
which Tegwen’s body lay, flicked back the cloak, gazed at her body,
and then covered her up again. Every time he looked at her, he was
torn between the knowledge that he was among those who’d failed her
and the wish that they could all go back to a day ago when they
were blissfully ignorant of her death. “All we have so far is
hearsay after hearsay and no hard evidence of any kind other than
Tegwen’s body.” He spun around to look at Gwen. “Where’s
Brychan?”

“Lady Alice approached me the instant I
entered the hall. I didn’t have a chance to look for him.”

Hywel took in a long breath through his
nose. “Lady Alice—” He shook his head. “That woman is as much of a
menace as Cristina. Do we believe any of what she told us? I
certainly don’t want to.”

“Why would she lie?” Gareth said.

“Alice has been married to a consummate liar
for years,” Hywel said. “You tell me.”

“She was straightforward with us about
wanting to protect Cadwaladr,” Gwen said, “but to go so far as to
defame Queen Gwladys…”

“It was a bold move whether or not it was
the truth,” Hywel said. “Gwladys wasn’t my mother, but she was kind
to me and didn’t seem to mind that her sons would inherit Gwynedd
after Rhun and me.”

“What is important about Alice’s
information,” Gareth said, “is where it leaves us.”

Hywel pressed both hands to the sides of his
head, trying to force his thoughts into some kind of order. He’d
been caught off guard by the appearance of Tegwen’s body and been
distracted by the disparate evidence ever since. He knew—and wasn’t
too proud to admit—that the presence of Cadwaladr in the middle of
this had diverted his attention and clouded rational thought.

Hywel had always prided himself on
not
having inherited his father’s temper, but this
investigation had him seeing red. Under normal circumstances, when
he tried to find a murderer, everyone lied to him as a matter of
course. He expected it and didn’t take it personally. He’d taught
himself not to care a long time ago. In this investigation,
however, the only person he could be sure was not lying to him was
his hated Uncle Cadwaladr. It was just too much.

What the three of them needed to do now was
clarify among themselves what they knew and create a plan for
moving forward from there.

“Let’s assume that everything we’ve learned
so far is at least partially true,” Hywel said. “What do we
know?”

“We know from the condition of the body that
Tegwen has been dead a long while,” Gwen said. “We also know that
she was estranged from her husband and that she had a lover,
Brychan, whom she asked to run away with her.”

“But he refused.” Hywel nodded. “What
else?”

“According to the legend, five years ago, a
maid and a guard reported—to whom, I have never heard—that they’d
seen her get into a boat with a Dane,” Gareth said.

“Cadwaladr, Bran,
and
Brychan used
Wena’s hut for trysts,” Gwen said.

“When Wynn found Tegwen’s body yesterday, he
and Cadwaladr arranged to leave it on the beach this morning,”
Gareth said.

“It stuns me to say it, but I am grateful to
my uncle for that last point,” Hywel said. “At least I don’t have
to go trailing around to determine if he was in his bed last
night.”

“That would be embarrassing,” Gareth said
with a straight face.

Hywel rolled his eyes at his captain. If
Cadwaladr had been upset at being questioned by Gwen, he would have
been furious to know they were tracking his whereabouts.

“Cadwaladr openly admitted his involvement,
and since he’s never covered up for anyone else in his life, we can
take him at his word.” Gwen laughed. “Did I just say that?”

“So where does that leave us?” Gareth
said.

“It leaves me going to Rhos,” Hywel
said.

Gareth and Gwen gaped at him.

Hywel snorted laughter. “What? That
surprises you? The people of Rhos will not be coming to Aber to
celebrate Calan Gaeaf. They have their own festival at Bryn Euryn.
If I am to discover more about these events, I have to go
there.”

“I don’t object to the need to go to Rhos,”
Gwen said. “Of course someone has to. But that you would leave Aber
the day before Hallowmas …”

“All the more reason to start now,” Hywel
said.

“I will come with you—” Gareth said.

Hywel held up one finger. “No, you
won’t.”

“But my lord—”

“You will stay with Gwen. The bulk of the
investigation is here,” Hywel said. “This is a little journey. I
can see to it myself.”

Gwen tried again. “What about Mari—”

“Not now, Gwen.” Hywel turned on her. “I
will attempt to return in time for Tegwen’s funeral tomorrow or, at
the very least, for the feast at Hallowmas. I can’t miss it. My
father would have my head. Meanwhile, you two should see if you can
track down Brychan and anyone else who might be able to tell us
something about Tegwen’s death.”

“Or Bran’s,” Gwen reminded him.

“Or Bran’s,” Hywel agreed.

Gareth folded his arms across his chest. “It
is odd, my lord, this situation with Bran.”

“How so?” Hywel said.

“He died in an ambush,” Gareth said.

“Alice’s father was killed in an ambush on
the way home to Ceredigion,” Gwen said. “And Cadwaladr paid Danes
to ambush Anarawd near Dolwyddelan last summer.”

Hywel frowned. “What are you getting
at?”

“Nothing in particular,” Gareth said,
“except that the ambush that resulted in Bran’s death seems very
sketchy. He was the king of Rhos, it’s true, but that’s not a
position that normally puts a lord in danger, not in Gwynedd. He
tithes to your father, after all, and doesn’t have the power to
wage war or expand his lands.”

“While you’re in Rhos, it might be a good
idea to speak to someone who rode with him and was there when it
happened,” Gwen said.

“That was my thinking too,” Hywel said.

“You really should take me with you,” Gareth
said.

“And me!” Gwen said. “Though I admit if I
rode with Gareth, Mari would want to come with us too.”

“None of you are coming with me.” Hywel’s
thoughts returned to his wife. A knot formed in his stomach.

“My lord?” Gareth peered at him.

Hywel schooled his expression; he’d wandered
in his mind in the middle of a conversation and given himself away.
He didn’t often do that, not even in the presence of his two
closest companions.

Gwen put a hand on his forearm. “Mari will
be fine. She’s just having a baby.”

Hywel glared at her. “No reading my mind. I
won’t have it.”

Gwen didn’t cease with the knowing look.

Laughing to himself, Hywel ran a hand
through his hair. Lately, he’d allowed it to grow long, so it now
stuck straight up in the air. “I admit the idea of becoming a
father has shaken me. I worry for her; I worry for all of us.”

“I’ll keep her company, my lord,” Gwen
said.

“Would you mind seeing to her right now?”
Hywel said. “Gareth and I will finish up here before I go.”

“Of course, my lord.” Gwen curtseyed and
left the room.

Gareth wasn’t as easily put off. He didn’t
move to the body to continue their examination of it, just stood
looking at Hywel. Hywel laughed again, dismissing his need to hide
his true self from Gareth, who knew him all too well. “Murder I can
handle. I can even understand it much of the time. But to lose
Mari—”

“Mari will be fine. Gwen is going to be
fine.”

“You don’t know that,” Hywel said.

Gareth set his jaw. “I have to believe
it.”

“Now, that it is the truth. You and I—”
Hywel’s eyes flicked to the door through which Gwen had gone, “—we
go into battle confident. We train for it all our lives. I have
come to see childbirth as similar for women. Each woman tells
herself that she’s going to come out alive. But some don’t: Gwen’s
mother. Mine. Eira and her babe.”

The ache of that loss settled on Hywel’s
shoulders, though he’d not allowed himself to feel it for several
years. He’d had many lovers, but Eira had been Hywel’s first real
love. She’d died birthing their child. The pain wasn’t as raw as it
had been, but it was waiting to rise up and threaten him with
Mari’s death.

“You’re right, of course,” Gareth said. “But
we can’t stop living, can we? And Mari needs you as Gwen needs me,
because she’s afraid too.”

Hywel let out a breath. “I know that.”

“Tegwen, at least, didn’t die in
childbirth,” Gareth said. “Which is why we have to find her
killer.”

Hywel looked down at his boots, though he
wasn’t seeing them. He knew he couldn’t bargain with God, but he
found himself doing it anyway:
find Tegwen’s killer and in
return, Mari’s life will be spared.
Hywel straightened the
cloak covering Tegwen’s body with a quick tug. “Let’s get some
air.”

Hywel found Gwen and Mari in their temporary
chambers in the manor house. Mari was asleep; Gwen had found a
christening gown to embroider and was cursing over it.

Hywel poked his head into the room. “I know
I’m not fooling anyone, least of all you.”

“I have no idea what you mean.” Gwen broke
off a length of thread with her teeth. “Mari just fell asleep, but
I’ll wake her if you like.”

Hywel warred with himself. Mari would be
upset to know that he’d gone without saying goodbye, but sleep was
so precious to her these days he couldn’t bear to wake her. “No.
Let her sleep.” Hywel rested a hand briefly on Gwen’s shoulder.
“Stay out of mischief while I’m gone, will you?”

Gwen smiled.

His next port of call was the great hall and
his father, whom Hywel found holding court by the fire. Rhun was
with him. At a gesture from Hywel, Rhun detached himself from the
group.

“I was wondering when you would come to find
me,” Rhun said. “What have you discovered?”

Rhun was Hywel’s level-headed older brother.
Where Hywel was dark-haired, Rhun took after their father, with his
shock of blonde hair and burly frame. He had the ability to wield a
sword for hours on end. Hywel had never yet beaten his brother in a
mock battle, even by trickery. Rhun was going to make a fine king
one day. Hywel wasn’t jealous to have been born second. He knew his
own strengths and happily left the diplomacy and long meetings to
his father and brother.

“Not enough, I can tell you that much,”
Hywel said. “Gareth and Gwen will pursue the investigation from
Aber, and I’d like you to give them whatever support you can.”

Rhun laughed. “You mean you want me to
protect them from Father.”

Hywel smirked. “Better you than me.” Then he
sobered. “Mari was sleeping, so I left her with Gwen. Please
reassure her that I will return tomorrow afternoon at the
latest.”

“Where are you going?”

“To Rhos.”

Rhun raised his eyebrows. “Tonight?” And at
Hywel’s nod, Rhun added, “Is that really necessary?”

“I think so,” Hywel said. “I must speak to
Ifon myself.”

“You could wait until after Hallowmas and
the harvest festival,” Rhun said. “It’s only two days. The trail
has been cold for five years.”

“But it’s warm now, isn’t it?” Hywel said
and then amended, “at least it is here. People are thinking and
talking about those days again, and I’m hoping that someone will
remember something important, which is why Gareth and Gwen are
staying here.”

“Father won’t like it,” Rhun said.

“He’ll have to let me go when I remind him
that Tegwen was a lady of Rhos too,” Hywel said. “It would be
unseemly for the news of her death to arrive there before I
do.”

Rhun nodded. “Perhaps I should come with
you. Ifon and I were friends of a sort when we were younger.”

“Father needs you here.”

Rhun scoffed. “No, he doesn’t, and besides,
Cristina is due in the hall at any moment, and I would prefer to be
far away when she arrives.”