The Uninvited Guest (8 page)

“
What about Hywel?” Gareth
said.

“
He knew her
too.”

“
He’s admitted it,” Gareth
said.

“
But by admitting that he
knew her, is he admitting the easier truth, rather than a more
difficult one that he’d like to remain hidden?” Gwen
said.

Her words made Gareth suddenly wary. “Do you
have a reason to suspect him of wrongdoing?”

Gwen lifted one shoulder and looked away. “I
suppose it’s time to tell you, though the circumstances could
hardly be worse.” She pushed off the door. “Then again, maybe it’s
better to get all the bad news over with at once.”

Gareth was glad his misdeeds were no longer
the topic of conversation, but her intense look worried him. “What
is it? What do you know about Hywel that you haven’t told me?”

“
It has to do with last
summer.” Gwen grasped the lapels of Gareth’s coat, clenching the
leather tightly in her fists. Did she fear he might run away before
she’d finished?

Gareth’s stomach sank at what might be
coming. “Are you about to tell me that you and Hywel were
lovers?”

Gwen blinked. “What? Don’t be
ridiculous!”

This time, Gareth wanted to punch the air in
relief. He eased out the breath he’d been holding. He could hear
anything now. The look of blank shock on Gwen’s face told him
everything he needed to know. Neither she nor Hywel had lied to him
about their relationship.

Gwen scoffed under her breath. “No. No. That
isn’t it at all.” She shook her head like she was trying to clear
it. “When you and Hywel rescued me from the Danes, Hywel handed me
his knife so I could finish cutting through the ropes that bound
me. Do you remember?”

“
I remember,” Gareth said,
hopelessly at sea. This wasn’t going where he’d thought it
might—feared it might—and now didn’t have a clue as to where Gwen
was leading him.

“
The knife he gave me had a
thin blade and a notch in the edge.”

Gareth’s jaw dropped. “Wh-what did you
say?”

“
The knife Hywel gave me
was the one that killed Anarawd.”

If he hadn’t been listening closely, Gareth
would have been sure he’d misheard her. “Why didn’t Hywel tell us
he found the knife?”

“
He didn’t find it,
Gareth.” Gwen’s voice was gentle. “The knife was his all along.”
Gwen gripped Gareth’s coat tighter, knowing him so well, knowing
that he would have pulled away if she wasn’t holding on so
tight.

“
You’re saying that Hywel
killed Anarawd?”

“
He admitted it to
me.”

“
But what about Cadwaladr?
He hired the Danes to kill Anarawd. We know that.”

“
Yes, Cadwaladr was a
traitor,” Gwen said. “He ordered the ambush of King Anarawd and his
men but when the Danes failed to murder Anarawd, Hywel, who
happened to be in the area, stepped in to finish what Cadwaladr had
started.”

“
How could he have—” Gareth
couldn’t get the words out. He almost swallowed his tongue as he
tried to force down the denial that rose into his
throat.

“
Hywel and several of his
men tracked the original Danish party across Gwynedd. Hywel came
upon the ambush just as you did—while it was in progress.
You
went for help;
Hywel
saw Anarawd run away
and went after him.”

“
Why?” Gareth couldn’t keep
the anguish out of his voice.

“
I really should let him
tell you the rest,” Gwen said. “But he explained his reasons. Chief
among them was that he’d seen Anarawd murder his own father during
the fighting in Ceredigion seven years ago.”

Gareth ran a hand across his eyes. “I find
this so hard to believe.” He loosened Gwen’s hands on his coat,
reached for the stool behind him, and sat, his head in his
hands.

“
I’m sorry,” Gwen said. “If
there was a way I could have told you sooner, I would have. I
haven’t seen you …”

Gareth waved a hand to dismiss her apology.
“It’s not your fault. But it explains the wary looks Hywel has
directed at me since we returned to Aber. I couldn’t figure out
what I’d done to displease him.”

“
You haven’t done anything.
It’s what he did,” Gwen said. “At the same time, he should have
told you. He’s had months to do so.”

“
But instead he left it to
you.
Unbelievable
.”
Gareth shook his head. And then against all expectation, he found
laughter bubbling up in his chest.

“
You find this funny?” Gwen
said.

Gareth managed to get his amusement under
control. He gestured to Enid’s body. “There’s a dead girl on the
floor. My choice is to laugh or to cry.”

Even Gwen smiled at that.

“
All right.” Gareth leaned
back on the stool so his back touched the wall, clasped his hands
behind his head, and stretched out his legs. “Because Hywel
murdered Anarawd, you think that he might have murdered
Enid?”

“
If you’ve killed once
…”

“
Now, that is funny,”
Gareth said. “You do realize that Hywel has killed far more than
once and so have I? So have half the men here. More than
half.”

“
We just have to consider
the possibility,” Gwen said. “If he lied to us once, he can lie to
us again.”

“
Not without feeling guilty
about it,” Gareth said, “and having it show in his face. Because
that’s what I’ve sensed from him, although I didn’t know it until
now. Guilt.”

“
I didn’t know Hywel was
capable of feeling guilt,” Gwen said.

Gareth coughed a laugh. “He wouldn’t feel
guilt for the murder, mind you. But for the lie. I imagine he feels
Anarawd’s death quite justified.”

“
That’s what he
said.”

Gareth studied Enid’s body. “Would Hywel
have paid to have his own father murdered?”

“
He wasn’t here when the
other incidents occurred,” Gwen said. “He could have orchestrated
them, I suppose, but he
was
far away.”

“
And why should he wish
death upon his father?” Gareth said. “He would gain little from the
loss of King Owain. It is Rhun, as the
elding,
who’d inherit the bulk of
Gwynedd, for all that it will be split among every one of the
sons.”

“
In which case, do you
think the attacks on King Owain, and Enid’s death, are related
events?” Gwen said. “Absolving Hywel of the one would absolve him
of the other.”

“
From the first, I assumed
it,” Gareth said. “Two murders, or near murders, within a few hours
of each other have to be related, don’t they? But your tale of
Hywel’s treachery does have me questioning that
assumption.”

“
Hywel took advantage of
Cadwaladr’s duplicity to fulfill his own agenda,” Gwen said. “Might
someone be doing that again, even if that someone isn’t
Hywel?”

“
Gah!” Gareth’s head hurt.
All the while he’d been speaking with Gwen, his insides had been
going around and around. Did he even care what Hywel had done? If
Gareth had seen a son murder his father, he could imagine killing
that son and covering it up too. Gareth couldn’t condone the lie,
however, and it irked him to recall on what a merry chase Hywel had
led them. At the same time, if Hywel had accepted fault, Cadwaladr
would have gone free.
That
would not have been the preferred
outcome.

Gwen had been watching Gareth’s face as he
thought. “It’s hard to take in, isn’t it?” she said. “I remember
sitting across the table from Hywel, listening to him tell me what
he’d done, and all the while seeing my world come crashing down
around me.”

“
But it didn’t, did it?”
Gareth said. “In the end, nothing has changed.”

“
Nothing except my
knowledge of Prince Hywel,” Gwen said.

“
Every day, we grow a
little older and wiser.” Gareth studied Gwen for a moment, taking
in her loveliness. Her hair had come loose from her night braid,
the ties on her dress weren’t threaded evenly, and one boot was
unlaced. He would spend the rest of his life, striving to deserve
her.

Gareth got to his feet and swept Gwen into
his arms. “I love you, Gwen. I would never knowingly hurt you.”

“
I know that.” To his
enormous relief, she returned his embrace.

Then his eye caught Enid’s body yet again.
He kissed Gwen’s forehead. “Can we talk about this later, though,
when we’re not sharing a room with a dead girl?”

Chapter Seven

H
aving the truth out in the open allowed the pit of sickness in
Gwen’s stomach to ease, just a little. She eyed Gareth as he
crouched over Enid’s body. That he’d been with Enid years earlier
offended Gwen to the core. The idea of sharing Gareth with anyone
caused her blood to boil.

Still, Gwen could swallow her annoyance and
her jealousy. Hadn’t Gareth known from the day they reencountered
each other last summer that Gwen herself had almost married another
man? Wasn’t marriage to another, with or without love, worse than
what Gareth had done? Besides, most people would mock Gwen for
chastising Gareth for his actions at all. What soldier hadn’t done
as he had? In truth, Gwen didn’t know of any, least of all their
lord, Prince Hywel.

Gwen consoled herself with the fact that
even if Enid had still been alive, she would have proven no rival
to Gwen. Gareth swore it, and even in her misery, Gwen believed
him. Enid certainly didn’t pose a threat to Gwen now that she was
dead.

And Enid had information to give them.

“
She was strangled, wasn’t
she?” Gwen said.

Gareth had his hands on either side of
Enid’s head, turning it to one side and then the other. Her skin
had purpled with bruising and a thin line ran across the width of
her neck. “A man put his hands here.” Gareth mimicked what the man
might have done, though Gareth’s fingers didn’t line up exactly
with the bruises. Gareth’s hands were much larger than those of the
killer.

“
Let me.” Gwen knelt on the
other side of the girl and put her hands where Gareth’s had been.
“The murderer’s hands were only slightly bigger than mine.” And
then Gwen shot Gareth a look, wondering if the moment could bear a
jest about Gwen strangling Enid out of spite. Inappropriate
laughter welled in her throat at the thought. She swallowed it
down. “Could the killer have been a woman?”

Gareth reached forward and lifted the
bird-shaped, golden pendant Enid had worn around her neck. “I
suppose it’s possible, though killing by strangulation requires
more strength than even some men possess.”

“
Maybe that’s why Enid
wears both the bruises and the serration,” Gwen said. “Our killer
tried first to strangle her with his hands, and when she struggled
or he feared she might wake the household, he got behind her and
choked her on her own necklace.”

Gareth traced the bloody line at Enid’s
throat with one finger. “You can see the indentation of the pendant
in her skin.”

“
It did have to be someone
strong, then,” Gwen said.

“
Even more, he must have
been
angry
,” Gareth
said.

Gwen stared down at Enid’s body. “We should
do all we can right now. No putting it off. We don’t want to give
someone a chance to steal the body before we’ve examined it
fully.”

Gareth grunted as he rolled Enid onto her
stomach. “Like what happened with Anarawd? You and Hywel examined
him, but I didn’t get the chance.” Then he froze and looked at
Gwen. “He didn’t—” At the rueful expression on Gwen’s face, Gareth
added, “It was Hywel who stole Anarawd’s body?”

“
He did it to hide it from
you,” Gwen said. “He thinks very highly of your skills or he
wouldn’t have risked it.”

Another grunt from Gareth, this time in
acknowledgement.

Gwen wondered what words might be exchanged
in the near future between Gareth and his lord. She’d had months to
come to terms with Hywel’s treachery. She just hoped Hywel wasn’t
involved in Enid’s murder. She’d be more than annoyed if he wasted
their time muddying the waters with false leads or allowing them to
trail after pieces of the crime he’d committed himself.

Gareth was thinking along the same lines.
“I’ll speak to him. He owes me that.”

“
He does,” Gwen said. “It’s
as if I both trust him, and don’t trust him. I don’t know what to
think about him most days.”

“
It would be easier just
not to know what he’d done,” Gareth said. “Why did he give you the
knife, do you think? He could have snapped the blade and thrown it
in the marsh.”

Gwen picked up one of Enid’s very white
hands. The blood had pooled in her torso, not her extremities,
indicating she’d probably died where they found her. “Because he
wanted me to understand him better, to serve him with my eyes open,
and because lies only beget more lies. The truth is almost always
better. You said as much just now yourself. Would you rather I
hadn’t told you what he’d done?”

“
No,” Gareth said. “I’d
just rather it wasn’t true.”

Gwen could only agree with that. “Look at
this.” She’d been examining Enid’s hands, looking for signs of
struggle. Enid had skin and blood under the nails of her left
hand.

“
She marked him,” Gareth
said.