The Uninvited Guest (16 page)

“
She was a conniving,
scheming little witch!”

“
Don’t keep your feelings
inside so they fester,” Mari said. “We all want to share in how you
feel.”

Cristina surged off her stool, her finger
out and pointing at Mari. She’d pulled away from Gwen so suddenly,
Gwen didn’t have time to react, but thankfully she’d just released
a tangled lock of Cristina’s hair. Mari and Cristina gazed at each
other, Cristina furious again and Mari’s face characteristically
blank. Both of Gwen’s hands were up, suspended in the air. She
didn’t want to touch Cristina until she knew whether or not she
should.

Then Cristina laughed. She shook her head
and collapsed back onto her stool, her shoulders shaking. “I do
love you, Mari.”

Mari smiled. It lit her face with genuine
emotion for the first time since Gwen had met her. Cristina held
out her hand to Mari, who came forward to clasp it. “We must find
you a dashing young knight to marry like Gwen’s Gareth and then you
won’t have to go back to Powys with Father.”

Mari patted Cristina’s hand. “No man will
have me without a dowry, and would I want a man who would take me
without one?”

Gwen was offended for Gareth’s sake. “I
don’t have a dowry.” Gwen had spoken without thinking, caught up in
the cousins’ camaraderie and now bit her lip, fearing she’d been
impertinent and had broken the fragile peace.

Cristina only waved a hand. “Mari’s
betrothed died last spring of a fever. She didn’t have a dowry then
either.”

“
Cristina—” From the
expression on Mari’s face, she did
not
want to talk about this,
especially in front of Gwen.

“
Mari is being dramatic.”
Cristina’s voice hardened. “But I wasn’t. Enid had a way with men
…” Her voice trailed off, but she’d finally brought into the open
what was the crux of the whole matter.

“
My lady, I understand that
Enid had a way with men, but why would someone want to kill her for
it?” Gwen said.

“
If a woman killed her, it
would be out of jealousy,” Mari said.

“
Over a man?” Gwen
said.

“
Yes,” Mari
said.

“
And if a man killed her?”
Gwen said. In unison, the eyes of every girl in the room
narrowed.

“
We hadn’t even considered
that,” Mari said. “We all assumed that another woman strangled her
out of jealousy and anger. Isn’t that what strangling
means—rage?”

“
Often,” Gwen said. “And if
it was jealousy, who had most cause?”

That brought a universal shrug from all the
girls. Mari was the only one to articulate an answer, “I don’t
know.”

After their promising start, this was
disappointing. Gwen tried to catch Mari’s eye but the girl wouldn’t
look at her.

“
I can tell you what we do
know,” Gwen said. “Enid made plans to visit a man last
night.”

Cristina snorted under her breath. “Nobody
should be surprised at that, but the infraction that got her killed
needn’t have happened last night. Enid has left behind a string of
women who hate her.”

Gwen went cold.
Including you?
She wanted
to ask the question, but didn’t dare lose the thread of the
conversation. “If a man killed her, can you think what she might
have done to arouse his anger?”

“
It wouldn’t be because she
wouldn’t lie with him,” Cristina said, abruptly and without
apology. “It’s more likely that she saw something she shouldn’t
have with all her sneaking around.”

“
Any ideas as to what that
might have been?” Gwen said.

Again, universal shakes of the head, though
after a moment, Mari canted her head, thinking. “Could she have
known something about the attempt on King Owain’s life?”

“
That’s something we’re
trying to find out.” Gwen turned back to Cristina. “My lady, I have
one more question if I may.”

“
Speak,” Cristina
said.

Gwen had hoped she’d agree. Who didn’t think
gossip was fun? But Gwen’s next question wasn’t gossip … “I need to
ask about your wedding dress. Do you believe Enid destroyed it? Did
you suspect something untoward had happened to it and that’s why
you visited the linen closet this morning with your ladies?”

Behind Cristina, Alis rolled her eyes but
didn’t speak. Cristina glared hard at Gwen. “Why is it
important?”

“
I’m tying up loose ends,”
Gwen said. “I never know what questions are going to give me the
answers we need.”

“
That’s not it,” Mari said,
not waiting for Cristina. “We wanted to catch Enid in the
act.”

“
In the … act?” The moment
the words came out, Gwen knew she was being hopelessly dense, but
it was too late to take them back.

“
Aren’t you a dear?”
Cristina took Gwen’s chin in one hand and tilted her face from one
side to the other, inspecting her. Then she released her and
stepped back. “Yes, in the
act
. Enid had made a not-very-funny
jest earlier that the only place to meet a man in secret in the
whole castle, given how crowded it is this week, was in the linen
closet. When she didn’t even pretend to sleep on her pallet in my
room, the girls and I thought we’d catch her in a
tryst.”

“
That part didn’t turn out
very well, though,” Mari said, again in that flat voice, “for any
of us, least of all Enid.”

“
May I see her things?”
Gwen said. “Did she keep them in here, even if she didn’t sleep
here?”

“
Of course.” Cristina
gestured to a wooden box that wasn’t large enough to qualify as a
trunk. “She didn’t have much.”

Gwen crouched beside the box and opened the
lid. “Why didn’t she?” Gwen glanced back at Cristina. When the
future queen didn’t answer, Gwen looked around at the other
women.

Finally, Mari pursed her lips and shrugged.
“Her father died many years ago and her mother didn’t remarry.
She’s lived …”

Mari glanced at Cristina, who took up the
tale. “Her mother has lived as Enid did—off of rich men who keep
her for a while.”

Mari nodded, obviously relieved to have had
Cristina say it. “The situation with her mother hasn’t allowed Enid
to stay with her in recent years,” Mari said, “so she moved from
household to household among her cousins in Powys.”

“
Including my father’s
estates,” Cristina said.

“
And you all resented it?”
Gwen said. “That’s what I’m sensing from you.”

More shrugs. Nobody wanted to admit to
it.

“
Someone told me that Enid
was sweet and gullible,” Gwen said, “which is why she went with so
many men.”

Alis barked a very unladylike laugh. “Sweet,
she wasn’t.”

“
We talked about jealousy
as the reason for her death, but it was Enid who was jealous,”
Rhiannon said, speaking for the first time. She was the youngest
and most beautiful of Cristina’s cousins, with thick, rich brown
hair and startlingly blue eyes. “Enid always thought that other
girls didn’t deserve what they had and that if she’d been …
something
—luckier, I
guess—she would have had what others had.”

“
Instead of realizing that
it was her own fault she wasn’t married and didn’t have friends,”
Alis said.

Gwen had turned back to the box as the girls
were speaking, thinking that they would be more forthcoming if she
wasn’t looking directly at them (which they had been). Underneath
the top layer of undergarments, Gwen found a small sack, one a man
might carry when he had coins.

At the sight of it in Gwen’s hand, Cristina
moved closer. “What is that?”

“
You’ve not seen this
before?” Gwen loosened the ties that held it shut and looked
inside. Then she tipped the contents into her palm.

Rhiannon gasped. “Where did Enid get
those?”

Two rings, a pendant, and a gold chain lay
in the palm of Gwen’s hand. “She was wearing a necklace around her
neck when she died,” Gwen said. “The killer left it on her.”

Alis smirked. “I’m
surprised it wasn’t the
only
thing on her.”

These girls really
hadn’t
liked Enid. Gwen
looked down at the jewelry. “Could these have been …
payment
of a
kind?”

The other girls were still talking among
themselves, so only Mari and Cristina heard Gwen’s words. Slowly,
Mari nodded her head. But for what were they in payment? From a
paramour, or an advance from the killer for services rendered?

Gwen found Cristina watching her, the
soon-to-be-queen’s eyes tracking from the top of Gwen’s head to her
feet and back again.

“
You are really quite
lovely, my dear, if your clothing wasn’t so bedraggled,” Cristina
said.

“
Th-thank you, my
lady.”
I think?
Gwen looked down at her dress. Given that she’d examined two
bodies while wearing it, it had survived the day rather well so
far. Her apron was badly stained though, and she found herself
brushing at the marks before she stopped the nervous
reaction.

Cristina turned to Mari. “What do you
think?”

“
I think she’s a good
choice,” Mari said. “And will reflect well on you.”

“
I think so too.” Cristina
turned back to Gwen. “You will replace Enid in my wedding party. I
will find you an appropriate gown to wear.”

Sweet Mary, save me!
“Yes, my lady.” Gwen curtseyed.

Cristina canted her head to Mari who stepped
forward with her arm out. She escorted Gwen to the door, and then
came with her into the corridor and closed the door behind them.
“Was that helpful?”

“
Yes. Very much so.” Gwen
peered at Mari’s face, trying to make out her expression in the
dimly lit corridor. “It was very kind of you to help.”

“
But not so kind, perhaps,
for me to agree that you should be in the wedding ceremony.” Mari
gave Gwen a rueful smile. “I could tell you were more irritated
than honored.”

Gwen swallowed. “I didn’t mean to be. It’s
just that I’m a bard’s daughter. I don’t have anything in common
with any of Cristina’s cousins.”

All of a sudden, Mari smiled. It lit her
usually somber face and made her beautiful. “Except, maybe,
me?”

Gwen opened her mouth and then closed it.
She didn’t know what to say. She liked Mari more and more—and
particularly she liked the deft way she had with Cristina—but could
she be friends with a noblewoman, no matter how impoverished?
“Except for you,” Gwen said.

“
Good.” Mari squeezed her
hand. “Will you join me for a meal?”

Gwen blinked. “You just ate.”

Mari laughed. “I’m always hungry. It takes a
lot of strength to keep Cristina happy.”

That
Gwen could well believe. The two women walked together into
the hall. Gwen sensed that Mari was even more pleased to have met
Gwen than Gwen was to have met her. Gwen knew a truth about
herself: she held herself aloof from people much of the time and
found it hard to make friends. Perhaps it was a product of moving
from place to place her whole life, following the music. Or perhaps
it was because her mother had died and left her with too many
responsibilities at too young an age. Or maybe there was just
something wrong with her. She forced herself not to look at Mari
warily, and for now, to accept the friendship she was
offering.

Gwen spent the rest of the afternoon with
Mari, ignoring her investigative duties entirely, and as the sun
began to go down, went with her to the battlements to watch for the
return of the hunters. They’d had three days without rain, which
was unusual for November, and the sky remained clear. The sun sat
so low in the sky this time of year that it didn’t set to the west
as it did in the summer, but to the southwest. Gwen could just
catch a glimpse of the last rays shooting over the foothills of the
mountain that lay to the south of Aber.

“
I like it here,” Mari
said.

Gwen glanced at her. “I do too, though I
grew up at Aberffraw.”

“
I’ve never been to
Anglesey,” Mari turned to look at Gwen. “You had a bad time of it
at Aberffraw at the hands of Prince Cadwaladr, didn’t you? Do you
think you’ll ever go back there?”

“
I don’t know why I’d need
to go to Aberffraw, but Gareth’s lands are on the island. We might
live there soon.” Gwen smiled. “You could visit me.”

“
I’d like that.” Then Mari
lifted her chin and pointed west. “Here they come!”

King Owain’s search party was returning.
They had lit torches and Owain Gwynedd himself led the company.
With his blonde hair and bulk, he was impossible to miss.

King Owain raised his spear, and the men
behind him cheered loudly enough for Gwen to hear, even from a half
a mile away. Mari and Gwen exchanged a glance. Had they found the
assassin? The lead riders picked up their pace, closing the
distance rapidly. Then, just before they crossed the bridge over
the Aber River some three hundred yards from the castle, a
riderless horse burst from the trees that lined the river and
galloped directly towards King Owain.

He saw it—everyone saw it—and reined in as
it approached. Gwen peered towards the bridge, finding it hard to
see clearly in the fading light.

“
What is it?” Mari
said.