The Uninvited Guest (9 page)

Gwen turned over Enid’s hand to look at her
palm. “More than that. He marked her.” Something rigid and round,
about half an inch in diameter, had pressed deep enough into the
fleshy palm of Enid’s hand to leave a permanent impression in her
skin.

“
Is that a lion’s head?”
Gareth turned his head this way and that, trying to make it out.
“It looks like it was made by a seal.”

Gwen groaned. “Don’t say that!”

Gareth ignored her. “Is there anything in
the trunk that could have caused it?”

Gwen rifled through the clothing at the
bottom of the trunk. “Not that I can see.” The killer had all but
emptied the trunk so he could fit Enid inside of it. Gwen ran her
hands through the linens he’d piled on the floor. The stack had
been knocked over and she straightened it while at the same time
making sure nothing was hidden among the cloths.

“
If she was pressed into it
after she died, would the spot be so bruised?” Gwen said. “Isn’t it
more likely to have been on the body of the person who killed
her?”

“
I’m just trying to think
of everything,” Gareth said.

“
Can you really tell what
made it?” Gwen said. “I can’t make out the image at all. It just
looks like a bunch of squiggles inside a more clearly defined
circle.”

“
To me too,” Gareth said.
“It looks like a lion’s head only when I squint. To make a case
against a man, we’d have to have the ring in our possession and
match it to her palm.”

“
It’s a clue, though,” Gwen
said. “We’ll keep an eye out for anyone with a trio of scratches on
his forearm and a ring with a raised design.” Gwen removed a linen
sheet from the stack on the floor. “Let’s wrap her up.”

“
Can’t we leave the
servants to do it?” Gareth said, though he followed her lead by
helping her spread the sheet on the floor and then lifting Enid
onto it.

“
This symbol, whatever it
is, is too crucial a clue. I don’t want information about that
impression getting out before we have a chance to question the
inhabitants of the castle.”

Gareth twitched the sheet over Enid’s face
and then looked into Gwen’s. “You don’t even want to show it to
Prince Hywel?”

“
I want to show him,” Gwen
said. “But—”

“
You can’t continue working
for Hywel unless you can be honest with him, Gwen, even if he isn’t
always honest with you,” Gareth said. “Either we trust Hywel or we
don’t.”

“
You haven’t had enough
time to absorb all that I’ve told you—or to talk to Hywel himself,”
Gwen said. “It’s not that easy—”

“
If we don’t share what we
know,” Gareth said, “we’re hampering ourselves before we’ve even
started. To do so could put King Owain’s life at risk.”

Gwen looked down at her feet while she
thought, scuffing the toe of her boot into a crack between two
planks in the wooden floor. She wanted to believe Gareth. Maybe she
hadn’t come to terms with Hywel’s betrayal as well as she’d
thought. “All right, Gareth. We’ll do it your way.” Maybe she
couldn’t trust Hywel, but she trusted Gareth, and for now that
might be enough.

“
We should get him to look
at the mark now,” Gareth said. “The impression might fade from her
skin as time goes on and her blood settles. Perhaps he’ll even
recognize it.”

“
First, could we—could we
try something?” Gwen said. “I’ve a mind to mime what might have
happened here.”

Gareth looked at her warily but pulled her
closer to him. “You want me to pretend to strangle you?”

At the look on Gareth’s face, Gwen laughed.
She faced away from him and twitched her hair over her shoulder so
it wouldn’t impede his hands. “I’m not wearing a necklace,
though.”

“
Not yet.”

“
What do you mean, not
ye—?” Before Gwen could finish her sentence, something dropped over
her head to rest on her chest. She looked down. Gareth had placed a
chain strung with a garnet ring around her neck. She twisted to
look up at him and he grinned down at her. “I was going to give it
to you in a few days, anyway. You should have had it years
ago.”

“
Gareth.”
Gwen picked up the ring and studied it. The stone
was the size of a pea, set in gold.

“
I don’t know that this is
the most appropriate time for me to give it to you.”

“
I want to wear it,” Gwen
said. “And solving murders is what we do, right?”

Gareth cleared his throat and then bent to
kiss the base of Gwen’s neck. “Right.” The word came out a whisper.
His breath sent a shiver down Gwen’s spine and she clenched the
ring in her fist.

Then Gareth straightened and the moment of
intimacy passed. He lifted the chain and pulled back on it until
the ring just touched Gwen’s throat. “That’s good.” She felt at the
ring and then along the chain. “Can you tell how it might have
been? Your ring would leave a mark on my neck, the same way the
pendant did on Enid’s.”

“
For her pendant to mark
her, he would have had to pull her back against him,” Gareth said.
Because of their difference in height and strength, Gareth had
little trouble clutching Gwen to him with his left arm wrapped
across her chest and his right pulling on the chain. “Enid could
have hung on to her killer’s left hand, trying to pry it off her
right shoulder as she struggled not to choke, and possibly
scratching his forearm with her nails.”

“
Enid couldn’t have
lasted
long
like
this,” Gwen said.

The door behind them swung open. “Gareth!”
Hywel bounded into the room.

Neither Gwen nor Gareth moved, but they did
gaze at Hywel with curiosity. He stared at them for a count of
three, and then slapped his thigh and laughed. “I thought—” He
shook his head. “Never mind.”

Gareth loosened his hold on Gwen, but didn’t
release her. “We were trying to figure out how Enid died,” Gareth
said. “She has some strange markings on her palm and it’s not clear
how she came by them.”

“
Show me the markings,”
Hywel said.

Gareth stepped from behind Gwen, crouched
with Hywel over the body, and lifted the sheet to show him Enid’s
left hand. As Gareth had done, Hywel traced the markings with one
finger. “From a ring, do you think?”

“
That was our thought,”
Gareth said. “One with a design in relief, though what the image
portrays is difficult to determine.”

Hywel tipped his head in the same way Gareth
had, looking at the ring from multiple angles. “An animal, I’d
say.”

“
I suggested a lion,”
Gareth said.

“
Maybe … a dragon?” Hywel
said.

Gwen paled. She put her hand to her mouth,
trying to keep down the bile that rose in her throat and threatened
to undo her.

Gareth glanced toward her. “What is it,
Gwen?”

“
When I went to Dublin with
Cadwaladr, he had a ring with a raised dragon emblem,” she said. “I
remember it specifically because I would focus on it as a way not
to look into his face.”

Hywel rubbed at his chin with one hand. “My
father is not going to want to hear that.”

“
Was he wearing it last
night?” Gareth said. “I didn’t notice.”

“
Nor I,” Gwen
said.

“
To complicate matters
further,” Hywel said, “I have more bad news.”

“
Worse than a new treachery
from Cadwaladr?” Gareth said.

“
Cristina’s father is
unwell,” Hywel said.

Gwen dropped her hand. “What do you
mean—unwell?”

“
When Cristina went to his
room this morning, though he was breathing, she couldn’t wake him,”
Hywel said. “Lord Tomos is sitting with him now, but he has yet to
speak.”

Metal-toed boots clattered in the hallway
and the three companions looked towards the doorway, expectant. A
moment later, Taran’s face appeared. “You’d better come. Our
assassin is missing. I’ve sent out a company of riders after him
but we have no idea how long he’s been gone or in what direction he
went …”

“
Christ on a cross!” Hywel
said. “What next?”

As they trotted after Taran, he explained,
“When Evan went to the stables to relieve the watch, he found the
door to the cell locked but the boy gone.”

They reached the bottom step and passed
through the doorway into the great hall. Hywel put a hand on
Taran’s arm. “Wait a moment. Did you say that the door was still
locked from the outside?” In his incredulity, Hywel’s voice carried
throughout the hall.

Gareth lowered his voice. “We’d do better to
take this outside, my lord.”

Gwen looked around. The hall was full of
diners eating breakfast. Every single one was looking at the four
of them. The news of Enid’s death had spread throughout the castle.
How could it not? They weren’t going to be able to surprise the
murderer with the news, but at the same time, it meant that Gwen
and Gareth could pursue their inquiries openly.

“
At once,” Hywel said.
“This way.”

Instead of leading them through the great
hall, he reentered the corridor that paralleled it, took them past
the stairway and his own rooms, and out the side door into the
courtyard. He paused only when he reached the stables. Alun and
Evan, both good friends of Gareth, shifted uneasily before the open
door to the assassin’s cell.

The cell was empty. Hywel pulled up short.
“Tell me what happened.”

“
We don’t know, my lord,”
Evan said. “I arrived at my shift this morning, checked on the boy,
and found him gone.”

“
And the guards who were
here before you?” Hywel said. “What do they have to say for
themselves?”

“
They were at their posts
when I arrived, but asleep,” Evan said.

“
I’ve already questioned
them,” Taran said. “When they came on duty, the prisoner was in the
cell. They know nothing about what passed in the night, up until
the moment they found me snapping my fingers in their
faces.”

“
And the guard at the
postern gate?” Gareth said.

Taran sighed. “Also asleep, with no memory
of the night’s events.”

Gwen put a hand on Hywel’s arm. “Poppy juice
would do it, my lord. It isn’t easy to come by, but the contents of
that vial, small as it was, would have been enough to dose the
guards—and perhaps Lord Goronwy too.”

“
Does the herbalist keep
any here in the castle?” Hywel said. “I should have asked him as
soon as we found that vial in Enid’s pocket.”

“
It wouldn’t have made a
difference, my lord. He used to keep it in the cupboard, but he has
been unable to acquire any more since Cadwaladr took what was left
to use on me,” Gwen said. “It’s too bad, because it relieves a
patient’s suffering when the pain becomes too much to
bear.”

“
God damn it. Cadwaladr
again.” Hywel ran a hand through his hair. “I kept the key to the
cell with me. I loaned it to Gareth last night, but he returned
it.”

“
The guards were awake when
I left,” Gareth said.

Gwen bit her lip. She didn’t like even a
hint of wrongdoing within Gareth’s vicinity but Hywel took little
notice and waved a hand, dismissing her anxiety. “Of course they
were. I know I didn’t open the door, but without it, how could the
assassin have gotten out?”

Gareth walked into the cell and stood, hands
on his hips, surveying the room. “I don’t know that we can blame
the guards if they were dosed, my lord.” He glanced at Hywel and
Gwen. “Besides, the assassin didn’t need the key in order to
escape. He had help from a different direction.”

“
What do you mean?” Gwen
said.

Gareth stalked to the side wall. With a tug,
he removed a plank and then three more, revealing a hole three feet
wide and five tall. “Believe me, if these boards had been loose
when your father put me in here, I would have noticed—and might
have departed just as easily.” Gareth tossed the planks to the
ground, disgusted.

“
You didn’t have to escape
because you had me looking out for you. It makes me wonder who was
looking out for our assassin?” Hywel entered the room and bent to
look through the opening into the courtyard beyond. “This will
limit the room’s usefulness as a prison cell in future.”

Gwen smiled. Her lord had a way with
understatement. She turned back to Taran. “Nobody has been able to
get anything out of Lord Goronwy?”

“
Not even Tomos,” Taran
said. “As I am still under a cloud of suspicion, I didn’t feel it
was my place to try. And now that the assassin is gone
…”

“
He was your accuser.”
Hywel pursed his lips. “This doesn’t look good for you.”

Taran swallowed hard. “I know, my lord.”

“
Cadwaladr volunteered to
inform my father of Enid’s death,” Hywel said. “Have you seen him
this morning?”

Taran hesitated. “No, my lord. This news
will make him even more angry. He was supposed to be married in …”
Taran glanced towards the entrance to the stables where a square of
sunlight shone on the floor inside the entrance, “… just a few
hours.”

“
I need you to return to
him and tell him what has happened,” Hywel said.

Taran bowed his head. “Yes, my lord.” And
then he added, “It is wise of you to realize that this news would
be better coming from an old friend.”

“
Thank you,” Hywel
said.