The Fourth Horseman (15 page)

“
It isn’t because of how he
died. Gwen, her father was Norman; even though he had been
well-born, he was a younger son, so what wealth of his own he had
would have been minimal. By Norman law, when Mari’s mother married
Ralph, all her property became his, and when he died, with no son
to inherit, all of his property went to his elder brother’s son.
Women cannot own anything in England like they can in Wales. That’s
the main reason the English throne is in dispute in the first
place.”

“
It doesn’t seem right,”
Gwen said.

“
Maybe you’ll get along
with Empress Maud after all,” Gareth said.

“
Did you tell Amaury that
his fourth horseman isn’t dead?” Gwen said, changing the
subject.

“
I did not,” Gareth said.
“Until I’m sure it’s relevant, I’d rather not expose Prior Rhys’s
secrets. While I can work with Amaury, he reports to Philippe. I
don’t trust him at all.”

“
And you don’t believe
Philippe when he says Alard is a traitor?” Gwen said.

“
I believe he intercepted a
messenger, but if I were William of Ypres, would I commit such
information to an intermediary?” Gareth said. “It could be a clever
misdirection on William’s part to incriminate an innocent man and
deflect attention from the real villain.”

“
What about the dead
woman?” Gwen said. “Why in all this does one of Alard’s friends end
up dead?”

“
Because someone is tying
up loose ends,” Gareth said. “Rosalind knew Alard well and could
have been questioned, perhaps even exonerated him.”

“
What if he has more
friends out there?” Gwen said.

“
I hope for his sake that
he doesn’t,” Gareth said. “I would prefer not to face more murders
tomorrow.”

Gwen rested her elbows on her knees and her
chin in both hands. “Where’s the emerald, by the way?”

Gareth reached under his pillow, pulled out
his purse, and shook it.

“
Why did Rhun give it back
to you?”

“
If he is to be stuck
inside the castle, the last thing he wanted was to keep it with
him,” Gareth said.

Gwen took in a deep breath and let it out.
“I accept that. I wish we knew for whom it was intended and if that
person will come looking for it.”

“
We don’t even know if the
man who took his body was looking for it,” Gareth said. “If your
guess was correct that Alard didn’t murder David, perhaps there was
something about the way he died that would implicate someone. That
someone could have taken the body.”

“
Like Prince Hywel hid King
Anarawd’s body last summer before you could examine it?” Gwen
said.

“
Exactly,” Gareth
said.

“
These aren’t questions we
can answer tonight.” Gwen snuggled down beside him again. “I wish
we were back in Aber and the emerald was stored in the
treasury.”

“
The camp is well-guarded.
I wouldn’t have let you sleep here, even with me, if I didn’t think
we’d be safe tonight,” Gareth said. “I would never put you in
danger, not even for Prince Hywel’s sake.”

“
I know.” Gwen yawned. “You
need to sleep. These problems will still be with us in the
morning.”

“
I just wish I knew whom I
could trust.”

Gareth lay awake a long while after that,
though Gwen fell asleep almost immediately. As he listened to her
breathe, Gareth stared into the darkness, cursing himself for
keeping the emerald with him. Even if he’d spoken reassuringly to
Gwen, he could believe that the man who took David’s body wanted
the gem and would wonder if she’d found it, especially once he saw
the torn seam. Gareth’s stomach roiled at the possible danger to
Gwen. The list of tasks that he had to accomplish before he could
take his sleeping wife home stretched before him, each item more
insurmountable than the one before it.

Gareth eventually fell asleep, and as it
turned out, the rest of the night passed without incident. He woke
with the emerald still under his pillow, though as Gwen had pointed
out, his double duty remained: to keep his wife safe, and to
discover who murdered David and the others. Unfortunately, he had
no real idea how he was going to do either.

Gwen opened her eyes. “We should at least
inspect the farmhouse.”

Gareth pushed onto one elbow to look down on
her. He loved the fact that she woke up alert, as if sleep had been
merely a moment’s pause in her existence. “What farmhouse?” he
said.

“
Didn’t I mention it last
night? Prior Rhys told us that the four horsemen used to meet at a
farmhouse. He thought it was possible that they had continued to
use it. I assumed that was why Prince Hywel wanted you here last
night instead of in the castle.”

Gareth gaped at his wife. “No—neither he nor
you mentioned it.”

“
The emerald distracted
me,” Gwen said.

“
Is the farmhouse
far?

“
All Prior Rhys said was
that it lies in a wood to the south of the Lyme Brook,” Gwen
said.

“
Who else knows about
this?”

“
Prior Rhys, of course, and
Hywel and Mari. They were in the room when he spoke of it,” Gwen
said. “Nobody else.”

“
Why wasn’t that the first
place we hunted for Alard?” Gareth said.

“
Hywel asked that too, but
Prior Rhys said that the farmhouse had been kept a secret. After
Rhys left, perhaps the remaining horsemen chose not to tell anyone
else. If they had—Amaury, Philippe, Earl Robert—don’t you think one
of them would have said?”

“
I would hope so,” Gareth
said, “but who knows the lengths to which these Normans will go to
hide the truth? Philippe, certainly, would consider it just another
secret to keep from me. But you’re right, we should have a
look.”

“
I get to come with
you?”

“
I’m not letting you out of
my sight if I can possibly help it,” Gareth said. “Besides, I’m
smart enough to know that you might have an insight or two once we
get there, if we get there.”

Gwen didn’t ask any more questions. She
slipped her dress over her head, and Gareth rose to his feet to
pull on his breeches. Then he stopped, one leg on, and said, “It
may be that we’ll find Alard there. We’ll need to be careful not to
scare him off.”

“
So just the two of us
should go.” Gwen laced up her boots. “Besides which, Hywel might
object to including anyone else in the investigation if we don’t
need to, and Evan and Gruffydd must attend the princes.”

Gareth lifted the tent flap. By the dampness
on the ground, a light rain had fallen in the night, but the
morning had dawned clear with only a few clouds skittering across
the sky. Gareth and Gwen found Evan sitting in front of one of the
cooking fires with Llelo and Dai, who perked up at their approach.
Gareth affectionately cuffed each boy upside the head and then sent
them off to fetch breakfast. Gareth and Gwen settled on a log
beside Evan.

“
What news do you have?”
Gareth said.

Evan quirked a smile. “You mean because some
of us put work before sleep?”

Gareth snorted laughter. “That would be
Gwen, not me.” He laughed again when Gwen elbowed him in the
ribs.

“
Nothing new,” Evan said.
“You and I tucked the princes in safe last night, and Gruffydd sent
word a moment ago that all is well. I’m to report to Prince Hywel
within the hour. How about you?”

“
Prince Hywel instructed
Gwen and me to question as many people as we could today—not in the
castle, but in the village itself—all the while staying out of
Philippe’s way. But Gwen and I have a more important task to do
first.” Gareth glanced at his wife. “Gwen reports that Alard may
have had a base—a farmhouse—to retreat to, south of the Lyme Brook.
She and I are going to find it.”

Evan raised his eyebrows. “I will tell the
prince. You shouldn’t go alone, you know.”

Gareth looked around the encampment and then
repeated what Gwen had concluded. “I’ll have Gwen with me, and I’m
not sure that we should involve any of the other men in this if we
don’t have to. The fewer who know the details and can speak of them
to someone else, the better.”

“
Some men do have too loose
lips, even when instructed to keep silent,” Evan agreed. “But if
Alard finds you there, it could be dangerous.”

“
I want to talk to him, not
capture him,” Gareth said. “That is more likely to happen if Gwen
and I go alone. He’s a spy. He’ll be on the watch for any threat,
and he should recognize both of us from yesterday at
Newcastle.”

Evan gave way, if grudgingly, and only after
another wary look. “Return before dark or I’ll be sending out a
search party.”

“
We will.” Gareth clapped
Evan on the shoulder.

After a quick breakfast and a warning to the
boys to behave themselves and not get too much underfoot, Gareth
and Gwen mounted their horses. Prior Rhys’s description of the
farmhouse wasn’t detailed, but Gareth had looked at the lay of the
land from the top of Newcastle’s wall walk the day before and had
some idea of where to start their quest.

Instead of following the road that would
take them to Newcastle along the north side of the Lyme Brook, they
crossed the water at a ford and found a path that ran on the south
side of the brook, always following its course but at times
wandering a hundred yards or more from it. A mile into their
journey, the castle rose up on their left. When Gareth and Gwen
trotted their horses past it, Gwen eyed the battlement. “Alard
climbed down from there, did he? That was brave.”

“
I would have said
‘desperate’, but the grin he gave me when he dropped into the brook
makes me think he’s not the desperate type,” Gareth said. “The move
was calculated and looked easy.”

Now the path turned strongly southeast, away
from the Lyme Brook, and as they continued along it, Gareth looked
for a sign that someone might live in the woods that closed them in
on both sides. The brush and trees—fast-growing alders
mostly—provided a nearly impenetrable barrier.

“
Where are we, Gareth?”
Gwen wiped her brow. They’d left the brook behind, along with the
cooler air associated with it. The day was getting hot.

“
The friary lands are ahead
of us,” Gareth said. “We’ll skirt them to the south.”

The path curved again, following the border
of a cultivated field. The vegetation on either side of the path
grew thicker. England wasn’t as well forested as Wales, but many
Norman lords had their own private forests for hunting grounds.
Gareth speculated that Earl Robert had set aside this particular
wood as his own. The terrain wasn’t flat here anyway and wouldn’t
have been useful for farmland.

“
I feel like we’ve ridden
for miles,” Gwen said. “How are we going to find the farmhouse
Prior Rhys meant? It could be anywhere.”

“
It has to be near enough
to the castle to be accessible but far enough away so as not to
invite comment or to be easily stumbled over. But I agree in part.
I don’t think we should ride much farther east or south. We’re
getting too far from Newcastle’s domains.”

At last, Gareth reined in and surveyed the
landscape from the saddle. “This isn’t right.”

“
I’ve thought so for some
time,” Gwen said.

“
Prior Rhys said a
farmhouse, but perhaps that doesn’t mean the same thing to him as
it does to me,” Gareth said.

“
We just have to get around
these trees,” Gwen said. “These are as thick as many Welsh
woods.”

“
That is exactly what I was
thinking,” Gareth said. “Come on!” He urged his horse, riding fast
now and not worrying about finding a pathway into the woods. Then,
with the day already approaching noon, the trees came to an abrupt
end, while the path continued southeast into the customary rolling
English countryside.

“
Now that’s more like it,”
Gwen said. “There are plenty of farmhouses here.”

“
But perhaps not the one
we’re looking for.” Gareth turned his horse and headed off the
trail, riding due south before curving back west, around the
woods.

Gwen followed him without question, even as
the growth became thicker, with the same alders as before, albeit
with a higher concentration of oak mixed in. The brush wasn’t quite
as thick either, but this time there was no trail to follow.

“
What are you thinking
now?” Gwen said.

“
I’m thinking that this
farmhouse has been deliberately hidden.” Gareth dismounted and
began shouldering his way through the brush, clearing a path for
Gwen, who followed. Strands of hair had come loose from her bun,
framing her face. He thought she looked pretty.

After they’d walked only ten yards, the
brush thinned out, and a little farther on, the woods opened up,
allowing sunlight to stream through the canopy. Gareth halted, and
Gwen was able to come up beside him.

“
Those trees back there
were very strange,” Gwen said. “They form a shield, as if they’re
walling this peaceful woods in.”

“
Listen.” Gareth held up a
hand.

The little wind that was blowing moaned
among the trees. “That’s an eerie sound.” Gwen turned this way and
that as she listened.

“
I’ve never been in a
haunted wood before,” Gareth said.