The Bard's Daughter (A Gareth and Gwen Medieval Mystery) (11 page)

“
Come this way, Ifan.” Saran’s voice came through the open doorway to the great hall. “I left my medicine bag in here last night after dealing with Meilyr.”

Gwen looked up as Ifan and Saran entered the hall by the rear door.

“
I guess the bard got what he deserved,” Ifan said, following closely on Saran’s heels.

Saran glanced at Gwen and then away again before Ifan noticed. Gwen sat frozen to her bench, fearful that she’d draw Ifan’s attention by any word or movement. Saran and Ifan headed towards the opposite wall.

“
Did he?” Saran said. “Does any man deserve to die?”

Her heart in her mouth, Gwen rose to her feet and drifted along in Ifan’s wake. She came to a halt close to the dais and twenty feet away from Ifan. She put out one hand and rested on it the high table. As she’d stopped directly in front of Cadoc, he lifted his head. Gwen fisted her hand. Gareth had told her that men used their hands to speak to one another during battle, when a sound might give away their position. A fisted hand meant. “Danger!” It was the only signal Gwen could remember.

Cadoc either understood what she was trying to tell him, or could sense that something was happening just by the tension in Gwen’s body. He rose to his feet just as Ifan sat on the bench that Gwen and Gwalchmai had occupied the other night. Gwen couldn’t breathe as Saran removed Ifan’s padded gloves and unwrapped the cloths with which Ifan had bound his hands, revealing bloody gashes across his palms and on his fingers.

“
Why didn’t you come to me sooner?” Saran said.

Ifan shrugged. “I thought they would heal.”

“
How did this happen?” Saran held each of his hands in hers, gazing down at the wounds.

Gwen had eyes only for Saran and Ifan, but Cadoc must have signaled to someone to find Gruffydd and his father, because suddenly the captain of the garrison was on one side of Ifan and Cadfael came to lean against the wall behind him, out of Ifan’s view.

“
Forking hay for the horses.” Ifan blanched at the sight of Gruffydd so close to him, but continued, “It’s been so cold that the blisters split. They’ve gotten worse over the last few days.”

“
Don’t bother lying, Ifan. We know why you didn’t seek aid,” Gruffydd said.

Ifan licked his lips. “What—what do you mean?”

“
You killed Collen.” Gruffydd said.

All of a sudden, it was just that simple.

From her pocket, Gwen pulled the harp string she’d been carrying with her since Collen’s murder. She handed it to Gruffydd who laid it across Ifan’s hands. The servant flinched as it touched him.

“
That would do it,” Gruffydd said.

“
Why
did you murder Collen?” Cadoc said.

Ifan still hadn’t answered, whether to deny or admit what he’d done, but with the same flash of inspiration, Gwen thought she knew. “It was Eva.”

Ifan’s jaw clenched as he stared down at his hands, and then his face twisted in hatred. “Eva.” He spat onto the rush mats on the floor.

“
She told you that you would inherit the cart, didn’t she?” Gwen said. “She suggested that she might even share the
galanas
with you, if only you would do this one thing for her.”

“
Did she kiss you, too?” Gruffydd said. “Make you other promises you believed?”

Ifan’s teeth clenched and unclenched. “She swore—she
swore
that—” Ifan broke off and pressed his lips together.

Gruffydd crouched in front of Ifan. “She swore that it would be easily done, is that it? And that the two of you would be together afterwards?”

Where anger might have closed Ifan’s tongue, Gruffydd’s gentle voice persuaded. Ifan must have been bursting to speak of what he’d done for days, and now that it seemed he was caught … “She was the one to lure Collen to the pantry with promises of renewing their affections. It was dark when he entered and I surprised him. We grappled with one another, but I was the stronger, and there was the harp string … it was over quickly. I slipped away before Eva brought Meilyr in shortly afterwards.”

“
How could you do it? He was like a father to you,” Gwen said.

Ifan shot a glare in her direction. “He was no father. I was his
slave
!”

Gwen recoiled at the venom in his voice, recalling what Wyn had told her about Collen’s penchant for beatings.

“
I stayed with that cart, I did what I was told, for ten years. Did I ever receive a kind word from him? You say he treated me like a son, but what son is tied forever to a cart, even in the dead of winter?”

“
And you got nothing for it,” Saran said.

“
Nothing
.” Ifan spat again.

“
Why the harp string?” Gruffydd said. “Why blame Meilyr?”

Now a sulky expression came over Ifan’s face. “Eva chose him. She said that he had money and nobody liked him anyway. With the boy’s voice coming into its own, Cadfael could let the father go.”

All the blood left Gwen’s face but she struggled not to take offense on her father’s behalf. “You didn’t think that wrapping a thin iron string around your hands might hurt them?”

Ifan’s chin fell and he shook his head. Gwen supposed that he didn’t have many thoughts in his head but resentment. Eva had given him hope for the future when he’d had none.

“
Two murders, then,” Cadoc said. “You committed two murders in my father’s house.”

Ifan had been gazing at his wounded fingers and at first didn’t seem to hear Cadoc. Then he looked up . “What? You mean—?” Ifan stared at Cadoc and then swung his head from side to side,
no, no, no
. “I didn’t kill Eva.”

Disbelief coiled tangibly in the air around him.

“
I didn’t!” Ifan said. “Yes, we fought after dinner when I learned that not only would there be no
galanas
, but that with Meilyr dead, she had no more use for me. But I went back to my cart. I didn’t know what else to do. It was because I was sleeping there as always that I heard Eva come out of the keep.”

“
She was leaving Carreg Cennen?” Gwen said.

“
She dosed the guard at the wicket gate right then and there,” Ifan said. “One whiff of her potion and he was on the ground, just as Meilyr had been. She slipped away immediately after. I ran to the gate. I called to her—well, whispered really. Even so, I startled her. She spun around, but with the ice and snow on the bridge …”

“
She slipped,” Gruffydd said.

Ifan rubbed at his temples with his fingers. Tears had begun to leak from his eyes. “I never meant for any of this to happen.”

Gruffydd gazed down at the wayward assassin. “They never do.”

Chapter Ten

M
eilyr stuffed a nightshirt into his satchel. “I suppose I should thank you.”

He spoke so softly, Gwen wasn’t sure she’d heard him properly. She stood stiffly, watching her father put the rest of his spare clothing into the pack before she realized what he was doing. “We’re leaving?”

“
Heading north.”

“
Why?” And then Gwen swallowed, already knowing why. She gazed down at her feet.

“
It’s best that we leave,” Meilyr said. “Lord Cadfael told me as much just now. We’ll find a place to stay for the rest of the winter. Gwalchmai’s reputation will precede us.”

Gwen nodded. “Did Cadfael pay you?”

“
He paid some, though not all, of what he owes. He swore if we come back in the summer, he will have the full amount.”

“
But we won’t be coming back,” Gwen said.

“
No.”

“
I’m sure Cadfael is counting on that,” Gwen said.

Her father cleared his throat. “Gruffydd spoke to me too.”

Gwen’s head came up. “What did he say?”

“
He asked that I thank you for your help, and he wished you the best.”

“
Oh.” Gwen bent her head again. She could feel her father’s gaze on her but she didn’t meet his eyes.

“
Lord Cadfael would have opposed a request from Gruffydd to marry you,” Meilyr said.

Gwen bit her lip. She toed a crack in the floorboards and didn’t speak.

“
It wouldn’t do for his captain to marry a woman such as you,” Meilyr said. “You couldn’t really have thought he would approve of it.”

“
What do you mean,
such as I
?”

“
Gwen.” Her father’s voice held amusement, rather than chastisement, which almost irked her more. “You are outspoken. You defended me before Lord Cadfael himself. You can’t think that Lord Cadfael would want to see you in his hall every evening? Or that Gruffydd would be proud of such a wife?”

Gwen took in a deep breath and let it out. “No. Of course not. You’re right.”

Meilyr nodded and continued with his packing.

“
So we keep moving?” Gwen said. “Following the music?”

Gwen had resolved to follow Saran’s advice and not wish her life away, but at the same time, a tendril of hope curled inside at the thought of heading north again. Gareth had gone north. Maybe he was out there somewhere. Maybe she really
would
see him again someday.

Meilyr allowed himself a small smile as he tied the strings on his pack. “You are a bard’s daughter, Gwen. This is what we do.”

The End

A Brief Historical Note …

For
The Bard’s Daughter
, I have drawn upon some very basic principles of Welsh law, though I have simplified the process for the purpose of story-telling. Welsh law was one of the founding pillars of Welsh society, and was codified by a King Hywel Dda, around 950 AD. Rarely was death a penalty for a crime, and it was instituted more often for theft than for murder.

Later on, with the arrival of the Normans, Welsh law proved to be a rallying point for the Welsh resistance against Norman rule. The Normans objected to many of the laws (paying money instead of a sentence of death for various crimes, the relatively high status given to women, the ability to divorce, etc.), but the most contentious of all were Welsh rights of inheritance. In Wales, illegitimate sons and legitimate ones were treated identically before the law, which allowed Prince Hywel of Gwynedd, Gwen’s friend, to inherit equally with any of his father’s legitimate sons.

For crimes such as murder and theft, the Welsh relied upon a system of courts, overseen by landowners and lords, to determine guilt. Often, this determination was based upon
compurgation
, whereby witnesses testified to the truthfulness of the accused.

For the most part, Welsh law was in force in the parts of Wales under Welsh control until the death Llywelyn ap Gruffydd in 1282, when Norman law replaced Welsh criminal law. Welsh law continued to be used for civil cases until the annexation of Wales into England in the 16th century.

In addition, there really was a bard named Meilyr, who sang for King Gruffydd of Gwynedd. In turn, his son, Gwalchmai, became one of the most revered bards of the twelfth century, exactly as Meilyr hoped.

Continue reading for the beginning of
The Good Knight
, the first novel in the series of Gareth and Gwen Medieval Mysteries:

The Good Knight

Chapter One

August, 1143 AD

Gwynedd (North Wales)

“
Look at you, girl.”

Gwen’s father, Meilyr, tsked under his breath and brought his borrowed horse closer to her side of the path. He’d been out of sorts since early morning when he’d found his horse lame and King Anarawd and his company of soldiers had left the castle without them, refusing to wait for Meilyr to find a replacement mount. Anarawd’s men-at-arms would have provided Meilyr with the fine escort he coveted.