The Fourth Horseman (13 page)

Philippe pursed his lips. “The loss of
Prince Henry would establish Eustace’s claim to the throne upon his
father’s death. There is nothing King Stephen wouldn’t do to
accomplish that.”

Gareth bit his lip and didn’t reply, even
though he still thought Philippe was wrong. Philippe was either
lying about King Stephen’s involvement or had been seriously
misinformed.

Amaury’s jaw remained clenched, and his back
was poker straight. “My lord—”

“
Enough, Amaury. It is not
your place to believe or disbelieve.” Philippe turned back to
Gareth. “Alard has switched sides and is supporting Stephen. This
truth is not open to further discussion.”

Gareth took in a long breath, deciding to
obey Philippe and ask a question of his own: “Tell me, my lord, did
you send David to kill Alard?”

Philippe’s taut expression didn’t change
except for a further tightening around the eyes. “No.”

Gareth blinked several times. He had
genuinely expected Philippe to say ‘yes’.

Philippe straightened in his chair. “You
should understand now why David’s death is not within your purview,
Sir Gareth. Leave it alone.”

Gareth understood no such thing. After this
conversation, he was more determined than ever to get to the bottom
of David’s death. “I can do nothing without the approval of my
lord.”

Philippe snorted his disgust. “You hide
behind your prince?”

Gareth wasn’t going to be taken in by that
gambit. “We are both here out of loyalty to our masters.”

Gareth knew the Normans didn’t want a Welsh
knight poking around Newcastle, but he had absolutely no intention
of leaving this to Empress Maud’s spymaster. He eyed Philippe
carefully. Gareth had seen Alard throw David over the battlement,
but since that moment, all of his information had come from Norman
mouths. When dealing with a murderer, he’d learned to trust only
what he saw with his own eyes.

Hywel could lie so well that Gareth would
never have known the truth about King Anarawd’s murder if Hywel
hadn’t told Gwen of it. How much more easily could Philippe, who
lived and breathed lies, deceive Gareth with a composed face? With
each superior sniff, Philippe confirmed Gareth’s feeling that all
was not well in Newcastle. This went far beyond Alard.

“
I have a great deal of
experience in investigating murder,” Gareth said. “Surely you would
do better to have my help.”

Philippe’s eyes narrowed. “I have my own men
who are skilled in dealing with circumstances such as this.”

“
Excuse me, my lord, but
where are they?” Gareth said. “You haven’t had any success in
containing your former man. He has murdered two men today, by my
count, and so far you have no leads and have made no progress in
finding him.”

Gareth held his breath, thinking that he’d
gone too far in challenging the old spy. It was Gwen who was better
at asking questions of men that they didn’t want to answer.

Philippe didn’t seem to have enough blood
left in him to darken his face, but his already pale lips pinched
whiter. He’d opened his mouth to speak when a knock came at the
door. Philippe tipped his head to Amaury, who went to it. “Yes?”
Amaury said.

A man spoke in French from the other side of
the door. “I have news that Lord Philippe should hear.”

Amaury glanced to Philippe, who nodded.
Gareth moved aside, and the messenger came to a halt in front of
Philippe’s table, put his heels together, and bowed.

“
What is it?” Philippe
waved a hand.

Gareth recognized the
motion as the kind of expression Prince Hywel would use at
times:
yes, yes, thank you for your
obeisance, but don’t waste my time.
In
Philippe’s case, he truly didn’t have any time to spare.

“
Earl Robert’s men have
found another body, my lord.”

Philippe didn’t respond at first, not even
to straighten in his chair. He studied the messenger, who wilted
under his gaze, and then moved his eyes to meet Gareth’s. “Another,
did you say?”

“
Yes, sir,” the man said,
not realizing he was being mocked. “That of a woman.”

“
Her name?” Amaury
said.

Although Philippe hadn’t moved, Gareth had
the sense that he was dangerously close to ordering the messenger
throttled for not spilling all of his information at once. Gareth
would have thought that Philippe’s associates and servants should
know better than to drag out the telling of anything of importance.
Speed and efficiency were vital to a man who hadn’t long to
live.

“
One named Rosalind, an
older woman and a known companion to the renegade,
Alard.”

From Gareth’s right, Amaury made a disgusted
noise in his throat, and Philippe nodded. “You will lead Sir Amaury
to the scene.”

“
Yes, my lord,” the man
bowed and beat a very fast retreat.

Philippe gestured with one hand towards
Amaury. “Go. See to it.” His words came out as an order but in a
tone that was resigned. At the same time, Philippe didn’t reiterate
that Gareth shouldn’t continue with the investigation at Amaury’s
side. It was just as well, since Gareth had no intention of
stopping.

Gareth headed towards the door and had
reached it when Philippe’s hacking cough stopped him. The old man
tried to sip his wine, but his cough wouldn’t let him. Finally, he
took a rasping breath, and Gareth said, “May I send the friary’s
healer to assist you, my lord?”

Philippe’s eyes went blank; then he shook
his head and gave a cynical laugh. “Tell Earl Robert that I have
seen you.”

“
Yes, my lord,” Gareth
said.

Philippe lifted his chin. “Amaury, one
moment.”

Gareth and Amaury exchanged a glance, and
then Amaury moved around the table so Philippe could speak to him
without having to raise his voice above a low whisper. From the
doorway, Gareth strained to hear what they were saying, but he
couldn’t make out anything more than a murmur, especially because
they spoke in rapid French and Gareth wasn’t as fluent in the
language as he would have liked. Gareth was quite sure, however,
that Philippe’s exhortations included an order to keep an eye on
Gareth.

Then Amaury joined Gareth at the door, and
they left the room together, heading back to the main courtyard.
Before Gareth could excuse himself to retrieve the two boys, Amaury
put a hand on his arm to stop him. “I assume you will ignore
Philippe’s suggestion to return to your camp and cease your
investigations.”

“
Yes.”

Amaury nodded. “I am not sorry; I need your
help, and I don’t trust Philippe.”

“That makes two of us,” Gareth said.

Chapter
Twelve

Gwen

G
areth stood at the feet of the dead woman, his head bent, one
arm folded across his chest and his hand to his chin. Gwen came up
behind him, slipped an arm around his waist, and squeezed. Gareth
started, but when he saw who it was, he smiled. “How did you know
where to find me?”

“
The great hall is abuzz
with rumor and gossip,” Gwen said. “Someone reported that a dead
woman had been found in one of the pantries, stuffed inside an
empty beer cask, and thus I knew where you’d be.”

“
How is Prior Rhys?” Gareth
said.

“
Awake and talking,” Gwen
said. “I will tell you later.”

“
Is someone with
him?”

“
Mari said she’d stay with
him for a while,” Gwen said. “Prince Hywel says he will see that
they are both well protected.”

Gareth nodded, back to studying the body.
“Good.”

Gwen half turned away, not wanting to look
at the dead woman, who’d been strangled; the bruising was evident
on her neck even from a few feet away. “Who is she?”

“
A lesser noblewoman,”
Gareth said. “Her name was Rosalind, a widow.”

“
What was her role here?”
Gwen said.

Gareth gestured to Amaury, who was rubbing
at his forehead as if he had a headache. “Her husband had been Earl
Robert’s man, with a manor near Bristol. She came here with the
earl’s court,” Amaury said.

“
And why is she dead?” Gwen
said.

Amaury shrugged. “I have no idea, except
that she was a friend of Alard.”

“
You mean his lover?” Gwen
said.

Amaury tsked through his teeth. “That was
the rumor.”

“
So we don’t think that
Alard would have been the one to kill her?” Gwen said.

“
Not unless he returned to
the castle since his escape,” Gareth said. “We’d already decided
that he didn’t return to take David’s body or attack Prior Rhys.
Are we ready to reevaluate that assumption now?”

Amaury looked over at him, interest in his
eyes. “Her death is that recent?”

“
She’s been dead an hour,
maybe two,” Gareth said.

“
You’re sure about the
time?” Amaury said. “How can you possibly tell?”

“
Even now, the body is warm
and not stiff,” Gareth said.

“
It would have been warm
inside the cask,” Amaury said. “Could it have prevented the body
from cooling?”

Gwen sniffed the air in the pantry. It
wasn’t a nice smell, but the air wasn’t putrid either, such as a
decomposing body in late spring might cause. “If anything, the
temperature in the pantry might have made the body cool more
quickly.” Gwen was surprised that Amaury didn’t know more about
this, but then again, he probably hadn’t seen as many murdered
people as Gareth had.

“
The last I saw of Alard,
he was falling from a rope into the river,” Gareth said. “Unless
his friend found him dry clothes immediately and he was able to
wander unremarked enough through the castle to meet with Rosalind
and kill her, this death is not his fault.”

“
I need to be sure of that
before I speak to Earl Ranulf or Philippe,” Amaury said.

“
I made copies of Alard’s
image to pass among the servants. They should have been on the
lookout for his face,” Gareth said. “One should never say ‘never’ I
suppose, but I am confident enough in my supposition to tell this
to my prince.”

Gwen glanced at the body, remembering
another pantry in a different castle, before she and Gareth had
found each other again. That time it had been her father who was
accused of a crime he didn’t commit. “I don’t think that’s a
reassuring thought. It means at the very least we have two killers:
Alard and a second man.”

Amaury picked at his lower lip with his
fingers. “Two killers.”

“
Perhaps he left us
something on the body that will identify him,” Gareth said. “I
won’t know until I examine her more thoroughly. For now, I can tell
you that it is very likely that she was put in the barrel shortly
after her death.”

“
How do you know that?”
Amaury said.

“
The blood has pooled in
her feet and in her lower torso from how she was folded into the
barrel,” Gareth said.

“
We should begin by
questioning the kitchen staff,” Gwen said. “We need to know who saw
her last and when.”

Amaury nodded. “I’ve already set several of
my men to that task.”

Gwen bit her lip. She’d forgotten for a
moment that she and Gareth couldn’t conduct this investigation
however they chose.

Gareth turned to her. “I can finish up
here.”

“
Gareth—”

“
I have a different task
for you, and one that might prove more entertaining than examining
yet another dead body,” Gareth said, in Welsh, for Gwen’s ears
alone.

“
What do you want me to
do?”

“
I picked up two Welsh boys
at the friary who hope to return with us to Wales.” Gareth pointed
towards the kitchen, relating how he’d met them. “They’re being fed
right now. Would you settle them at our camp?”

Gwen’s eyes narrowed. “You’re trying to get
rid of me.”

“
Never.” Gareth reached for
her hand. “It occurs to me, however, that our lords might wish to
join you for a late afternoon ride. It is important for them to
know that their people are well settled.”

“
Yes, it is.” Gwen lowered
her voice further. “You still fear for the princes?”

“
Even more now than before.
I don’t trust anyone here.” Gareth shot a look at Amaury, who was
directing two men on how best to move Rosalind’s body to the
chapel. “I need to make sure that they are not in any
danger.”

“
Before I go, I need to
tell you what I’ve learned,” Gwen said. “Will you walk with me a
moment?”

A wary look came into Gareth’s eyes, but he
followed Gwen back to the kitchen, to a corner by the door where
they could converse with one another out of the way of the kitchen
staff’s prying ears. In quick whispers, Gwen told Gareth of the
discussion in Prior Rhys’s room, and then Gareth related his
conversation with Philippe.

“
How did this get so
complicated so quickly?” Gwen said. “You didn’t tell Philippe about
the emerald, did you?”

Gareth shook his head. “I
couldn’t, not without Prince Hywel’s permission. And I wouldn’t
have done so even with it, once I realized how much I distrusted
the man. He’s the empress’s spy! In addition, if Alard has
committed treason—or plans to—I don’t see how the gem fits into it.
It was
David
who
carried it, and Alard killed him. It’s the one thing that doesn’t
make sense.”