The Fourth Horseman (27 page)

As they approached the herb garden, Gareth
slowed and put out a hand to his companions. “You know the friary
better than I. Which sleeping chamber is Philippe’s?”

“
I would think Philippe
would be the last person you would want to see!”

The voice boomed from behind them, and the
three companions swung around to find ten men, with swords at the
ready, boxing them in against a hedge. Philippe himself stepped out
from between two of his men.

If anything, Philippe looked worse than he
had that morning in his office. The torchlight cast his face in an
unhealthy-looking, yellowish glow, and Gareth felt he could see
right through Philippe’s skin to the tissue and blood beneath. Worn
though he was, Phillipe stood straight and didn’t take the arm of
the man next to him, even though the soldier held out his elbow in
case Philippe needed it.

“
Seize him!” Philippe
pointed at Alard, who’d flung back the hood of his cloak, no longer
trying to hide.

Philippe’s men moved at the same time Gareth
did, leaping in front of Alard, sword out. “No. Stay back!”

Philippe’s men pulled up, just outside of
Gareth’s reach. Philippe didn’t have any archers with him, so
Gareth had no fear of being felled from a distance. “What are you
doing, Sir Gareth?” Philippe said.

“
I could ask the same of
you,” Gareth said. “I gather you had me followed?” At Philippe’s
nod, Gareth added, “We came only to talk.”

Philippe pointed a shaky hand at Alard.
“That man is a traitor.”

“
I do not believe that he
is,” Gareth said, “and if you give us a chance to talk about it, I
think you will no longer believe it either.”

“
You cannot accept anything
he says,” Philippe said. “He lies as a matter of
course.”

“
And you don’t?”

Philippe’s mouth twitched, and Gareth could
have sworn the man said ‘touché’ under his breath.

Then Ralph pushed back his hood and stepped
forward. “We really have just come to talk, Philippe.”

Philippe gritted his teeth. “I’d hoped you’d
gone back to London. You are not needed here. Your position is too
important to risk over one man’s life.”

“
Even if that life belongs
to Prince Henry?” Ralph said.

“
It is Alard who threatens
it.” Philippe glared at Ralph. “Amaury told me that you were here.
You are mistaken that your presence might make me trust Alard.
Perhaps living so long in Stephen’s court has turned you, too. Your
loyalty to the empress could be questioned.”

“
You are a stubborn old
man, Philippe. You need to listen to me.” Ralph gestured to Alard
and Gareth. “To us.”

“
It is you who will not
listen, despite what is right in front of you. I have proof that
Alard conspires with William of Ypres,” Philippe said.

Along with Gareth, Ralph had pulled out his
sword but now he sheathed it. “We come in peace.” Then he took a
knife from each boot, along with two throwing knives that he’d
secreted at his wrists, and dropped them on the ground. With his
arsenal forsaken, Ralph held out both hands palm up to Philippe and
walked forward to stand in front of Gareth, who still stood in
front of Alard.

“
Have your men put up their
swords. You have us at your mercy if you want to throw us in
chains,” Ralph said.

Philippe said nothing for a count of five,
and then he nodded at his men. “Leave us. Stay within hailing
distance.”

His men muttered among themselves but did as
he asked, backing several dozen paces away from where Philippe,
Ralph, Gareth, and Alard stood together. Gareth straightened but
didn’t sheath his sword. Alard stepped out from behind him.

“
Sir.” Alard put his heels
together and bowed slightly at the waist. It was more of a salute,
one soldier to another, than a true obeisance. “I am not a traitor.
Not to you, not to Empress Maud.”

“
You killed David,”
Philippe said.

“
He came after me with a
knife after you sent him to kill me,” Alard said. “I had no
choice.”

“
I did not send him,”
Philippe said, “neither him nor John. I didn’t even know you had
returned from Scotland.”

“
I didn’t report in to you
because Ralph had already contacted me with the news of the
existence of the emeralds, and that you believed me to be a
traitor,” Alard said. “I determined that it was in everyone’s best
interests, not the least my own, that I remained free.”

“
We both cannot be telling
the truth.” Philippe looked hard at Alard. “I know I am; therefore
you are not.”

“
Why are you so resistant
to sense?” Alard said.

Philippe tsked through his teeth. “I’d
shared the evidence against you with David. When he saw you, he
must have decided to take matters into his own hands.”

“
What were your orders
regarding Alard, then?” Gareth said. “If everyone knew that he’d
betrayed the empress, wasn’t that as good as a death sentence among
you?”

“
I wanted him captured, not
killed, until I could speak to the empress myself,” Philippe said.
“I didn’t want Alard dead because then I would have had difficulty
convincing her that he had betrayed her. With him alive, she could
question him herself.”

“
What about John?” Ralph
said. “Philippe, both David and John encountered Alard within an
hour of his arrival at Newcastle and tried to kill him. They were
taking orders from someone.”

Philippe shrugged. “You are wrong. They were
acting on their own volition. Alard was a brother to them, and he
betrayed them. I cannot condone what they did, but neither can I
blame them.”

“
What about the emeralds?”
Ralph said. “One was found in David’s possession.”

Philippe sneered. “Found by him!” He threw
out a hand to point at Gareth. “A fact that Sir Gareth kept hidden
from me. More likely, the Welsh have been conspiring with Alard all
along to lay the blame at David’s feet so that the emerald could go
to King Owain.”

Gareth almost laughed, marveling at how easy
it was for Philippe to construct a case against him out of nothing.
“The gem had been sewn into the seam of David’s cloak.”

But Philippe wasn’t listening. “Enough of
this talk!” He pointed at Alard. “Seize him!”

Gareth raised his sword, prepared to defend
Alard, but Ralph made a sharp gesture with one hand. “Stop!”

And to Gareth’s surprise, Philippe’s men
did. Maybe it was because they had listened to the conversation and
weren’t as sure of Alard’s guilt as Philippe, or maybe it was
because Ralph had once been their master, before Philippe.
Regardless of the reason, when Philippe staggered, his hand
clutching at his chest, it was Alard and Ralph who caught his arms
and maneuvered him to a bench set against the wall of the garden
hut.

Gareth went down on one knee before the old
spymaster. “Four emeralds came to Newcastle. David had one. Do you
really think Alard would have come here, even to clear his name, if
he had the other three in his possession?”

“
He hopes to ingratiate
himself again, to get close to Prince Henry so he can murder him,”
Philippe said, his voice a wheeze.

“
Who stole David’s body
from the chapel?” Gareth said. “Did you order it?”

Philippe’s brow furrowed. “Of course
not.”

“
Are you suggesting that
Alard returned to the castle, subdued Gwen and Prior Rhys, and
murdered his friend, Rosalind, all without anyone recognizing him?”
Gareth said.

Philippe’s jaw clenched, and he didn’t
answer.

“
If you accept that he
could not have done those things, then you have to acknowledge that
someone else is the traitor,” Gareth said. “I believe you are an
honorable enough man to admit when you are wrong.” When Philippe
didn’t answer, Gareth sat beside him. “I need you to answer a few
more questions for me, and then I will not trouble you
again.”

“
You want more?” Though
Philippe’s voice trembled, a hint of amusement appeared in it as
well. “What is it?”

“
We have a chain of events
that we must follow, threads that have been woven together that we
must unravel. You say that you didn’t send David and John after
Alard.”

Philippe nodded but didn’t speak, preserving
his energy. His sudden attack seemed to be easing, and he rested
his head against the wall at his back.

“
You also say that you
didn’t order someone to steal David’s body and disable Prior Rhys,”
Gareth said.

“
I did not.”

Gareth rubbed his chin. “Do you know about
the farmhouse?”

Alard stared hard at Gareth, but Philippe
didn’t seem to notice and said, “What farmhouse?”

Gareth rubbed his hands together. “Lastly,
did you send that archer to the abandoned chapel last night?”

“
No.”

“
Thank you.” Gareth rose to
his feet. He and Alard moved several paces away to allow Ralph to
take Gareth’s place and speak with Philippe, one old spy to
another.

“
My friend, the only
evidence you have against Alard is the word of a messenger sent by
William de Ypres,” Ralph said. “If you entertain the idea that he
played you false, in a deliberate attempt to mislead you, than
everything else we have argued in Alard’s defense must be
true.”

Philippe’s breath came more easily, along
with the encouragement they needed: “Go on.”

“
Thank the Virgin,” Alard
said in Gareth’s ear. “He’s beginning to listen.”

“
This means Philippe isn’t
our traitor either,” Gareth said.

“
I don’t know if that makes
me feel better or worse,” Alard said. “I had convinced myself that
he was the only one who had the means to assassinate Prince
Henry.”

“
I never trusted him, of
course,” Gareth said, “but why didn’t you?”

Alard’s brow furrowed. “Who else has a
finger in every pie? Who has the ambition and the reach?”

“
I don’t know. There’s too
much I still don’t know.”

“
We must find the answers,”
Alard said. “Prince Henry’s life depends on it, and I am more
worried now than before. I have been taking orders from Philippe
for years, and yet the events of the past few days have completely
passed him by.”

“
I apologize for revealing
the existence of the farmhouse,” Gareth said. “You deliberately
kept it a secret, did you not?”

Alard nodded.

“
From everyone?” Gareth
said.

“
Only the four of us and
Ralph knew of it.” Alard paused. “And Ranulf, of
course.”

Gareth started. “Why Ranulf?”

“
All this land, except for
Newcastle itself, belongs to the Earl of Chester,” Alard said. “We
couldn’t build on it without him knowing.”

Gareth turned to look back at Philippe.
Ralph sat next to him, and the two men were talking quietly. “A
secret stops being a secret the moment you tell one person,” Gareth
said. “It occurs to me only now that if David was paid an emerald
to betray you and the empress, what other of your secrets might he
have told? And to whom?”

Chapter
Twenty-two

Gwen

“I
don’t feel like sleeping yet,” Gwen said to Prior Rhys when
they reached the Welsh camp.

“
I confess, I’m wide awake
too.” Prior Rhys helped Gwen dismount at the pickets and then
crooked his elbow in invitation. “How’s the ankle?”

“
Fine.” That wasn’t exactly
a lie. It was mostly fine. Gwen took Rhys’s arm and began to stroll
with him around the perimeter of the camp. As they walked, she
could see Prior Rhys evaluating the layout of the encampment, his
eyes flicking from the sentries, to the picketed horses, to the
tents and fire circles. Old habits weren’t easily put
aside.

“
I understand that Prince
Henry will pass our camp on his way to the castle tomorrow morning;
we should be able to join his party,” Gwen said.

“
It is my thought to get a
little ahead of him,” Rhys said. “I don’t want his murder to happen
on my watch.”

“
But you aren’t a sentry,”
Gwen said. “It isn’t your watch any longer, and yet you still feel
responsible? Why?”

“
In some way, I feel that
everything that has happened this week stems from Ralph and me. If
we hadn’t left, if we had found another way, we might have stopped
this before it started.”

“
That’s a great many days
to relive,” Gwen said. “Think of all the good you’ve done at St.
Asaph. If you hadn’t been there last winter, Gareth might not be
alive.”

Prior Rhys patted Gwen’s hand. “You comfort
me.”

“
Besides, there are a
hundred ways to murder a prince,” Gwen said. “Perhaps tomorrow is
not the day.”

“
No.” Rhys shook his head.
“There are a hundred ways, but only a few that are manageable
without getting caught. That has to be the reason for the traitor’s
focus on Newcastle—and his craftiness. Whoever is behind this plot
has been planning Prince Henry’s death for some time. Those
emeralds aren’t payment for failure.”

“
I can see that,” Gwen
said, “but why hasn’t our assassin tried to kill Prince Henry long
before now?”

“
Who’s to say that he
hasn’t?” Prior Rhys said. “But I suspect he wasn’t able to get
close to Prince Henry in Bristol.”