The Bard's Daughter (A Gareth and Gwen Medieval Mystery) Read Online Free PDF Page B

wall keeps sound in when it doesn’t.”
    “ I already know what they discussed,” Gwen said. “My father told me. Collen wanted my father to smuggle a stolen item out of Carreg Cennen.”
    Ifan snorted his disbelief. “That’s what he told you, did he? If that were true, why did Meilyr call Collen a cheating bastard ?”
    Gwen eyed Ifan. “He didn’t. You made that up.”
    “ I speak the truth,” Ifan said. “Collen had promised your father a gift for helping him arrange a trading partnership with Lord Cadfael.”
    “ And Collen refused to give it?” Gwen said. “Why would he do that?”
    Ifan shrugged. “Because he never gave away anything he didn’t have to. Your father threatened to kill him.”
    Gwen stared at him. This was getting worse by the hour. She hadn’t thought that was possible. “I know my father didn’t kill Collen.” Gwen had no intention of letting Ifan know he was getting to her. “And you say you didn’t, but if I prove my father’s innocence, on whom will suspicion fall next? Who would be Gruffydd’s easiest target?”
    “ Not me,” Ifan said. “I had nothing to gain.”
    “ Prove it,” Gwen said. “Let me search the cart.”
    To Gwen’s surprise, Ifan shrugged. “Nothing in there belongs to me anyway.” He pushed up from his stool, his booted feet scuffling in the loose hay beneath his feet. He unlatched the flap that protected Collen’s goods and raised it. Then he stepped aside, making room for Gwen.
    Gwen stepped up and began picking through the shelves and drawers that Collen had cleverly built into his mobile market stall. But while Gwen saw plenty of items she might want for herself, she didn’t see a discarded vial. It had been silly to think she would. Ifan wasn’t the smartest boy in the castle, but if he was the murderer, surely he would have known better than to keep evidence of his guilt. And as he said, what had he to gain from Collen’s death?
    Gwen rubbed her forehead with her fingers, feeling a headache coming on. She closed her eyes, trying to focus on what she should do next.
    “ You might talk to Collen’s partner,” Ifan said. “And to the widow, Eva.”
    “ I will do that. I’m sorry to bother you at a time like this.”
    Ifan lifted one shoulder in acknowledgement of the apology. Gwen turned away, though not without casting a last glance at the servant. He had lowered himself onto his stool again, this time with his back to the courtyard—and to her. Gwen left him to himself, but instead of returning to the hall to look for Eva or Denis, she ducked under the eaves of the stable.
    As she stood in the doorway, allowing her eyes to adjust to the lack of light, a vision of another day and a different stable rose before her eyes. That time, she hadn’t been alone. Gareth had been with her.
    Gareth.
    She’d spent her days watching for him, waiting for him to return from patrol, or bringing him food from the kitchen. On one of the days he’d been let off from his duties, she’d searched him out. He had been currying his horse in the stable. A thong at the base of his neck secured his dark hair, though bits of straw had still managed to stick in it. She’d plucked one out, and as he’d looked at her, she’d known that he was the best thing ever to happen to her. It had all felt so right .
    She’d cried in his arms when he’d told her he was leaving. She’d railed at him at the time, but he’d explained firmly that he had to live with himself, no matter where he lived. He couldn’t obey Prince Cadwaladr’s orders, any more than he could stop loving her. Sometimes a man had to stand up for what was right, lest he lose his immortal soul.
    But his loss of station meant that he couldn’t provide for her and thus, Meilyr had refused to give Gwen to him. Although Gwen had looked for Gareth in every place they’d stopped since, she’d never seen him again. As Gwen allowed her eyes to adjust to the shadows in the stable, she told herself