The Unlikely Spy Read Online Free PDF

sure?” Rhun said.
    “I’m sure. I was afraid for a moment—” He
stopped.
    Rhun pounced on the man’s hesitation. “What
were you afraid of? If you know anything about his death, I need to
know it right now.”
    “I know nothing.” The miller shook his head
vehemently back and forth. “I was going to say that I’ve been
waiting for my apprentice to return from his aunt’s house in
Borth.” He gestured helplessly to the body. “Even were I unsure of
this man’s features, this body isn’t missing a hand.”
    “Excuse me?” Rhun said. “Your apprentice is
missing a hand?”
    The miller waved a hand dismissively. “He’s
a good worker nonetheless.”
    Rhun was sure that Gareth or Gwen would have
done a better job at hiding their surprise, but he took a breath
and soldiered on nonetheless. “Did you have some particular reason
to think this was your apprentice?”
    “Not-not really. I expected him back from
Borth this morning, but he hasn’t come. When I learned a body had
been found, I feared the worst. But this isn’t he.” The miller
clasped his hands in front of him to stop himself from wringing
them.
    The miller was genuinely concerned, and Rhun
felt his sympathies rising, despite the fact that the miller’s
information was turning out not to be worth very much. The miller
put the cloth back to his mouth. He had turned a distinctive shade
of green.
    Rhun pointed to the water’s edge a few feet
away. “If you are going to be sick, please move away.”
    The miller swallowed hard and lifted his
eyes towards the sky. “I am well enough.”
    “What can you tell me about the millpond?”
Rhun said.
    “What do you need to know about it, my
lord?”
    “Is the water level higher today than
yesterday?”
    “Ach, yes.” The miller flapped his cloth. “I
always raise it when I have a large amount of grain to grind. And
with the orders from both the monastery and the castle that came in
two days ago because of the festival, I knew I’d be grinding day
and night throughout the week.”
    “How quickly does the water level rise once
you increase the width of the sluice gate?”
    “It takes some hours,” the miller said.
“It’s a constant battle to get it right, and don’t get me started
on what it’s like in the spring during the floods.”
    “I’m sure it isn’t easy,” Rhun said
appeasingly. “Does anyone guard the mill at night?”
    “My apprentice sleeps in the loft,” the
miller said.
    “The one who went to Borth?”
    “The same,” the miller said.
    Rhun just managed to refrain from rolling
his eyes. “So you’re telling me that nobody was sleeping in the
mill last night.”
    “No, my lord. Nobody.”
    “Where were you just now?”
    “I had business in the village. My
journeyman is more than capable of running the mill in my
absence.”
    Rhun was convinced that the miller’s
business had included more than one tankard of mead, but he didn’t
mention it. He wanted to keep the miller cooperative, not confront
him with shirking his duties. Rhun glanced at the body, thinking of
what question to ask next. So far the miller had explained about
the water level in the millpond, which Hywel probably already knew
but had been able to add little else. Rhun wasn’t going to have
anything much to show Prior Rhys and Gwen when he saw them next.
Then he consoled himself with the fact that at least they wouldn’t
waste their time questioning someone who couldn’t help.
    “May I go, my lord? I have business to
attend to.”
    Rhun nodded, waving a hand to dismiss the
miller. “We know where to find you if we need to speak with you
again.”
    The miller ducked his head and departed.
    “My lord!”
    Rhun spun around to see Gareth urge his
horse off the road and into the clearing in front of the mill.
Almost at the same moment, Gwen and Prior Rhys appeared out of the
trees and crossed the clearing towards him.
    Rhun felt a rush of relief and wasn’t
ashamed to admit it. Without help, this