The Good Knight (A Gareth and Gwen Medieval Mystery)

dirt and scuff marks on Anarawd’s toes.”
    “Oh yes,” Hywel said. “I was worried when Gareth so quickly identified that the body had been moved. Admittedly, Gareth’s skills are the reason I brought him into my company in the first place, but that he could read the signs so easily…”
    Understanding grew in Gwen’s mind. “So once we all were at Aber, you hid Anarawd’s body yourself to prevent Gareth from making further discoveries. That was you.”
    “I buried him in unconsecrated ground,” Hywel said. “Anarawd was a coward. I couldn’t allow my sister to marry him.”
    “And Anarawd’s seal?” Gwen said.
    “Ah yes, the seal.” He tapped a staccato on the window sill. “The Danes realized they were never going to get their money if they didn’t bring the seal to Cadwaladr. I imagine he’d demanded it as proof they’d done the deed. When they didn’t find it among the dead, they may have believed they’d ambushed the wrong party, which is why they returned to the road for the second ambush.”
    “Perhaps I can shed light on that, at least,” Gwen said. “One of Cadwaladr’s guards was at Dolwyddelan. I saw him there and at Aber. Later, he was one of my guards at Aberffraw, after Cadwaladr abducted me. If he met the Danes after the first ambush, he could have ordered them to finish the job. Bran, Gareth’s milk-brother, implied as much before he died, though we didn’t understand his meaning at the time.”
    “And thus, my men and I were unable to pick up their trail. They didn’t head west, back to their boats, but took another route north to intercept you.”
    “So it was you who took the seal from Anarawd’s body and hid it in Cadell’s room to divert suspicion.”
    For the first time, Hywel looked slightly guilty. “How was I to know that Cristina would come snooping?”
    “That’s…” Gwen tried to find the word but the best one she could come up with was diabolical and just couldn’t quite say it.
    Hywel gazed at her intently. “Do not forget that it was Cadwaladr who sent the Danes to murder Anarawd, not I. That they did not succeed does not absolve him of his crimes.”
    Gwen studied Hywel’s face. She wanted to believe him. She’d served him because she believed what he’d told her. But now … something still didn’t add up.
    “Tell me the real reason you killed Anarawd,” she said. “There’s something more; something you haven’t said. Was it personal gain? Your father has given you Ceredigion.”
    “Again, you think so little of me?”
    “Is this really about Anarawd?” Gwen said. “Or about Cadwaladr?”
    “It’s always been about Anarawd.”
    “What grudge did you hold against him?”
    A long silence followed through which Hywel held his expression, and then his eyes darkened. “Cowardice isn’t enough?” He gave her a small smile. “No. For you, it’s only the truth that is enough, isn’t it?” He walked back to his desk and sat heavily in his chair. He picked up his pen and then dropped it.
    “Six years ago, I fought beside my father in Deheubarth in the rebellion that put Anarawd on the throne. Even all these years later, the brutality of that war haunts me.” He paused, seeming to search for the words. “Anarawd’s father was old, but not to death, not like my grandfather who was blind and could no longer travel. The King of Deheubarth’s sword arm was still strong. But in the midst of some heavy fighting along the Teifi River—the last battle we fought that turned into a victorious rout for us—Anarawd came upon his father from behind and murdered him.”
    Gwen blinked. “Just like that? And you a witness?”
    The rueful smile was back. “The whole truth, eh? It was the last of the fighting but my first real experience in war. I was puking my guts out behind a tree—dry heaving by then—when Anarawd’s father came to rest some ten paces from me. He put a hand on a tree, holding his heart and breathing hard. We were fifty yards from the fighting—not exactly safe, but out of it. Anarawd came up to his father, all solicitous, and then stabbed him through the heart.”
    “As you did Anarawd.”
    “Yes,” Hywel said. “I call it justice.”
    “Why didn’t you tell your father?” Gwen said. “He would have listened to you.”
    “Would he?” Hywel said. “You know my father. The alliance with Deheubarth was well-established by then; Anarawd was in his confidence and when he brought the body of his father into