The Good Knight (A Gareth and Gwen Medieval Mystery)

disapproval of the Church (which opposed what they viewed as consanguine relationships). Owain Gwynedd had many sons and daughters. The eldest two, from his first relationship with Pyfog of Ireland, were Rhun and Hywel, as related in The Good Knight. They were both illegitimate children, but according to Welsh law at that time, that was no obstacle to their nobility or their inheritance, provided their father acknowledged them, which King Owain did.
    For Hywel’s part, he was a genuine warrior-poet. He and Gwalchmai, who became chief bard to King Owain Gwynedd’s court, are revered as two of the foremost Welsh poets of the twelfth century.

    Thank you for reading The Good Knight , the first of the Gareth and Gwen Medieval Mysteries! I hope you enjoyed the book. Other books in the series include a prequel novella, The Bard’s Daughter , and two novels: The Uninvited Guest and The Fourth Horseman . If you would like to be notified whenever I have a new release, please see the sidebar of my web page: www.sarahwoodbury.com

    Or read an excerpt from the second Gareth and Gwen Medieval Mystery, The Uninvited Guest now :

Sample: The Uninvited Guest

    Chapter One
    November, 1143 AD

    G wen’s pulse beat so loudly in her ears, the sound drowned out the rumble of voices in the hall. He was here! And he still loved her! All day, she’d been thinking of Gareth, unable to contain her wish to see him, to talk to him. And she’d been terrified of it too. What if he didn’t have feelings for her anymore? What if he’d found a good woman in Ceredigion? When she’d stood on the top step to the courtyard and he hadn’t even seen her, her heart had fallen into her shoes.
    But she’d swallowed her pride and gone to him and was glad she had. It would have been terrible for her to have turned away with hurt feelings. Better to let him know up front that she still loved him and see if he would respond, than to sulk in silence, punishing him for something he hadn’t known he’d done. Admittedly, from her observations, Cristina, King Owain’s betrothed, treated King Owain like that with some frequency and it hadn’t driven him away. But that wasn’t Gwen’s way.
    She’d been hoping to see Gareth sooner. Days sooner. She’d paced the battlements looking for Prince Hywel’s company every free moment, until yesterday when her father had yelled at her to come in out of the rain. She’d half-given up on Gareth ever returning to Aber Castle. What if he’d died in the fighting in the south? She might not have heard the news for months. In some of her less sane moments, she’d convinced herself that Prince Hywel wasn’t going to come to his father’s wedding, and if he did come, he’d leave Gareth behind in Ceredigion.
    For Gwen realized that Hywel might think she and Gareth together could present a threat to him. Hywel had to know that Gwen would speak to Gareth of last summer. Gwen didn’t know what Gareth would do when she told him that it had been Hywel who had murdered King Anarawd, not Prince Cadwaladr, King Owain’s younger brother, for all that Cadwaladr had wanted the deed done. Gwen had hoped that by now Hywel would have told Gareth about it himself, but when she’d brought up the events of last summer in the courtyard just now, Gareth had given no indication that he knew the truth.
    “He’s back!” Gwen stopped next to her younger brother, Gwalchmai, who crouched beside their trunk of instruments with his friend, Iorwerth, one of King Owain’s many young sons.
    “Who’s—” Gwalchmai looked up at her and at the expression on her face, didn’t finish his question. “It’s about time he came home. He’s left you here alone far too long.”
    “It’s not his fault,” Gwen said. “Prince Hywel needed him in the south.”
    “And how long before he returns to Ceredigion?”
    Gwen shook her head. “Gareth’s not going without me, not this time.”
    Gwalchmai turned back to Iorwerth, mumbling something under his breath about their father and Hywel having a say in that. But if Gwen and Gareth were married, her father, at least, wouldn’t have a say in her life anymore. Gwen practically skipped to the top of the hall where the high table lay.
    Already on the dais, Hywel clasped hands with his brother, Rhun. Hywel’s black hair, deep blue eyes, and broad shoulders drew the eyes of every woman in the room to him—and had done so for as long as Gwen had known him. His charms no longer worked on her,