The Uninvited Guest by Sarah Woodbury

hand, dismissing her anxiety. “Of course they
were. I know I didn’t open the door, but without it, how could the
assassin have gotten out?”
    Gareth walked into the cell and stood, hands
on his hips, surveying the room. “I don’t know that we can blame
the guards if they were dosed, my lord.” He glanced at Hywel and
Gwen. “Besides, the assassin didn’t need the key in order to
escape. He had help from a different direction.”
    “ What do you mean?” Gwen
said.
    Gareth stalked to the side wall. With a tug,
he removed a plank and then three more, revealing a hole three feet
wide and five tall. “Believe me, if these boards had been loose
when your father put me in here, I would have noticed—and might
have departed just as easily.” Gareth tossed the planks to the
ground, disgusted.
    “ You didn’t have to escape
because you had me looking out for you. It makes me wonder who was
looking out for our assassin?” Hywel entered the room and bent to
look through the opening into the courtyard beyond. “This will
limit the room’s usefulness as a prison cell in future.”
    Gwen smiled. Her lord had a way with
understatement. She turned back to Taran. “Nobody has been able to
get anything out of Lord Goronwy?”
    “ Not even Tomos,” Taran
said. “As I am still under a cloud of suspicion, I didn’t feel it
was my place to try. And now that the assassin is gone
…”
    “ He was your accuser.”
Hywel pursed his lips. “This doesn’t look good for you.”
    Taran swallowed hard. “I know, my lord.”
    “ Cadwaladr volunteered to
inform my father of Enid’s death,” Hywel said. “Have you seen him
this morning?”
    Taran hesitated. “No, my lord. This news
will make him even more angry. He was supposed to be married in …”
Taran glanced towards the entrance to the stables where a square of
sunlight shone on the floor inside the entrance, “… just a few
hours.”
    “ I need you to return to
him and tell him what has happened,” Hywel said.
    Taran bowed his head. “Yes, my lord.” And
then he added, “It is wise of you to realize that this news would
be better coming from an old friend.”
    “ Thank you,” Hywel
said.
    Taran left the stables. His drawn look and
aged bearing were becoming permanent.
    “ That was cruel to send him
to your father,” Gwen said. “Taran must realize that he and
Cadwaladr are running neck and neck in our suspicions.”
    Hywel’s lips twitched. “Taran could have let
the boy go. Who else had more to gain from his disappearance?”
    “ Other than the real
killer?” Gwen said.
    “ What if the boy murdered
Enid?” Hywel said.
    “ I know that the boy tried
to murder your father, my lord,” Gwen said, “but really, he seemed
quite harmless once you subdued him. Why would he fail to kill your
father and then take the time to murder Enid inside the castle, when freedom was
only a few yards away?”
    “ Perhaps she helped him to
escape from the cell and then he wanted to cover his tracks,” Hywel
said.
    “ So he killed her? And then
stashed her body in the linen closet?” Gareth said.
    “ When you put it like that,
it does seem unlikely,” Hywel said.
    “ At the very least, he
would have dumped her body right here,” Gareth said. “How Lord
Goronwy comes into it, I can’t imagine.”
    “ What if Goronwy paid the
assassin to attack the king?” Gwen said.
    “ Why would he do that on
the eve of his daughter’s wedding to that very same king?” Hywel
said.
    Gareth smirked. “After the wedding would be
something else entirely.”
    “ We need to trace Enid’s
movements last night,” Hywel said.
    “ Did you see Enid last night, my lord?”
Gwen said.
    Hywel rubbed his hand along
his chin. “I already told you no, I
didn’t . If you must know, I was with
someone else last night. For the whole night.”
    “ She will account for you?”
Gareth said.
    Gwen’s attention flashed to Gareth. He’d
spoken so reasonably of Hywel back in the linen