The Uninvited Guest by Sarah Woodbury Page B

rationalizations of his
own deceits. Such behavior worried Gareth. And probably would
continue to do so.
    “ I owe you,” Hywel said.
“You and Gwen.”
    Gareth chewed on the inside of his lip. It
wasn’t a bad thing to have his lord in his debt, but this wasn’t
one that necessarily could be repaid. “You are my liege lord,”
Gareth said. “I will not betray you.”
    Hywel eased out a breath.
So—he’d been worried. Am I doing the right
thing, letting Hywel slip away free? Yet
Gareth couldn’t imagine marching up to King Owain and informing him
of what his son had done. Truly, that would be
impossible.
    Hywel rubbed his hands to warm them. “Today,
we have a new problem.”
    “ We do,” Gareth said. “Tell
me now if you had anything to do with Enid’s death or the attack on
your father—anything at all.”
    Hywel’s gaze was steady on Gareth’s face. “I
had nothing to do with this assassin and I haven’t spoken to Enid
for two years. She meant nothing to m—”
    “ Hywel ap Owain!” A woman
in her forties with a breast like the prow of a Viking ship burst
through the archway from the courtyard, sailed across the kitchen
garden, and beached herself in front of Hywel.
    “ Lady Jane—”
    “ Don’t Lady Jane me!” Her accent indicated a
Norman upbringing but her Welsh was perfect. “It is your fault that my
daughter is dead!” Jane choked on the last word. She put her
handkerchief to her mouth and sobbed in great heaving
breaths.
    Hywel glanced at Gareth, a little wide-eyed,
but Gareth stepped back, palms out. He had no idea what was going
on. “Lady Jane, how can you say that?” Hywel mustered some sympathy
and patted Jane on the shoulder.
    Jane’s head came up, back to angry. “You
sniveling bastard! I watched your sneaking ways when you were in
diapers and you haven’t changed. Just the other day, Enid let me
know that it was because of you that she changed her mind about
coming to the wedding. It was only at the last moment that she
joined our party.”
    Hywel’s mouth dropped open.
“None of what you say is true.” Which wasn’t entirely accurate,
since Hywel was a
bastard. “I had nothing to do with Enid coming to Aber. Nothing at
all.”
    Jane shook her finger in Hywel’s face.
“Don’t be impertinent!”
    “ Aunt Jane,” Hywel said,
all reasonable, now that his initial surprise had passed, “Enid’s
death was not my fault.”
    Gareth decided that resolving his
disagreement with Hywel meant that Hywel was still his liege lord
and it was his duty to step in and save Hywel if he could. “Why
wasn’t Enid coming to the wedding in the first place? She was
Cristina’s cousin and companion.”
    “ Was!” Jane sobbed through her handkerchief. “My little girl
…”
    Hywel and Gareth glanced at each other, both
wishing they could be anywhere else but where they were. Gareth was
a hair’s-breadth from turning tail and running.
    Jane got herself more under control and
transferred her gaze to Gareth. She seemed to like what she saw
well enough to answer him. “Enid was not a good horsewoman and the
journey from Flintshire is a long one.” Jane sighed. “But as she
introduced King Owain and Cristina to each other, it seemed only
fitting that she should be a witness to their wedding.”
    “ Wait … wait …” Hywel said.
“Enid introduced Cristina to my father?”
    “ Why yes.” Jane turned back
to the prince. “We had hopes that Owain might choose Enid for his
bride after Gladwys died, but it was not to be.”
    This was startling news. It was a known fact
that you couldn’t keep a secret at Aber, but that was clearly wrong
in this instance. “Did Enid …” Gareth paused in mid-sentence,
trying to find a diplomatic way to ask the question, “… resent King
Owain’s relationship with Cristina?”
    Jane waved her handkerchief. “Of course not.
Their parting was amicable and Enid was looking to marry a
landowner who lived near Shrewsbury. Much better for her, we