Read Online The Bard's Daughter (A Gareth and Gwen Medieval Mystery) by Sarah Woodbury - Free Book Online Page B

Cadfael looked, though of course she didn’t dare say so.
    Gruffydd stirred. “I have a suggestion, my lord.”
    Cadfael glanced at his captain. “Yes?”
    “ We should use Meilyr to lay a trap,” Gruffydd said.
    Cadoc spoke from behind his father’s chair. “What kind of trap?” He leaned forward, his eyes on Gruffydd. It was just the kind of thing to appeal to a fourteen year old boy.
    “ You threatened Meilyr with hanging earlier,” Gruffydd said. “The whole castle knows of it. I propose that we announce that Meilyr is guilty as charged and destined to be hanged in the morning.”
    “ What—?” Gwen stared at Gruffydd, aghast.
    Cadfael ignored Gwen. “Go on.”
    “ Instead of being hanged, however, what if Meilyr dies in the night? The murderer would feel himself safe. With Meilyr convicted and out of the way, he could come to Saran for healing.”
    Cadfael fingered his chin as he thought, his eyes on a point above Gwen’s head.
    “ If this doesn’t work, you wouldn’t—he wouldn’t really kill him—” Gwen could barely get the words out.
    “ Of course not, Gwen,” Gruffydd said.
    “ It would be a ruse, to draw the real murderer out.” Cadoc turned to Gwen. “Have you mentioned the issue of the murderer’s hands to anyone but us?”
    “ No, my lord,” Gwen said, “not even to Saran, though she is the one who found these rags.”
    “ If we behaved as if the matter were settled, it would allow Meilyr to sing in the hall for my birth day celebration tonight,” Cadoc said.
    Gwen blanched. An hour ago, every man in the room had seemed set on hanging her father at the first opportunity, and now they wanted him to sing.
    “ It might work,” Cadfael finally said.
    Robert glanced at his lord quickly and then turned away, running his hand through his hair. Gwen forced her eyes away from the steward and towards Cadoc, who was grinning, unaware of the silent communication and tension in his elders. A moment ago, Cadfael had given Robert a look that had been knowing . What was going on here? Robert might be innocent of murder, but she was beginning to believe there was more to this than she had so far uncovered.

Chapter Eight
     
    T he hunting party returned at dusk in good spirits, having killed two deer for the feast. The kitchens had been prepared for failure, which meant that the celebration of Cadoc’s birth day would now be doubly fine. The scent of roasted meat wafted across the courtyard with every gust of the wind. Gwen could smell it, even from inside her father’s cell.
    “ All of this is my own fault, Gwen.” Meilyr paced back and forth in front of his daughter.
    “ How can you say that?” Earlier, Gwen had related to him what had happened in the great hall, and Gruffydd’s plan for him. Her father had been opposed to it at first, but in the intervening hours, had come around, willing now to play his part.
    “ I should never have brought us here in the first place,” he said. “We should have stayed in Powys.”
    “ Lord Thomas asked us to stay,” Gwen said. “Why did we leave?”
    “ Because we’d been there for months already and Collen wanted me to come here. He promised to make it worth my while,” Meilyr said. “He and Lord Cadfael."
    “ And now Collen is dead,” Gwen said.
    Meilyr nodded. “Though it was mighty convenient for Cadfael to find me guilty of murder. If he really had hung me, he would have owed me—or rather you and Gwalchmai—nothing. No wonder he preferred that punishment to requiring me to make the payment of galanas to Eva.”
    “ Wait, Father—what are you saying?” Gwen kept stumbling over ideas that were new to her. “You’re telling me that Cadfael cannot pay what he owes us for the winter?”
    Gwen’s family had never lacked food and shelter, for all that they’d wandered Wales since they’d left Gwynedd. Their voices were their entry into any home, high or low. But Cadfael was a lord. How could he not have the resources to