Read Online The Fallen Princess by Sarah Woodbury - Free Book Online Page B

can talk later.”
    Meilyr waved his hand at his daughter, a
growl still on his lips. “Take care of her.”
    “Yes, sir,” Gareth said. As they walked back
inside, he touched Gwen’s rounded belly and kissed her cheek. “Are
you really all right?”
    “I’m fine. A little sad that this has
happened.”
    “Hywel has already impressed upon me the
urgency of sorting out at least something of what happened to her
by tomorrow evening,” Gareth said and related the details of what
they’d discovered since she’d left the beach, including the
information about the cart and Cadwaladr’s pendant. He concluded,
“King Owain will certainly bury her before the sun sets tomorrow
evening.”
    “It is making everyone uncomfortable that
her body turned up right before Hallowmas. They fear her ghost,”
Gwen said.
    Gareth eyed his wife. “Do you?”
    “Of course not, but maybe Cadwaladr does,”
Gwen said.
    Gareth’s brows came together. “Why do you
say that?”
    “Because he left the body on the beach!”
Gwen said. “Why do that unless he was afraid of her somehow?”
    “He kept the body hidden for five years,”
Gareth said. “Why would it bother him now when it didn’t
before?”
    “That I don’t know,” Gwen said, “but people
are already saying in the hall that she walks among us. Someone saw
a white light along the road last night, and in another hour, half
the castle will have seen it too.”
    Gareth nodded slowly. “I would be more
afraid of the man who murdered her than of Tegwen herself.”
    “You would,” Gwen said, “but you don’t
believe in ghosts.”
    “Why leave her on the beach now, though?”
Gareth said. “Cadwaladr has to know that five years on, the only
possible outcome of bringing her death to light is to stir up
trouble.”
    “Maybe he preferred trouble to retribution,”
Gwen said, “though I think there has to be more to it than
that.”
    Gareth raised his eyebrows. “What more?”
    “I think we’re looking at this wrong.
Cadwaladr may not have felt he had a choice but to move the body,”
Gwen said, “since it may be that he only recently found it.”
    Gareth stopped outside Hywel’s door, looking
down at his wife. “ Cariad , how could that possibly be right?
Cadwaladr would know where he left the body.” And then his eyes
narrowed as he understood what she was saying. “You think the man
who killed her and the man who left the body on the beach aren’t
the same person.”
    Gwen nodded. “As much as we all would like
to see Cadwaladr hang for Tegwen’s murder, I am wondering if there
aren’t two opposing minds at work here: one belongs to the man who
hid the body, the killer. Knowing we all thought Tegwen happy
somewhere else, he never wanted her found; the second man feels the
exactly the opposite: he wants the body as far away from him as
possible and doesn’t want to be reminded of it ever again.”
    Gareth rubbed his chin. That Cadwaladr was
to blame for Tegwen’s death would wrap this investigation up in a
neat bow. He didn’t want Gwen to be right, but the more he
considered what she’d said, the more he had to grant the
possibility that she was.
    Gwen’s brow remained furrowed in
concentration. “I confess that the latter sounds more like
Cadwaladr than the former.”
    Gareth urged Gwen across the threshold of
Hywel’s office and closed the door behind them. Hywel was alone in
the room. “Have you caught the killer yet?”
    “Not quite,” Gwen said.
    “Gwen has decided that the killer and the
man who left the body on the beach are two different people,”
Gareth said.
    “Is that where we are now?” Hywel said.
    “It’s an idea,” Gareth said. “Under the
circumstances, it is one you may prefer.”
    Hywel’s mouth twisted into an apologetic
smile. “I had considered it.” Then he looked at Gwen. “Thank you
for speaking to my father. It went well? He didn’t eat you, I
see.”
    “He was angry at first but then was more sad
than anything