Free The Fallen Princess by Sarah Woodbury

else.” She looked around the room. “How did you
convince Mari not to join us?”
    Hywel grimaced. “Breakfast did not sit well
with her.”
    Gwen focused on Hywel’s face. “I noticed
that she was picking at her meal.” She took a step towards the
prince. “Mari is with child?”
    Gareth’s mouth fell open. That wouldn’t have
been his first thought, but then, he apparently wasn’t thinking
clearly this morning in many ways.
    Hywel’s face split into a grin. “We think
so.”
    “That’s wonderful.” Gwen threw her arms
around Hywel and hugged him. Then she backed off, holding both of
his hands. “But I just spoke with her. She said nothing to me.”
    “We swore to each other that we wouldn’t
mention it, not to anyone, until we were sure,” Hywel said.
    Gwen hadn’t told Gareth she was pregnant
until she was sure either, and they’d both held the news in for
half the summer during Gareth’s absence. It did no one any good to
raise hopes only to dash them later.
    “You can tell her I guessed,” Gwen said.
“And I didn’t get a chance to tell Gareth yet, but she’s already
helped this investigation. She knew Tegwen better than any of us, I
think.” Gwen gave an account of her conversation with Mari to the
men.
    Hywel began to pace in front of the window.
He left the shutters open except in the bitterest of weather. Today
it was warmer outside than in. “I spoke to the men on guard. Those
on duty after midnight saw nothing and heard nothing.”
    “Except for the light that passed by on the
road,” Gwen said.
    Hywel stopped his pacing. “What was
that?”
    “The talk in the great hall is that one of
the guards saw … well … an ethereal light passing along the road in
the early hours of the morning. He has the entire hall convinced
that it was Tegwen’s ghost.”
    Hywel snorted in disgust. “That’s just what
we need: a haunting. Next thing we know, the shade of Tegwen will
be meeting Bran at midnight in the woods, since he had the poor
judgment to get himself killed too.”
    Gareth nodded. “Ill-fated lovers.”
    “My lord, I am loath to bring this up, but
when do you plan to tell your father about Cadwaladr?” Gwen
said.
    Gareth sent a look of thanks in Gwen’s
direction, but she was focused on the prince and didn’t see it.
    Hywel resumed his pacing. “I say we wait to
speak of Uncle Cadwaladr until we track down this horse and cart
and determine where the body came from.” He glanced at Gwen.
“Gareth and I will see to that while you find out about Tegwen’s
last days.”
    Gwen put her hands on her hips. “You give me
all the thankless tasks. Do you have any suggestions as to how I
might accomplish that?”
    Hywel ignored Gwen’s irritation. “Everyone
has gathered at Aber for the holy day. The sudden appearance of her
body will bring memories to the surface. Gather them.”
    “More specifically,” Gareth said, “Mari
spoke of Tegwen’s unhappy marriage and of a lover. Who was he?
Where is he now? What might he know of the events leading up to her
disappearance? Someone here has to be able to tell us more about
her life.”
    Gwen looked thoughtful now instead of
defiant. “Yes, my lord.”
    “Meanwhile, Gareth and I—” Hywel halted his
pacing, his expression clearing with the promise of activity, “—are
off again.”
    Privately, Gareth was still wondering if the
body really was that of Tegwen and not someone else wearing her
clothing and necklace, but one look at Hywel’s face had him
swallowing down any argument. He would go where his lord pointed,
as he always did.

Chapter Six
    Gwen
     
    G wen grumbled to
herself as she said goodbye to the men and walked out of Hywel’s
office. She’d promised her father that she wouldn’t leave Aber; she
had known before she met with Hywel and Gareth what the end result
would be . More and more of late, her condition was
preventing her from doing what she wanted to do. It wasn’t because
she couldn’t be as active as in