The Fallen Princess by Sarah Woodbury Read Free Book Online

the
doorway, closer to Gwen. He pulled the door nearly closed behind
him, with only a sliver of empty space between the door and the
frame. He didn’t want Cristina to hear him. “Do you have any
indication as to how she died?”
    Gwen found her gaze dropping to her shoes so
she wouldn’t have to see King Owain’s expression when she told him.
“My lord, her hair is matted with blood and her skull crushed.”
    “So on top of everything else, this is
murder,” King Owain said.
    “The location of the wound makes a fall from
a horse unlikely but not impossible,” Gwen said. “Hywel may already
have discovered more about it, but he sent me to find you so you
wouldn’t learn of this from someone else.”
    King Owain pursed his lips. “Wait for me in
the hall. I would speak to you further.”
    Gwen curtseyed. “Yes, my lord.”
    The king looked at Taran. “We’ll have to
inform Gruffydd.”
    “He and Sioned should be arriving at Aber
this afternoon.” Taran’s mouth turned down. “They’ll be bringing
Tegwen’s daughters with them.” After Bran’s murder, Tegwen’s
grandparents had taken her two daughters in to raise, as they’d
raised Tegwen upon Ilar’s death.
    “That is a conversation I am not looking
forward to.” King Owain went back into his room and shut the
door.
    The three companions in the corridor heaved
a mutual sigh of relief. “That went better than I had any right to
expect,” Taran said.
    But as they turned away to head to the great
hall to wait for the king as he’d requested, a crash resounded from
within King Owain’s bedroom. “A chair has met its demise, I would
say,” Meilyr said.
    Taran walked steadily down the hall.
“Cristina will see to him.”
    “Coward,” Meilyr said.
    Turning his head to look back at them, Taran
shot Gwen and her father a grin. “Definitely.” Then he sobered and
stopped a few feet from the end of the corridor. “Putting entirely
aside the matter of Tegwen’s death and that we’ve been deceived all
these years as to the manner in which she left us, why would
someone remove her from her grave and leave her on the beach?”
    “I do not know, my lord. I don’t even know
if that’s what has happened,” Gwen said. “I think we won’t know
until Gareth and I—and Prince Hywel, of course—start asking
questions. It may be difficult to discover the sequence of events,
however, given how long ago she disappeared.”
    “I will give you any assistance I can—”
Taran turned to look towards the doorway to the great hall.
    Gwen waited a beat. “What is it?”
    Taran cleared his throat, and it was only
when he wiped at the corner of his eye that she saw the tears on
his cheeks. “She was a dear girl. I liked the thought of her in the
arms of some mighty Dane. She deserved to be loved and
protected.”
    “What about Bran—?” But Gwen had asked the
question to Taran’s back. Two strides had taken him into the hall
where he was immediately besieged by men wanting to know what had
happened.
    Meilyr rested a hand on Gwen’s shoulder.
“Let him go. He’ll speak to you again when he’s ready.”
    Gwen swung around. “Do you know what he’s
talking about? Obviously if everyone accepted that she ran away
with a Dane, something was wrong with Tegwen’s marriage to
Bran.”
    Meilyr’s mouth thinned. “I do not know the
details.”
    “I don’t need the details as much as I need
to know what you’re thinking,” Gwen said. “I can fill those in
later from someone who knew her better.”
    “You may recall that I played at the
wedding?” Meilyr said. At Gwen’s nod, he continued, “She was not a
happy bride.”
    When her father didn’t elaborate further,
Gwen said, “Is that all?”
    “To tell you the truth, I didn’t inquire at
the time. It was none of my business. Gwalchmai wasn’t even four. I
had my own troubles.”
    “We all did.” She fixed her father with a
look. “So you can’t tell me any more than that?”
    Her father was