The Fourth Horseman by Sarah Woodbury Read Free Book Online Page B

have attained. Two were Welshmen, another was a
Saxon, and the fourth was a Frenchman.”
    “ I’d wager that David was
one of the Welshmen,” Gareth said, and at Amaury’s nod added,
“though Ranulf said he was his man, not Maud’s.”
    “ Ranulf thought David
belonged to him; he was meant to think so,” Amaury said.
    “ But you know differently?”
Gareth said.
    Amaury gave him a long look, and when Gareth
didn’t add to his question, he said, “You need me to lay it
out?”
    Gareth chewed on his lower lip, studying
Amaury’s face. “Your liege lord is Ranulf as well. Are you implying
that your allegiance is also broader, to the empress, just as
David’s was? Are you a spy for her too?”
    Amaury coughed a laugh. “Hardly. I am a
knight, as you see.” He spread his hands wide. “But that does not
mean I am not party to certain information.”
    Gareth hated such obliqueness, but he didn’t
want to throw Amaury off his stride. “I accept that. We were
talking about the four horsemen.”
    Amaury nodded. “To continue, that man
there—” Amaury tipped his head towards the clearing where John’s
body lay, “—the Saxon, John, along with the second Welshman who
died years ago, were under Earl Robert’s authority.”
    “ And the fourth, the
Frenchman, was … Alard?” Gareth said, seeing where this was
going.
    “ He was a favorite of the
empress, a man she’d known for twenty years, ever since he was a
boy. He was the most trusted of the four,” Amaury said.
    “ And Alard has now killed
both David and John,” Gareth said, “two of the four
horsemen.”
    “ So it seems,” Amaury
said
    Gareth eyes narrowed. “We know Alard killed
David. How can you think otherwise?”
    Amaury sighed and did not answer.
    Gareth reminded himself, not for the first
time, that Alard had been Amaury’s friend. “At the very least, you
have to grant that he is involved in his death.”
    “ Yes. I grant that,” Amaury
said.
    Gareth glanced away, thinking. “Could these
four men—or rather, the remaining three—have had some kind of
falling out?”
    “ They were never natural
friends,” Amaury said, “and if they had a falling out, it was years
ago. What people will assume now, if we cannot prove otherwise, is
that Alard has betrayed the empress for Stephen, just as Earl
Ranulf said.”
    Gareth wished his French came as naturally
to him as his Welsh. Amaury seemed to feel the need to assume the
best of his former friend, despite all evidence that condemned him.
Gareth decided to allow his skepticism and ignorance to show. “You
don’t believe Alard is a traitor either? Ranulf seemed sure. All of
this would make more sense and be quite straightforward if he
was.”
    “ When one is dealing with
spies, things are rarely straightforward,” Amaury said. “I don’t
believe it. For all that he is a spy, Alard is not a coward. If he
had defected to Stephen, he would have told the empress himself. He
would have told me.”
    In Gareth’s experience, one of the most
predictable aspects of intelligent men was how unpredictable they
could be. But again, Alard had been Amaury’s friend. “Yet now we
have John,” Gareth said. “He could have been the third man on the
tower.”
    “ Of course he could have. I
assumed it, right up until his boot didn’t fit the print, which
means that we are looking for a fourth man.” Amaury shook his head. “I
am as much in the dark as you.”
    “ The fourth horseman?”
Gareth said.
    “ He’s dead,” Amaury
said.
    “ What was his
name?”
    “ Why does it
matter?”
    Gareth shrugged. “I’m just gathering
information. I don’t know what might become important later.”
    Amaury picked at his lower lip. “Peter.”
    “ Right,” Gareth said. “Well
… if Alard is as intelligent as you say, he had a reason for coming
to Newcastle.”
    “ Ranulf would say it was to
murder David,” Amaury said.
    “ But you still don’t think
so?”
    Amaury sighed. “I admit that