The Unlikely Spy by Sarah Woodbury Read Free Book Online Page B

ritual was repeated with Prior
Rhys, who returned the bow. “Prior Pedr.”
    Gareth nodded too, though Prior Pedr hadn’t
yet looked at him.
    “I see we have lost a parishioner,” Pedr
said.
    “It appears so,” Prior Rhys said, “though we
do not yet have a name for him.”
    “Brother Adda says he was found in the
millpond,” Pedr said.
    Gareth inferred that Adda was the hosteler
who’d just left. “Yes, but he didn’t drown.”
    Pedr look quickly up at Gareth. “He
didn’t?”
    “Prior, what Sir Gareth means to say is that
we believe the man to have been murdered before he was put into the
millpond, but we would prefer that as few people as possible are
aware of that,” Prior Rhys said. “So far we have kept it among us
few, though the two monks whose help I enlisted to pull the body
from the pond also know.”
    Pedr stayed at the foot of the table,
studying the dead man. “It goes without saying that you are sure of
this or you wouldn’t have declared it, but I have to ask: you have
no doubt that he was murdered?”
    “He was stabbed with a knife to the chest.”
Gareth reached for the man’s shirt. “If you would like to see—”
    Pedr raised a hand. “I acknowledge your
superior wisdom in this matter.” He took in a breath. “How long ago
did he die?”
    “Some twelve hours, give or take,” Gareth
said. “It is my guess that he spent all that time after the moment
of death in the water.”
    “I have little experience with murder, but I
have been made aware of some of the activities Prince Hywel
requires of you. Do you need—” the prior’s lips curled in distaste,
“—to look him over?”
    “If I may.” Although Gareth would have
preferred a private room in which to examine the body, if he could
keep onlookers out, he could do his work just as well in here.
Unlike some who had accused him of profaning the dead, he didn’t
believe that searching through a murdered man’s clothes or
examining his body somehow defiled him or was a crime against God.
Quite the opposite, he believed it would be the far greater crime
to let a murderer walk free.
    In this instance, Gareth didn’t think that
the prior was so much squeamish as personally offended that any man
would murder another. Still, Gareth was glad that he was going to
be allowed to work, though it might be that he already knew most of
what the body could tell him. “I realize that we must bury him
quickly, and I would do what needs to be done now and then leave
him in peace.”
    Pedr gave a jerky nod. “I can give you until
tomorrow morning. I’m afraid that doesn’t give you much time.” Then
Pedr looked at Prior Rhys. “If you would walk with me, I know the
abbot would appreciate a more detailed explanation of what has
happened here. I would be most grateful for it as well.”
    “Of course.” Prior Rhys followed Pedr out
the door and departed, though not before he raised his eyebrows at
Gareth behind Pedr’s back in a quick glance of helplessness and
amusement.
    Gareth was grateful that Rhys was available
to act as go-between for the investigation and the abbot. The last
time Gareth had been inside an abbot’s office, he’d been in the
company of a murderer and a traitor, though he hadn’t known it at
the time.
    With the departure of the two priors, Prince
Rhun and Gareth were left alone with the body—though once again, it
was only for a few heartbeats. More footfalls came from the nave,
and this time, it was Prince Hywel who entered the vestibule,
accompanied by a young woman.
    Slender, of short stature but with a bearing
that spoke of privilege, the woman wore a dark brown headdress,
which covered all of her hair, and a matching wool dress of a fine
weave. She clutched a handkerchief in one hand and dabbed at her
eyes with it.
    At the sight of the body on the table, she
halted abruptly. As she stared at it, the hand holding the
handkerchief dropped, revealing her face: clear, pale skin set off
by red lips and dark