Read Online The Bard's Daughter (A Gareth and Gwen Medieval Mystery) by Sarah Woodbury - Free Book Online Page A

killing Collen, but I did not kill him.”
    Gwen bit her lip. She didn’t want to insert herself into the lords’ dispute, but there was no help for it, not with what she had discovered—and remembered. “My lord, there is an easy way to determine the truth. Lord Robert should remove his gloves.”
    “ What?” Gruffydd, Cadfael, and Cadoc spoke in unison.
    “ The man who murdered Collen has wounded hands,” Gwen said.
    Cadfael snorted his disbelief. “How would you know that?”
    “ I was remiss in not realizing this earlier, for it would have exonerated my father instantly,” Gwen said. “No man, no matter how strong or able, could garrote another man with a harp string and not mark his palms and fingers. The strings are very sharp and will cut an unwary person if he is not careful. My father wears thin gloves when he strings his harp. Think of the damage the string must have done to the killer, who wound it around his hands and killed Collen with it.”
    Gruffydd glanced at the bloody harp string Robert had set on a side table. “Can you show us?”
    Gwen slipped a second coil of string from her pocket and straightened it. She’d been carrying it around since yesterday, just as a reminder of what she had to do. It was two feet in length, thin and generally unbreakable except when stretched tight on her father’s harp. Gruffydd took the string from Gwen and held it between two fingers. It bowed and bounced as he wiggled it.
    “ Imagine grasping the ends, coiling them around your hands, and garroting a struggling man with it,” Gwen said.
    Robert had been watching their exchange carefully, his shoulders tensed. He hesitated another heartbeat, and then with quick jerks, loosened the fingers of both gloves, pulled them off, and dropped them onto the wooden planks of the hall. “There!” He held out both hands to Gruffydd and Gwen, and then turned on his heel to show Cadfael.
    “ The murderer could have worn gloves,” Cadoc said. “Your father remains the most likely suspect for this very reason. He must have known what you have just told us.”
    “ That is true, my lord, except …” Gwen took in a deep breath and let it out. “My lord, may I approach?”
    Cadfael raised his eyebrows, but then nodded. Gwen walked forward, holding out the dish with the bloody rags inside. “Saran found these in the garden this morning.”
    The men inspected the linen with distaste. Robert sneered as he picked up one corner of a rag and held it up. “Someone is in pain.”
    “ Nobody has come to Saran for healing?” Gruffydd said.
    “ No, my lord.” Gwen eased out a breath. Gruffydd seemed to becoming something of an ally, which was going to make this easier. “As Lord Cadoc said, my father would have known that he had to wear gloves to wield the harp string, and yet none were found in the pantry.”
    “ So what do you propose?” Cadfael said. “That we inspect the hands of every man in the castle? It’s an absurd thought.”
    Gwen didn’t think it absurd at all, but his certainty made her hesitate. “Perhaps Collen’s wife could be questioned—”
    Lord Cadfael cut her off. “Eva did not kill her husband.”
    Gwen knew that he was right, given her appraisal of Eva’s hands the night before, and that she was a small woman. “I know that, my lord, but someone did. Don’t you want to discover who that is?”
    Cadfael’s brow furrowed. “I dislike your impertinence, young lady.” He tapped a finger on the arm of his chair as he gazed at her.
    Gwen swallowed. “Did Saran confirm what I said about the manner in which she believes my father was dosed?”
    Cadfael continued his tapping. “She did.”
    “ Coupled with the mead he consumed, the potion would have ensured that my father had no memory of the events of the night at all,” Gwen said.
    “ We have no other suspect, my lord,” Robert said. “We can’t just release Meilyr. It will make you look weak.”
    Gwen didn’t care in the slightest how