The Renegade Merchant Read Online Free Page A

two
of his sons. A third, Ithel, was already at Aber, having been named
captain of the king’s guard. The position had been briefly held by
Cynan, Hywel’s next oldest brother, until Rhun’s death had given
him new obligations.
    Gareth and Gwen liked these newcomers well
enough, and Gwen was glad that Hywel was forming a reliable cohort
of companions to protect him, but their presence did make Gareth
himself feel like he wasn’t needed and should be doing other
things.
    Which, as it turned out, was exactly what
Hywel had intended. King Owain’s permission for Gwen’s father to
ride to Shrewsbury had then become an excuse to send Gareth (along
with Gwen and Meilyr) into England on a quest to ascertain Prince
Cadwaladr’s whereabouts without the king becoming suspicious.
    “Worse, this could make Cadwaladr target you
again,” Gwen said. “He tried to murder you, remember. Just because
he misfired and killed Prince Rhun doesn’t change how much he still
hates you.”
    Gareth looked down at his wife and spoke
softly. “I haven’t forgotten.”
    “I know. I just—”
    “You worry, and I don’t blame you for
that.”
    Gwen took in a breath before speaking again.
“So, what do we do now?”
    “We ask the questions we came to Shrewsbury
to ask, and if that takes us along a path similar to the one we
would have followed at John’s behest, so be it.”
    Gwen looked at him curiously. “You mean
about Adeline? Surely questioning townspeople about her is going to
bring us close to Cadwaladr.”
    “Ah, but King Owain gave us permission to
pursue that line of inquiry, didn’t he?”
    “He gave my father permission.”
    “Yes, and since I’m his son-in-law, that’s
as good as giving it to me.”
    Gwen shook her head, but she was smiling.
“It’s happened. You’re splitting hairs. Hywel’s way of doing things
has finally rubbed off on you.”
    “Hywel doesn’t split hairs; he doesn’t even
accept their existence.” But Gareth smiled too. “It’s only fair,
since it may be that some of my way of doing things has rubbed off
on him too.”
    Gwen moved closer to her husband and put her
forehead briefly into his upper arm, as the only sign of affection
she could allow herself in so public a place. “You’ve been a rock
for him. We all know it.”
    “As have you.”
    Gwen pulled a long face not unlike the one
the woman from the upper floor of the building had made when she
discovered she couldn’t dump the contents of her basin into the
alley. “I can’t see how I’m going to be much use to you among the
people here. I don’t know what I was thinking. It wasn’t as if I
expected the inhabitants of Shrewsbury to speak Welsh, but what’s
clear is that my English just isn’t good enough to enable me talk
to them.”
    “We’ve been staying at the abbey, which has
few Welsh monks,” Gareth said. “I think you’ll find that more
people than you might expect speak Welsh. Shrewsbury is only seven
miles from the border with Wales after all. And besides, with you
by my side, just by your very presence, people are more likely to
talk to me.”
    “Why would that be?” Gwen said.
    Gareth rolled his eyes, but he was smiling.
“Gwen, didn’t you notice the way the watchmen looked at you as you
came in?”
    Gwen’s brow furrowed. “I suppose.” Quite
honestly, her eyes had been only for Gareth, and a scruffy, bearded
Englishman held no interest for her beyond her anger that they were
deriding Gareth.
    “You forget that you look like Adeline, who
grew up here,” Gareth said. “As long as you are with me—or with
your father when he starts asking questions about her—we aren’t
going to have any difficulty getting people to talk to us.”
    Gwen hadn’t forgotten that she looked like
Adeline. She and her father had decided it would be better if she
didn’t go with him to visit Tom Weaver because they hadn’t wanted
to scare him by having Adeline—or Gwen looking like
Adeline—suddenly appear on his