He wondered if Rhodri had tried to kill Owain and Aiden, too. He’d have to kill all of them, to have a hope of inheriting. Gryff supposed he himself was the easiest to get at, and the least likely to be missed.

He found Rhodri the next day and dropped the dead rat before him. “It drank too much ale,” he explained, and his bastard brother only gave him a long and belligerent look, then shrugged and turned away. There was no more pretending that they were friends or loving family. They did not speak again.

It was only because Gryff could not bear to think anything might happen to his real brothers that he sent a warning in secret to them. Will carried the message to a member of his own household, a Welsh kinsman whom he swore could be trusted with anything. When the Welshman returned and said the warning was delivered to his brothers, he said also that Gryff’s father had given him some words to deliver in return.

It was a message for Hal, thanking him for saving Gryff’s life.

Chapter Four

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When he closed his eyes, night or day, the gold of her hair lingered in his vision. It was like a beam of searing sunlight that had left an indelible mark across his eyes, and he was not sure he wanted it ever to fade. It was better than every other thing that waited for him in the dark.

For three silent days he had walked behind her on narrow paths and byways, avoiding the main road after they had left Godmanchester and the merchant Alfred behind. Three days of waking to find another little offering of food had been left next to him as he slept. Three days of staring too much at the braid that fell down her back and between her shoulder blades, shining like a thin river of gold flowing through a forbidden landscape. After two days of silence and staring he had finally looked beyond the tip of that braid and noticed that the thickening at one side of her leather belt was not poor craftsmanship, but rather the hilt of a knife. The belt was also a kind of sheath, the weapon parallel to her waist and the grip made of the same leather as the belt, very cleverly hidden in plain view.

She wore leather braces buckled to her forearms, thin and supple, fashioned to fit closely beneath the split sleeves of her dress. In the braces were eight of the strange, short blades with no grip – four on each arm. These were in addition to the simple eating knife that hung from her belt and another concealed in her boot.

Five years without a woman, and the first one God put in his path was beautiful enough to tempt angels to sin – and covered in weapons.