Smoke in the Wind

Goff looked sombre at the memory and glanced towards the serious face of his wife.

‘That I can, Sister. Our smith-master had a daughter. Some nights I would awaken to find that the bed of my fellow apprentice was empty. You understand?’

‘I think I follow you,’ agreed Fidelma.

The broad-shouldered man scowled in disapproval. ‘With Iorwerth, it was more a question of lust than love. I don’t think Iorwerth really cared for anyone. Maybe not even his daughter. I know his wife died some years ago and his mourning was brief.’

‘Indeed it was.’ Rhonwen sat down suddenly at the table. She looked at Goff and some hidden message passed between them.

‘I don’t think we need you any more, Dewi,’ he said. ‘Best get down to the forge and see all is well.’

Reluctantly, the youth rose and left them. After he had gone, Rhonwen leant forward.

‘Iorwerth’s wife was a friend of mine. Esyllt was a beautiful girl. How she was ever persuaded to marry Iorwerth, only God would know. It was not a marriage that I would have said was favoured in heaven. Her death was almost predictable.’

‘What happened?’ asked Fidelma.

‘She simply took ill and died one day. You know how it is? Some ague. The fever carried her off, poor dear. One thing, she went to a better place than she had occupied with the living. Iorwerth is a petty and vengeful man. I often wondered why poor Esyllt stayed with him. I asked her once if she would like to come away and stay with us, when we knew Iorwerth was beating her. After all, Esyllt was my closest and dearest friend.’

‘Tell me, Goff, where was this master-smith under whom you and Iorwerth were apprentices?’

‘He was smith of Dinas. Gurgust of Dinas. Poor man.’

Fidelma raised an eyebrow. ‘Poor man?’

‘His daughter, you see.’

‘Poor man from the point of view that his daughter was having an affair with Iorwerth?’

Goff shook his head. ‘From what happened afterwards. It was a few weeks after Iorwerth was chased out of Dinas, after Gurgust had discovered that his daughter — Efa was her name — had succumbed to Iorwerth’s attentions, if you understand me? Gurgust was in such a rage that he threw his daughter out of his house as well.’

‘Did she go off with Iorwerth?’

‘She did not. Iorwerth had vanished and the girl was on her own. It seems that poor Efa took up with an itinerant warrior and had a child by him. Then Efa died.’

‘Did she die in childbirth?’

‘She was found in nearby woods, strangled, when her child was a few months old.’

‘Strangled?’ Fidelma was not often overtly startled but she set down her mead carefully.

‘It was very sad. Poor Gurgust gave up the forge after that. I did hear that he tried to find and claim custody of Efa’s child.’

‘Did he succeed?’

‘Not that I know of. The warrior had already given up the child and vanished in a host that marched on Ceredigion. I left Dinas and moved to the smithy here in Llanferran. It was only some years later that I heard that Gurgust had been killed in one of the border raids. In spite of his actions, he loved his daughter, Efa, and when she was murdered. .’ He ended with a shrug.

‘Did they ever find out who was responsible for Efa’s death?’ asked Fidelma when he paused.

Goff shook his head. ‘There was speculation that the warrior who had befriended her was the murderer. But no one knew who he was nor was he ever caught. There was even some argument that it was none other than Iorwerth himself.’

‘Was Iorwerth ever questioned about it?’

Goff was not surprised at her query. It had doubtless been asked many times over the years.

‘Of course. But Iorwerth had left Dinas as soon as Gurgust had thrown him out. At least no one could find him. It was thought that he had been in one of the hosts which marched on Ceredigion. Then, some years later, it was found that he had set up his own smithy at Llanwnda. Then he married Esyllt, my wife’s friend, and Mair was born. There was nothing to connect him with the death of Efa except rumour. Some felt that a wandering beggar had killed her, because the golden chain that she always wore — a chain of red gold which Gurgust had fashioned for her and which she had prized — was missing. It carried a strangely shaped gold pendant with jewels ending in the likeness of a hare. It was the symbol of Andrasta, the old pagan goddess of my people.’

‘Andrasta?’ queried Fidelma. ‘I have not heard of this goddess.’

‘They say the great queen, Boudicca, invoked her before she drove the Romans out of her kingdom,’ explained Goff.

‘And this gold chain and pendant was missing?’

‘It was. The conclusion was that she had simply been robbed and killed.’

‘Nevertheless, Iorwerth was suspected?’

‘He is an evil man, Sister,’ interrupted Rhonwen. ‘I would not put anything past him.’

Fidelma sat awhile, frowning. ‘Is Dinas far from here?’

‘It is a long way around the coastline. But if you went to the coast a few kilometres north-west of Llanwnda, then took a boat across the great bay there, Dinas is the island on the far side of the bay: a distance of perhaps five kilometres. Often the island is the object of attacks from Ceredigion just along the coast. But Gurgust and his daughter Efa are long forgotten. This happened twenty or more years ago. There is nothing there now.’

‘It seems a curious coincidence that both the daughter of Gurgust and the daughter of Iorwerth should meet their deaths in similar circumstances.’ Fidelma was reflective.

‘How can there be any connection?’ demanded Goff.

‘You said that Gurgust was killed in some border war?’

‘I did.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘It is what I heard.’ The smith’s eyes suddenly lightened and he smiled. ‘If Gurgust lived, and believed that Iorwerth had killed his daughter, then he would have sought revenge long ago. Gurgust is long dead.’

Rhonwen leant forward across the table and laid a hand on his arm. ‘Even so, husband, the good sister must have a reason for asking the question. Are you saying that you believe Idwal to be innocent of young Mair’s death? Does Brother Meurig also believe this?’

Goff interrupted before Fidelma could respond.

‘You told us that you had come here to investigate the raid at Llanpadern. What is your interest in the death of Mair of Llanwnda?’ he demanded suspiciously.

Fidelma reassured him. ‘We journeyed to Llanwnda with Brother Meurig. He is there to investigate the killing. It is natural that our curiosity is piqued by the affair, and what help we can render to Brother Meurig we are willing to give.’

‘So you do believe that Idwal is innocent,’ Rhonwen said shrewdly. ‘No barnwr would waste their time on such questions unless they suspected that all was not as it seemed.’

‘How well do you know Idwal?’

Rhonwen answered with a smile. ‘As Goff said, we are a small community.’

‘What do you make of him?’

‘Make of him?’ Rhonwen was puzzled.

‘Do you think him capable of murder?’

‘Who is and who is not capable of taking a life given the circumstances?’ countered Goff. ‘We are all capable of doing so, I should imagine.’

‘I think Sister Fidelma means, what is your assessment of Idwal? Is he a likeable boy? Would he kill without justification?’

Goff rubbed his nose. ‘He is a half-wit.’

Rhonwen made a tutting sound and shook her head. Fidelma turned to her.

‘You disagree with that assessment?’

‘He isn’t a half-wit. He is merely slow. Almost child-like. He did not have a pleasant childhood after Iolo the shepherd died. Iolo fostered the boy as a baby. He was still a boy when Iolo’s brother, Iestyn, drove him out. Since