That name does look odd on the page, but I shall leave it there. Just as Igraine and I were talking about Ailleann, Bishop Sansum came into the room. The saint cannot read, and because he would utterly disapprove of my writing this story of Arthur, Igraine and I pretend that I am making a gospel in the Saxon tongue. I say he cannot read, but Sansum does have the ability to recognize some few words and Christ is one of them. Which is why I wrote it. He saw it, too, and grunted suspiciously. He looks very old these days. Almost all his hair has gone, though he still has two white tufts like the ears of Lughtigern, the mouse lord. He has pain when he passes urine, but he will not submit his body to the wise-women for healing, for he claims they are all pagans. God, the saint claims, will cure him, though at times, God forgive me, I pray that the saint might be dying for then this small monastery would have a new bishop. ‘My Lady is well?’ he asked Igraine after squinting down at this parchment.

‘Thank you, Bishop, I am.’

Sansum poked about the room, looking for something wrong, though what he expected to find I cannot tell. The room is very simple; a cot, a writing table, a stool and a fire. He would have liked to criticize me for burning a fire, but today is a very mild winter’s day and I am saving what small fuel the saint permits me to have. He flicked at a scrap of dust, decided not to comment on it and so peered at Igraine instead. ‘Your time must be very near, Lady?’

‘Less than two moons, they say, Bishop,’ Igraine said, and made the sign of the cross against her blue dress.

‘You will know, of course, that our prayers will echo throughout heaven on your Ladyship’s behalf,’ Sansum said, without meaning a word of it.

‘Pray, too,’ Igraine said, ‘that the Saxons are not close.’

‘Are they?’ Sansum asked in alarm.

‘My husband hears they are readying to attack Ratae.’

‘Ratae is far away,’ the Bishop said dismissively.

‘A day and a half?’ Igraine said, ‘and if Ratae falls, what fortress lies between us and the Saxons?’