‘Well, before you leave us perhaps you would make arrangements with your Master of Hawking,’ I said. ‘If you remember you promised Lady Margaret that she could continue learning the skill and offered to let me join her lessons.’

Jasper smiled triumphantly. ‘I have not forgotten and Thomas Falconer has instructions to begin them, for you as well, whenever Margaret is ready. But I have a favour to ask you in return. I need to improve my grasp of Welsh if I am to have any chance of negotiating properly with Gruffydd ap Nicholas and his sons, as I will have to over the summer. You would make the ideal teacher, Jane, if you would spare me the time.’

As spring warmed and blossomed, Lady Margaret flew her own merlin, Elaine, resplendent with emerald bells, whilst I was allocated a bird from the castle collection. Elaine responded with alacrity to the sound of her owner’s voice, whereas my ‘hawk of the day’ was invariably temperamental and I began to yearn for one of my own. Lord Jasper rode over from Tenby regularly to attend to castle business and to get his tongue around some useful Welsh phrases. On one of these occasions we happened to meet in the mews when he came to visit his peregrine, Arthur, who was sitting out his moult.

It was then I learned from Jasper that the peregrine and the merlin are the prerogative of earls and countesses and the reason I was only ever allowed a goshawk was because that is the yeoman’s bird. ‘Actually you should be grateful,’ Jasper said, ‘in my experience the gos is the wilier hunter and will fill your game-pouch more quickly.’ Seeing my mulish expression, he went on, ‘Besides, Jane, you will never get Master Falconer to allow you to break rules that emerged from the mists of time, and you must not cross him. I pay him more than my Treasurer and I cannot afford to lose him if I am to play Pembrokeshire’s overlord convincingly.’

‘Why did you agree to let me learn falconry with Lady Margaret then, my lord, if you knew I would always be at a disadvantage?’ Perhaps Arthur was sensitive to my petulant tone for he suddenly bated off Jasper’s fist and flapped wildly upside down until his master managed to restore him to his dignified upright stance. Even though he was hooded, the falcon assumed an injured air, averting his head from my direction.

Jasper stroked Arthur’s breast and whispered a few consoling words to him before turning back to me, his brow creased deeply in a frown. ‘Is anything the matter, Jane? I have explained about the hawking protocol, surely it cannot simply be that?’