I felt a jolt of alarm. This was the first I had heard that Jasper had been reporting to her on Harri’s progress and presumably on my supervision of it. Had he described Harri’s fall from the bed? Had he – God forbid! – told her of the change in our relationship? But reading on, the pounding in my chest eased as I realized that these fears were groundless and that Margaret’s attitude towards Jasper had softened.

It is with much relief that I find myself at last able to write to you freely from our home at Colleyweston in Northamptonshire, where my husband brought me very recently, after the Duchess of Buckingham was called to attend the queen at Kenilworth. Until now it has been impossible for me to obtain access to the services of a courier without submitting my private correspondence to the scrutiny of the duchess, a process with which I did not care to comply. From now on I will be able to conduct my correspondence free of censorship, because my dear and enlightened husband does not believe in it.

Colleyweston is a comfortable manor house, which has only a skeleton staff at present but Sir Henry is to help me hire a new household. We also intend to enlarge and improve the house so that we will be in a position to entertain and invite friends and relations for hunting and hawking. I hope you will soon be among those who are able to join us. To my great sadness my beautiful merlin Elaine did not survive the move to Maxstoke, where I fear the falconer did not keep the mews warm enough for her. But I still have the emerald bells that were the gift of my beloved Lord Edmund and Sir Henry has sent to Ireland for another merlin. No one could ever wholly replace your beloved brother, but I am truly blessed in the husband you chose for me. Sir Henry is kind, considerate and entirely honourable and now that we are free to establish our home together I believe our marriage will flourish and we shall become a truly united couple. The Virgin and St Catherine have protected me and you have been their chosen implement. Now I shall pray to be soon reunited with my beloved son, whom Sir Henry constantly assures me could not be better cared for than by his highly esteemed and chivalrous uncle of Pembroke. I beg you to indulge my maternal anxieties and continue to provide detailed reports on Henry’s progress, and perhaps you would ask Jane Hywel to include occasional notes of reassurance on his physical health and development.

I am forever your loyal and loving sister,

Margaret, Countess of Richmond.

Written this day the twenty-seventh of May at Colleyweston Castle, Northamptonshire 1458