Jane came with an anxious question as Maredudd helped me into my armour. ‘If you are injured or killed, what should I do? I can take care of Elin but who is responsible for Harri?’

I shrugged my shoulders into the polished links of my new lightweight mail coat and shook my arms so that the sleeves fell to my wrists. I expected to be wearing it under my armour almost constantly over the next few weeks so it needed to be comfortable. ‘Geoffrey Pole has instructions regarding all the children,’ I told her. ‘He is my executor. I rely on you to keep Lady Margaret informed about Harri as usual but ultimately his future will be decided by the king.’

‘So if you do not return I should take him to the king?’

‘No, Jane,’ I replied. ‘If I am killed or injured the king will be told and he will liaise with Lady Margaret. Who knows what the future holds?’

‘Exactly. Supposing no one tells me anything? I may not even know you are dead.’

‘I would tell you, sis,’ Maredudd interjected, looking up from buckling my greaves. ‘Earls are not killed in battle without anyone knowing.’

‘And if I am killed I hope you might grieve for me a little and pray for my soul, if you can find the time,’ I added.

Her responding smile was rather forced. ‘Of course you may both be killed but I would rather pray for your safety and survival, if that is all right with you.’ There was a pause then she added as an afterthought, ‘Please try very hard to come back to me, Jasper, if only to acknowledge your next child.’

‘You are pregnant, Jane?’ I exclaimed. ‘How far on?’

‘It is early days. This one should be born next spring, but as you said, who knows what the future holds?’

Jane’s words lingered in my mind as I led my Welsh army north. My fears had been justified; the country threatened to disintegrate into the worst kind of civil conflict, with brother fighting brother and cousin, cousin. Fathers might even find themselves confronting their sons on the battlefield. I had received orders under the king’s seal to take my force to the Duke of Buckingham’s castle at Brecon, collect the troops already gathered there from among his tenants, and continue over the mountains to follow the River Wye to Hereford, a route that would largely avoid Herbert territory and the chance of a premature clash with York. Once there we learned that the Earl of Warwick had brought a large troop of crack soldiers across the Channel from Calais and marched through England to join the Duke of York at Ludlow.