Fixing Jane with her violet eyes, Myfanwy clasped her hands in a pleading gesture. ‘But I know Davy will be safe here, Jane. I cannot look after him better than you but I can look after both Owen and Jasper if I go with them. Denbigh was just a siege but this conflict could decide who wears the crown. It will be more than a skirmish and there will be wounds a-plenty. No, I will be needed by our men and I will go with them.’

As if to illustrate her determination a log fell in the hearth, emitting a shower of sparks. Owen slammed down his cup and shoved back his chair ‘There is no more time to discuss this. Jasper and I have much to do. If you are among the camp followers when we depart tomorrow then you are there and you will have to fend for yourself, Myfanwy.’

My father was right; with men and armaments to organize we did not have time for domestic squabbles. However, true to her word, when my retinue and Owen’s troop gathered in the Outer Ward at dawn the following day, Myfanwy was there among the carts and cannons, mounted astride a sturdy palfrey with stuffed saddlebags, her slight body armed against injury and the winter cold by a padded gambeson and a fur-lined cloak. Where she had acquired all this at such short notice I did not like to ask but I had to admire her resourcefulness.

‘She is a brave woman,’ Jane said, following the direction of my gaze. ‘I loaned her my cloak. I pray she will be safe.’

‘She will not be going into battle, Jane.’ I bit back a protest that the cloak, lined with costly minerva, had been my New Year gift to her.

‘For a female there are other forms of danger.’ Jane’s expression was grim.

I put my arms around her, not wishing the subject to sour our farewell.

We took the high route through Brecon once more, marching fast, mostly because our task was urgent but also to keep warm. Winter had come to the peaks and snow was lying on the high passes but even so we reached the River Wye in only five days. Keeping to Buckingham’s Lancastrian lordship and following the Welsh bank below the long bluff at Hay we cut east towards Leominster, thus far encountering no opposition. But we had now entered York territory; in the afternoon, as we approached a village called Kingston from the south, our scouts brought back reports of a large troop encampment a few miles beyond it to the north. Edward of York had brought his army out from his castle of Wigmore and chosen his battleground beside the River Lugg.