‘Not entirely.’ This quiet comment came from a sturdy youth with cropped brown hair who had appeared in the house entrance and who I barely recognized as Evan, the youngest member of Hywel’s first family. I remembered him best as the eight-year-old boy who had never seemed to stop running when we first came to Tŷ Cerrig with Owen. Now he had his father’s lean face and the body of an archer, with wide muscular shoulders and slim hips, on which his knife-belt sat low over a black sheepskin jerkin. ‘I will give you God’s greeting, Lord Jasper, even if Dai my brother will not.’ He made a small bow in my direction before moving towards Maredudd, arms open. ‘And a welcome to you, big brother, who are now head of the family.’

Mixed feelings of relief and distress showed on my squire’s face as he returned Evan’s embrace, realizing that his family’s loyalties had become dangerously split.

‘We will not come in if it is awkward,’ he said, hands resting on his younger brother’s shoulders. ‘But tell me the situation. Where is Bethan?’

Evan shook his head sadly. ‘She died before Christmas, along with her infant son. Her mother looks after the girls, poor little orphans.’ He turned to me and pointed to a new tower which had been added to one end of the farmhouse. ‘As you see, my lord, your gold has been put to good use. There was scant room for the family before that was built.’

‘It was raised by the sweat of men, not by the charity of Lancaster.’ Dai folded his arms across his chest belligerently, his brow still balefully knitted.

I could not help a note of indignation creeping into my response. ‘I owe my allegiance to my royal brother,’ I told him. ‘To the crown, not to the House of Lancaster, of which I am not a member; just as you are not members of the House of York.’

Dai shrugged. ‘If we must have an English king, I support the man more up the task. And so I bid you farewell, Jasper Tudor. There is no welcome for you here.’

‘On the contrary, it would seem you are outvoted, Dai,’ Maredudd retorted, gesturing towards the open door. ‘My house is at your disposal, my lord. We will find refreshment and then I will go and kneel at my father’s grave. But I do not expect you to do the same.’

I gave him a rueful smile. ‘He was my father’s cousin. I will come with you. My father would wish it.’

‘Is he not also dead?’ Dai’s words fell on my ears like a cannon-shot.

I shot him a piercing glance. ‘What do you know that I do not?’ I demanded.

His grin was ghastly to behold. ‘He was beheaded. Executed as a traitor in Hereford Market Place.’