We all had cause to thank Davy and his net and snare over the next ten days as, weary and footsore but rarely hungry, we followed the bard over mountain, river and moor. And I blessed the boy and his sharp knife for another reason, because he slept beside the girls. Lewys was a good guide and friend but I knew his reputation and I did not like the way he looked at Elin.

37

Jasper

Chateau Chinon, Touraine, France

CALLED ‘THE PRUDENT KING’ by his courtiers, Louis XI of France was known among his detractors as ‘The Universal Spider’, because he ruled through a complex web of spies and diplomats rather than maintaining order, as sovereigns were wont to do, by the power of edict and sword. Chateau Chinon was the hub of his web, located on the River Vienne in Touraine, which had been his personal dukedom as Dauphin and to which he had frequently withdrawn in anger when his father, my mother’s brother, had been alive. On the family tree we were first cousins, but we were hardly the kissing kind. Louis had been crowned King of France around the time my brother was usurped but not until recently had he shown any interest in assisting King Henry’s restoration, despite my consistent efforts to gain his support. He had granted me a meagre pension but one that he considered gave him carte blanche to harness my diplomatic services around the courts of Europe; and since becoming stateless I had been forced to accept that beggars could not be choosers.

At least I had been allotted a small but private chamber at Chinon and a letter from Lady Margaret had been waiting there for several weeks when I arrived back at the start of November. I was surprised to receive it at all, considering the political upheaval in England and the disruption it must have caused to our courier network. Some of what she wrote I already knew through other sources but the terse and cryptic nature of the letter vividly conveyed her anxiety about Harri, whom she referred to as R – for Richmond I presumed.

To my very good friend.