Davy appeared, loud and complaining, his face hot and cross, his shock of sun-bleached hair tied back with a grubby cord. ‘Huw was wheeling me at the quintain in the handcart and I was just beginning to get the hang of it, Mother.’

The natural way he called me ‘Mother’ made me glad Myfanwy had gone. She had told me she was not the mothering kind; even so I could not imagine any woman liking to hear her son call another one ‘Mother’. But what a profound relief I felt that she had not wanted to take Davy from us. He had always been one of the family and his role as provider on our walk from Weobley had reinforced his position in our hearts.

‘It was a false alarm, Davy,’ I said apologetically. I felt the heavy weight of the purse in the pocket of my apron. Could its contents possibly be enough to provide for the boy’s future or would Jasper return to take him in charge and one day see his young brother dubbed knight?

* * *

That evening, when the children were in bed, it gave me a certain acquisitive pleasure just to see the coins spread out on the kitchen table, gleaming in the lamplight. For a moment I contemplated repaying Lady Margaret some of the money she had sent us, but I secretly considered Margaret owed it to me anyway and it did not seem the right way to spend gold intended for Davy’s future. These coins were Myfanwy’s effort to make amends for abandoning the boy. The money was his and he was ours.

I recited Lady Margaret’s message in my head; The bear and the daisy have united and our greatest hopes may be realized. Let the portcullis be raised, the red dragon unleashed and the greyhound returned to its dam. The martlet is due to land and then the sun will set.

Feelings of excitement and hope stirred in me with great force. Davy’s gold seemed dazzlingly bright where it lay. I contemplated where I could hide it to be safe and then the very idea that anything or anywhere at this precarious moment could be safe made me laugh.

41

Jasper

Tŷ Gwyn, Tenby, Pembrokeshire

I HAD TO HAND it to Warwick, his scheme for outflanking Edward worked faultlessly. As he had predicted, we landed on the Devon coast without opposition thanks to a long-standing local war of attrition between the Courtenay and Bonville families that kept all the fighting men in that area occupied in the service of their own liege lords. The royal coastal garrisons were incapable of confronting even our relatively small army. King Louis had supplied sixty ships for our two thousand men and horses and a French admiral to command the fleet. The wind blew fair for once, landing us at dusk on various beaches to the south of Dartmouth.