My brother’s outburst made both our horses shy and when I had controlled mine I held up my free hand in capitulation. ‘All right, Edmund, you can calm down. I have said my piece. You will hear no more from me except to ask what you might like for a wedding gift. I assume you would turn your nose up at a hogshead of Bride Ale?’

This reference to our sister’s simple wedding nearly five years before revived his sense of humour. ‘Ha! You assume right. No yeoman Bride Ale will be served at my wedding, Jas. Lord Welles keeps a well-stocked cellar and I intend to drink a number of toasts in fine wine to my sweet Margaret and several more to the fortune I shall receive as lord of her considerable estates.’

He was goading me. Edmund would receive all the income from the Somerset estates but only when they had become true man and wife. Until then we held joint custody and he would continue to share the revenue with me. Although this additional income was useful to me, not for one moment did I want him to think it was the reason I was urging him to delay consummation.

‘Do I take it then that a vat of wine would be more welcome?’ I said. ‘I know an excellent vintner in Tenby who imports direct from Brittany, outwitting England’s losses in France.’

‘That would be most welcome, brother. Have him deliver it to Lamphey Palace. Our fellow Privy Councillor, Bishop de la Bere, has agreed to let me use it while I am acting as the king’s Lieutenant in South Wales. He was kind enough to suggest that a newly married man needed somewhere comfortable to enjoy his new bride.’

With a sly smile he watched my jaw work hard to keep my lips sealed. The Bishop of St David’s country retreat at Lamphey was rumoured to be where members of the Welsh clergy went to forget their priestly vows of celibacy, poverty and obedience. It was a beautiful hall set deep in parkland full of game and its plentiful ponds and orchards yielded fish and fruit to tempt the most discerning palate. It also happened to be located only a few miles from Pembroke Castle. Their honeymoon playground would be right under my very nose.

I glared at him, unable to summon even a glimmer of a smile in return. ‘God has dealt you some fine cards, Edmund,’ I said. ‘But these are uneasy times; I hope the Almighty shows you how to play them wisely.’

* * *

When the wedding celebrations reached the dancing stage at Bletsoe Castle, I stood among the crowd of applauding guests watching Edmund lead his new bride onto the floor. As the minstrels struck a slow rhythm the newly married couple clasped hands and began to turn together and Margaret’s admiring gaze at her new husband sparked a conversation between two people standing behind me.