I offered him no sympathy. ‘I cannot believe your lady wife makes any complaint against you, Edmund, no matter how much you vex her.’

Margaret’s laughter floated down between us. ‘You are right, Jasper. My lips are raw from biting them!’

The unmistakable affection in Edmund’s responding chuckle surprised me. I had never seen such an ardent expression on my brother’s face and with the incident I had overheard in the Lamphey garden still fresh in my memory it both delighted and troubled me because while I rejoiced that Margaret was happy, I still had this nagging dread of her falling pregnant too young.

Nevertheless I had given them separate bedchambers and their quarters were divided from those allocated to Edith and Geoffrey by a shared solar. When I showed the other pair up a short time later Edith immediately ventured off to find her sister. Both ladies had brought female servants and Geoffrey jerked his head at Edith’s to make her disappear.

‘We came here via Carmarthen,’ he revealed immediately she had left, ‘and I found Gruffydd already installed in the castle without any exchange of fire. He had simply told the garrison that he would burn the villages of each and every one of them if they did not return to their wives and children. All thirty trooped out of the main gate and the deputy constable went with them. I cannot imagine how he will explain himself to the Duke of York but that is his problem.’

‘And what of William Herbert?’ I asked. ‘He will not take this lying down.’

‘No, I think not and according to my last report he was in Hereford with his brother and two thousand men. So he must be planning to make a move but before he does it seems likely that there will be a council of war with York at Ludlow.’ Geoffrey as always spoke like the strategist he was.

At this point Edmund arrived and grasped Geoffrey’s shoulder in greeting. ‘Good to see you, Pole. I need your help.’

Geoffrey grinned and made him a bow. ‘Always happy to be of service, my lord. I do not need to ask for what.’

Edmund made an exasperated noise. ‘What am I to do with that bastard Gruffydd and his meddling sons? I cannot have them thumbing their noses at the crown like this. The next thing we know he will declare himself Prince of Wales and the queen will never let me hear the end of it.’

‘I should think not, now that Parliament has conferred that particular title on her son,’ Geoffrey agreed. ‘Why do you not send to her for instructions?’

Edmund’s brows almost disappeared under the rim of his draped velvet hat. ‘What, deal with a female? Definitely not! I shall write to the king.’