Jasper made a hopeless gesture with his hands. ‘She says she cannot sleep.’

‘Nevertheless she needs to rest. I think that if you leave us, my lord, together Alice and I will be able make her comfortable. Perhaps some gruel could be ordered for her, made with beef bones preferably.’

Lady Margaret raised her head. ‘No beef. It is Advent. I am fasting.’ A shuddering breath punctuated each burst of speech.

I rolled my eyes at Jasper who shrugged again. He clearly had no idea how to tackle such female resolve.

‘The Church does not require pregnant women to fast, my lady,’ I said, crossing my fingers. I had no idea if it was true but my mother had told me this once and she had a convent education. ‘If you wish we can call a priest to confirm it.’

Margaret’s hands dropped from her face and she stared at me, as if testing my honesty. Then she nodded and, wiping her eyes, said in a small voice, ‘Very well. I will go to bed and I will try to swallow some gruel.’

An hour later, when she had been installed in fresh linen sheets, propped on soft pillows and had consumed a bowl of delicious-smelling gruel, her inflamed eyelids drooped shut and she slept. I sent Alice to find Lord Jasper.

‘You are right, my lord,’ I told him, having left the maid in my place beside the bed of our mistress and sat down with him in the anteroom. ‘Lady Margaret is very distraught. She should not be left alone.’

‘She should not be pregnant,’ he said angrily. ‘God knows I greatly mourn my brother’s death but were he still alive I could kill him. He should not have consummated his marriage so soon. It was tantamount to murdering her. I fear she will not survive.’ On a smothered sob he sank his head in his hands.

Only the distance between our chairs prevented me taking his hand to comfort him. It was clear to me that he cared deeply for the girl. He had looked at her as if he would like to throw himself at her feet, offer her anything her heart desired, bring her the moon on a platter if only it would relieve her pain, if only it would make her smile. I did not know what obsession looked like but I instinctively knew that Jasper was obsessed, and the great change in his appearance was due to this. I was to learn that the nobility called this courtly love. I considered it senseless folly.