Ferron said smoothly, ‘That’s what we’re here to find out. Now you are put to the question, Agnes Wooler. Unburden your soul. I want you to tell me first the names of your co-conspirators. And when you are cleansed of that, we can move on to the detail of your further sins.’

Agnes, shaking, raised her upper body so she was kneeling before Ferron. She would not reply.

One of Ferron’s aides whispered in his ear. Ferron nodded. ‘That’s enough time.’ But before he proceeded, he hesitated. He said to Geoffrey, ‘We are not monsters, Geoffrey Cotesford, whatever you English think of us. Hardened by the war against the Muslims we may be, but we are civilised, and pious in all things. And there is a process I must now follow, laid down by the Grand Inquisitor and sanctioned by the monarchs: a process tested in the law and the eyes of God. A process of five steps, at any of which a penitent may turn back to God and spare herself further suffering.’

Geoffrey said nothing.

Ferron turned to Agnes. ‘You refuse to speak, Agnes Wooler. You understand that if you do not cooperate, further proceedings will follow.’ After waiting for Agnes to respond Ferron nodded to a clerk, who made a cross in a book. Evidently that warning was the first step of the process.

Ferron stood. ‘Bring her,’ he snapped to the brothers, and he led the way out of the room. The brothers took Agnes’s arms, hauled her to her feet, and dragged her after the others.

The room was suddenly empty, save for Geoffrey. He stood, his heart hammering, and he hurried out of the room after the rest.

They walked along a short corridor, lined with little offices inside which more churchmen laboured at mounds of paperwork. Geoffrey was reminded again that the Inquisition was a marvel of bureaucracy as well as cruelty. None of the clerks looked up from their work as the English girl was dragged past.

They came to a spiral staircase, its steps worn stone slabs, and down it they went, down into the deeper dark. At the foot of the stair they came to another room, bigger but no more brightly lit than the court office above. There was no furniture here, but the room was dominated by two pieces of equipment: a table fitted with leather straps and a kind of winch, and an odd arrangement like a ladder tilted up on trestles, around which stood buckets of water.

Geoffrey noticed mundane details. Channels cut in the floor, leading to drains. A thick oaken door that looked impervious to noise. He felt very cold.

Agnes was made to stand before the table device. A soldier’s gloved hand under her chin ensured she saw it.