Cadal leaned his fists on the table and looked down at me. He was uncommonly solemn. “Attention, is it? They say he’s never out of her lap. Sends her the best dishes at table each day, sees she’s served first, even before he is, pledges her in front of everybody in the hall every time he raises his goblet. Nobody’s talking of anything else from London to Winchester. I’m told they’re laying bets in the kitchen.”

“I’ve no doubt. And does Gorlois have anything to say?”

“Tried to pass it over at first, they say, but it got so that he couldn’t go on pretending he hadn’t noticed. He tried to look as if he thought Uther was just doing the pair of them honour, but when it came to sitting the Lady Ygraine—that’s her name—on Uther’s right, and the old man six down on the other side—” He paused.

I said, uneasily: “He must be crazed. He can’t afford trouble yet—trouble of any kind, let alone this, and with Gorlois of all people. By all the gods, Cadal, it was Cornwall that helped Ambrosius into the country at all, and Cornwall who put Uther where he is now. Who won the battle of Damen Hill for him?”

“Men are saying that, too.”

“Are they indeed?” I thought for a moment, frowning. “And the woman? What—apart from the usual dunghill stuff—do they say about her?”

“That she says little, and says less each day. I’ve no doubt Gorlois has plenty to say to her at night when they’re alone together. Anyway, I’m told she hardly lifts her eyes in public now, in case she meets the King staring at her over his cup, or leaning across at table to look down her dress.”

“That is what I call dunghill stuff, Cadal. I meant, what is she like?”

“Well, that’s just what they don’t say, except that she’s silent, and as beautiful as this, that and the other thing.” He straightened. “Oh, no one says she gives him any help. And God knows there’s no need for Uther to act like a starving man in sight of a dish of food; he could have his platter piled high any night he liked. There’s hardly a girl in London who isn’t trying to catch that eye of his.”

“I believe you. Has he quarrelled with Gorlois? Openly, I mean?”