Alice, wondering what, if anything, the old tales of sorcery and plotting could have to do with her father, asked: “I knew of Queen Morgause’s imprisonment at Amesbury, yes. You said she ‘was confined’? Do you mean she has been freed? Or what has happened?”

“She has been killed there, and by her own son Gaheris.” As Alice stared, shocked, the duke moved suddenly in his chair, slapping his hands down on the arms. “Here we are, discussing your marriage, and I am still dealing with you as if you were a child. Forgive me, my dear! Listen now, and I will tell you the whole. It’s a shocking affair. Queen Morgause, even in a convent, and with her past sins to repent, contrived to take lovers. I do not know how, nor whom, but the latest of them was Lamorak. He was stationed nearby on the Plain, and he met the woman first when he was sent to Amesbury on King’s business. It seems that he was honourable enough; he would have married her, and so it might be said that he had some right to her bed. Be that as it may, he was with her when Gaheris, one of her sons, visiting the convent privily at night to see his mother, found her with her lover, and, in a wild moment of rage, drew his sword and killed her. I am not clear about what happened then, but somehow he was restrained from attacking Lamorak, who later surrendered his sword to the High King and himself to the High King’s mercy. He has been sent abroad. This for his own safety. The Orkney clan – Gaheris and his brothers – are wild folk, and the King is trying to prevent trouble among his knights. Gaheris has been banished, too.” He drew a breath. “You see what this means.”

“That Drian has gone abroad with his brother?”

“Not that, no. Not yet. He was at Drustan’s place in Northumbria – he may be there still. But I am told that Gaheris has sworn, in spite of anything the High King can do, to hunt Lamorak down and kill him. And then in turn Lamorak’s kin may look for vengeance. And so it will go on, blood crying for blood …” He sounded suddenly weary. “So there it is – and there is an end to our plans for the marriage with young Drian. I will not see my daughter or my house caught into a blood feud. We can only thank God that the news came in time. I had already written a letter, which would have gone north when the courier rides out again tomorrow. Now it must not go. So after all you have your respite, and we think again.”

She bent her head, clasping her hands together in her lap. “I shall pray for them. For Lamorak, who meant no sin that we know of, and for Drian, who committed none.”

There was a silence, while the duke stretched his hands to the warmth of the brazier, and Alice sat with bowed head.