Thomas sees Katherine shut her eyes, as if the mere mention of Cornford Castle depresses or bores her, but when Fournier hears that Sir John enjoys a connection to the highest in the land, his eyes brighten.

‘However will you get to see him?’ he asks.

‘Through the Duke’s son, the Earl of March,’ Sir John says. ‘He is in our debt. Come, Kit, help me up. Richard my boy, take Walter and Thomas and summon the men. See if there are any newcomers who might swell our ranks. Goodwife Popham, we need more of the red cloth for our jacks. I do not want to turn up in London with this lot in rags.’

‘What’s he like, the Duke of York?’ Thomas asks Richard as they saddle up.

‘I don’t know,’ Richard sighs. ‘But I’ve heard things. Men say he’s gone mad since he’s been in Ireland.’

‘Mad? How so?’

‘He is supposed to be the premier lord of the land after King Henry, and has been regent while the King was inane, but now, instead of taking his counsel, the Queen favours self-interested graspers such as the Dukes of Buckingham and Somerset. It has gone hard for him, but in Ireland, with no one to tell him otherwise, they say he has been acting as if he is King of England in King Henry’s place, as if King Henry does not exist.’

Thomas is sent first to Brampton to find Brampton John. Brampton John lives with his mother and three goats in a windowless cot under a thatched roof where two paths cross. Brampton John is pleased to be recalled to join Sir John’s service, having had enough of the farming life for the summer, and they celebrate with a pot of his mother’s ale.

‘Why don’t you put some windows in here?’ Thomas asks, coughing from the smoky interior of Brampton John’s cot.

‘Windows? What for?’

‘So you can see.’

‘Windows won’t help. Even if I was ever in here when there’s daylight, which I’m not, the last thing I want to see is that bloody field. Spend all my time there, digging, sowing, cutting.’

The next morning they go north to find Little John Willingham.

‘You’ll not guess who I saw the other day,’ Little John says as they begin walking back towards Marton, bows over their shoulders. ‘Edmund Riven. The boy with the eye.’

He gestures to his right eyeball.