They are at the churchyard now, and Geoffrey’s grave is below a yew by the gate. Katherine wonders where Goodwife Popham is buried, and Liz, but there is nothing to be gained from thinking that way, she knows, and so she closes her eyes and kneels next to Thomas on the icy earth and while he repeats the prayers for the dead, just as he did over Margaret Cornford’s body in the hills in Wales, all she can do is pray that he will not leave her.

When they get back to the hall, Sir John is sharpening his sword on the same step that Walter used.

‘I am coming with you, Thomas,’ he says. ‘Or rather, you are coming with me.’

Thomas frowns.

‘No,’ he says. ‘There is no need.’

Sir John stands up. He has lost weight since this ordeal started, but he is still a formidable presence, with an old soldier’s heft and a cunning cast in his eye.

‘There is every need,’ he says. ‘I can no longer live like this, huddled away, waiting for news, and you forget I am indentured to my lord Fauconberg. I promised to provide him with fifteen archers, and if I cannot do that, then I must do what I can. Besides, this battle will be the greatest yet. It will end this for once and for all, and I want to be there, Thomas. I want to see if I can find Riven myself before it is too late.’

Thomas almost laughs.

‘Sir John,’ he says, ‘these battles – they are not like that. You will not know if you do find him. You will just find yourself face to face with a man in harness who will try to kill you as quickly as he can. He will try to open your face with a hammer. Something like that. Or his men will use their bills to pull you over and one of them’ll stab you in the balls while you cry out for mercy.’

Now Sir John laughs.

‘So it has not changed so very much from my day,’ he says. ‘Come on. Get your gear. We must make ourselves ready.’

‘What of us?’ Katherine asks. She is standing beside Thomas and her pulse is hammering and she feels faint. Sir John turns to her as if he has only just noticed her.

‘Ah,’ he says, and she watches him glance back at Thomas. ‘Ah. I thought, perhaps, you would stay here with Richard? To maintain the house? I have asked one of the women in the village to come. Also called Margaret, though she is Meg. She will be here.’

Katherine feels like shouting at him, like grabbing his neck and wringing it.