The Agincourt Bride. Joanna Hickson

have surprised me if she had fled back to Poissy in despair but then, thinking about it, how could she even do that?

      For once, the squabbling princes did as they were told. Perhaps they were tired of all the arguments; I know I would have been. Burgundy, of course, was already in Flanders, but the Duke of Orleans took his new duchess and her parents to his castle at Blois, the Duke of Berry went to Bourges, the Duke of Bourbon to Bourbon and the Duke of Anjou to Angers. Many lesser nobles followed their overlords’ example and with them went their families, baggage, servants and retainers. Jean-Michel reported that driving the regular supply-train back from the royal estates had been a nightmare because all the roads out of Paris were jammed with long columns of horsemen, carts and litters going in the opposite direction.

      In the absence of the queen, Catherine relaxed noticeably. Most of her ladies-in-waiting had retreated with their families, leaving only Agnes and a couple of low-ranked baronet’s daughters to attend her. So since she was no longer obliged to spend long, tedious hours attending court, she could occupy herself however she chose. For the first time in years, the countryside was relatively peaceful and, with the dauphin’s authority, Catherine was able to command horses and escorts to make excursions beyond the walls of Paris. She liked the exercise of riding, but on the first day of May she insisted that Alys, Luc and I should join her on a trip to the Bois de Vincennes and that Jean-Michel should drive us there in one of the royal supply wagons.

      ‘It will be a May Day holiday, Mette,’ she said excitedly. ‘You can organise a picnic for us.’

      The castle of Vincennes was a royal hunting lodge surrounded by forest outside the east wall of Paris where the king often went to pursue deer and boar when he was well enough. Hunting was one adult activity he could still enjoy; although Jean-Michel said the Master of Horse only mounted him on a pony these days, rather than one of the spirited coursers on which he had galloped after prey as a young and healthy man. For me it was like a taste of paradise to wander through groves of great oaks where bluebells carpeted the clearings and to do it in the company of all the people that I loved most in the world. It was perfect spring weather and when the sun had climbed to its highest, we gathered in the dappled shade on the bank of a stream and ate cold capon and May Day sweetmeats and afterwards Catherine and her young ladies took off their shoes and hose and ran barefoot through the lush green grass, hitching up their silken skirts like harvest-maids. When she grew breathless, Catherine ran to sit beside me on a fallen log where I was watching Alys and Luc laughing and splashing in the gravel shallows.