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calmly.
    ‘I would not have described your role as such.’ Hobart tried to feign indignation, and failed. ‘Your task is to make sketches which will be invaluable when we come to decide upon the final composition.’
    ‘A monkey with a charcoal stick,’ conceded Kieron. ‘You yourself will execute the painting, Master Hobart. I am simply to delay matters until you and Seigneur Fitzalan judge that the time is ripe.’
    ‘Not so, not so, not so!’ protested Hobart. ‘You will execute the portrait.’
    ‘You would trust me with this matter?’
    ‘Kieron, I would trust you with my life … Besides, look at my hands, boy. Look at them.’
    Master Hobart held out his hands. Kieron looked. They were shaking badly. The veins stood out, the joints were swollen, the fingers were bent. Such hands would never draw a true circle again.
    ‘Master Hobart, I am sorry. Truly, I am sorry.’
    ‘No need for sorrow, Kieron, my son. No need. I have you. Seigneur Fitzalan does not know that I have finished with painting.’
    ‘You have not finished with painting, Master.’
    ‘Hear me. Hear me. The portrait will be signed Hobart. It is the last time I shall put my signature … But, when Seigneur Fitzalan has given his approval, I shall add to that signature. It shall read: Hobart app Kieron. Is that enough?’
    Kieron was amazed to find himself weeping. ‘Master Hobart, you cannot do this thing.’
    ‘I can and will. Is it enough?’
    ‘It is more than enough. Much more.’
    ‘This once, and this once only, I require you to call me Father. And I require you to paint Mistress Alyx in such a fashion that it will add stature to us both.’
    ‘Father, I will do my best,’ said Kieron.
    ‘I am content. Your best is good enough … Seigneur Fitzalan has undertaken to pay seven hundred and fifty schilling for a successful portrait.’
    ‘Seven hundred and fifty schilling!’ It was the first time Kieron had ever heard Master Hobart talk of money. The sum mentioned was enormous. Kieron’s own official allowance was ten schilling a year.
    ‘Mark you, the fee also includes the time that must be spent and the trouble taken to produce the preliminary sketches which will, with Ludd’s help, take up many of Mistress Alyx’s waking hours during the next eight-week.’
    Kieron snorted. ‘More a fee for the diversion than for the portrait, I’ll wager.’
    ‘My son, it is not for us to dissect Seigneur Fitzalan’s generosity. Now, listen carefully. You have seen my hands. Also you must know by now that I paint horses less elegantly – shall we say – than I might … It is a strange thing, this matter of horses. But all artists have some weakness. No matter. I digress … The point is that you will execute the portrait. It will be a good one, that I already know. And in the matter of the signature, the world shall see that the master has been outstripped by the apprentice. But to return to the fee. Upon Seigneur Fitzalan’s approval and payment, two hundred and fifty schilling shall be sent to Master Gerard, thus to recognise that the son of his flesh and the child of my spirit are formidably one person; two hundred and fifty schilling shall be held for you against your majority and the completion of your apprenticeship; and the remaining two hundred and fifty schilling I will keep, in fee for what I have taught you and to dispose of as I wish … Does this arrangement please you, Kieron?’
    For a time, Kieron was at a loss for words. At length, he said: ‘Master Hobart, you destroy me with kindness. I accept your generosity in all except one thing. The signature.’
    ‘You have seen my hands. I will paint no more. It is true that I will attend to simple matters. My eye is good for design and composition. I can still produce schemes for good murals. But I will paint no more.’
    ‘I will not have it so!’ shouted Kieron.
    Hobart was amazed. ‘My son, these are facts.’
    ‘Sir, you will sign the canvas Hobart, or I will