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acquired a property in Devon, but I cannot see exactly what this …’
    Despenser frowned and strode to the unfortunate man, snatching it from him.
    ‘It’s from Wattere,’ the clerk said helpfully.
    His master turned a look upon him that was so sour, the clerk reckoned it could have curdled milk.
    The Lord Despenser was not, in truth, looking well. His face had grown pinched and sallow in the last few weeks.
    Seeing Despenser glance at him again, the clerk turned back to his work. It was never pleasant to have the Lord’s eye upon
     a man. There was a wealth of suspicion in that eye, and it was dangerous to be thought of as someone who was showing too much
     interest in him or his affairs. There were enough men and women in the country who were now his enemies.
    But the plain fact was, Sir Hugh was a worried man. This in response to news coming in of armies being gathered over the sea,
     of more and more malcontents who were so disenchantedwith the rule of Sir Hugh and the King that they had fled the land and were now gathering in ever larger, bolder groups in
     France and in other places where the King’s enemies congregated. The trouble was, almost all the world was the King’s enemy.
     Everyone knew that.
    There were reports almost weekly now of ships being readied for an invasion; and each time Sir Hugh would spring into frenetic
     action, distributing messages to the Admirals, to the Sheriffs of the coastal counties, to knights and others upon whom he
     felt he could count, demanding added vigilance, ordering them to send ships to sea to seek out the forces which threatened
     the realm, and generally over-reacting. It was a proof of his own sense of vulnerability.
    That was not all. The kingdom was unsettled. Certainly Sir Hugh had not helped matters with his single-minded pursuit of his
     advancement at the cost of all others. There were many who had cause to regret hearing his name. Some were impoverished, their
     lands and treasure forfeit to the King and now held by Despenser as reward for his loyalty. His enrichment had come at the
     expense of so many of the families who had chosen to set their faces against their King. Others had been broken physically,
     their limbs shattered until they agreed to sign away their fortunes to him, while some few were no more, their bodies concealed
     in shallow graves.
    But the instability which he had assisted was now growing alarming. Only this month, Robert Sapy’s deputy in Wales had been
     attacked in Gloucestershire. His eyes had been torn out, his legs and arms smashed, and his accounts stolen. There had been
     a time only a very short while ago when no man would have dared to treat such an important man in so dreadful a manner, but
     that time was past. Now no one was safe.
    And just as he grew alarmed to hear such stories, there was the threat of the King actually leaving the country to go toFrance to pay homage to King Charles IV. Sweet Christ in chains, was the man a
cretin
? If the King were to leave England, Despenser could not go with him. He had been promised death if he ever set foot in France.
     But as soon as the King left the realm, Despenser’s life wouldn’t be worth a wooden farthing.
    He barked suddenly: ‘You! Peter!’
    The clerk jumped, startled from his reverie. ‘Yes, my Lord?’
    ‘Take a message for Wattere. It is this: “Let him know”.’
    ‘Just that?’
    ‘Yes. He will know what to do,’ Despenser said. He clasped his hands behind his back.
    Peter the clerk watched him surreptitiously. The stance in many would look like that of a decisive man who was considering
     a new task, but Peter knew him better than most.
    He
thought Despenser was trying to stop his hands from twitching with nervousness.
    Old Palace Yard, Westminster Palace
    Edward, the Earl of Chester, strode from the court where he had been practising sword-play with a master of defence, and wiped
     his forehead with a cloth.
    He was already showing signs of the kind of