Three days passed in a strange lull, as if we were becalmed; I stayed in the apartment and kept the children close, allowing nothing to distract my attention from them, and yet the speed of my heartbeat and lack of appetite were constant reminders that, elsewhere, Richard Weston was answering questions about his time as Overbury’s jailer. Killing Overbury could bring us down, but not in the way we had expected. Had he been alive when George Villiers was first brought to Court, he might have counseled Carr to befriend this young rival and keep the King’s favor, then no one would have dared move against him.

Barbara, not yet betrothed, had left Lady Catherine’s household, or perhaps was sent away because of the scandal. She refused to say that was the case, but she would not have added to my troubles for the world. I was glad that John, at least, would not know for a day or two what was unfolding. My brother Eustace visited, to know how I did, but other than him, Frankie and I received no visitors at all, not even from our families, although Frankie was summoned briefly to her father.

“My father has told Weston that his son will be hurt if he confesses,” Frankie informed me. I was horrified, but she was impatient. “Neither of us wants that, but it is the only way that we can all escape justice. If Weston does not confess, then there is no principal to charge with the crime, and the case cannot be tried. There is no one on this earth who can frighten me into confessing guilt, not even the Lord Chief Justice.”

I did not ask what she had told her father to enlist his help. The knowledge might damage us further if I were tortured. Although I was terrified of being questioned, it seemed that Weston and Frankie would deny everything and it was now up to me to keep quiet. Yet I wondered, again and again, would Weston or Frankie sacrifice me if great pressure were put upon them? Only when it was all over would I know if they had held fast or failed me.

Frankie’s father had been informed of the events that led to Weston’s arrest, which meant that Carr had been too, although he said nothing to us. The Lieutenant of the Tower, Sir Gervase Elwes, had lost his job and was seeking another from Baron Ellesmere, that same for whom Arthur was steward and in whose household John and Barbara had served. Elwes, in an attempt to disprove his reputation for drunkenness and corruption, informed Lord Ellesmere that he had thrown away poison intended for a prisoner, even though he would have stood to gain had the prisoner died. Lord Ellesmere saw immediately how magnificently he could profit from this information, given that the prisoner was Sir Thomas Overbury.