It had been a long journey but still she had not perfected her opening address. In the broiling and crowded coach from London to St. Albans she had thought to start by introducing herself. As the horses were changed and she had eaten, she had decided to begin by presenting the gift she had in her pocket. As the coach continued to Luton, she wondered if it were safer to say nothing and wait to be asked questions. In Luton, it took so long to find someone to carry her to Woburn that she was forced to stay at an inn, sharing a bed with fleas, lice and a much younger but fatter woman, who snored and shifted all night.

In the morning she set off alone in a hired coach, more of a roofed cart, its driver seemingly delighted to be released from his normal duties of conveying straw for the making of hats.

The journey to Woburn Abbey was not long and within an hour they turned in at a gatehouse, where the ground became smoother. The driver ceased whistling as the weight of grandeur fell upon them. The drive, a mile long at least, passed through woods, hay meadows, kitchen gardens and around large ponds to another gate that led into a paved courtyard. Standing at the foot of what appeared to be a recently added façade, Barbara wondered if she should have used the tradesmen’s entrance. She yanked on the iron bellpull before she could change her mind. Although only a few years off sixty, she looked a decade younger and was well enough dressed not to be taken for a servant. She was shown into a large parlor and asked to wait.

She had only time to look through the windows when the rustle of silk announced Lady Anne, Countess of Bedford. She was perhaps more beautiful than her mother had been, with the same dark eyes, but a more reserved air. Her pale hair was her father’s, but the red-brown of her mother’s lay just beneath. Thirty-four years of age, she was born days after Barbara’s mother died. Recently Lady Anne’s husband had been fighting in the wars between King and Parliament, switching sides more than once, and the strain of it showed in her face. Judging by the size of her belly, she was also pregnant and soon to give birth. Barbara curtsied but before either woman could speak, a loud screech made her jump.

A green parrot sat on a perch in one corner of the room. Barbara stared at it for some moments.

“Prospero? Can it be?” she said.