ANNE hesitates for a moment. They turn on the stage and are handed lanterns. CROMWELL acquires an apple.

They are now walking in an orchard.

I know who gave you that sinful, sinful book.

She stops.

Is Master Tyndale well?

ANNE. How did you…?

CROMWELL.…know you met him? Ah.

ANNE. You forced Jane Rochford to tell, didn’t you.

CROMWELL. Of course.

ANNE. How dare you bully one of my friends!

CROMWELL. How dare you tell a woman like that you were going to do something so sensitive. Lady Rochford is one of the world’s leakers. Master Tyndale could have been betrayed. But he’s on his way back to Holland now. He’ll be safe, thanks to the Lord’s guiding hand.

CROMWELL bites the apple. ANNE stares at him.

ANNE. You are protecting Master Tyndale?

CROMWELL. Yes.

ANNE. You… arranged for him to come into the country?

CROMWELL. Yes.

ANNE. Did he know you did?

CROMWELL. Certainly not. If he had been caught, I couldn’t have his presence laid at my door. But I… eased his passage.

ANNE. Why did you do that?

CROMWELL. Why do you think?

ANNE. You believe in the Word?

He smiles.

(Lower.) You are a Protestant?

CROMWELL. As I suspect you are, Lady Anne. (A moment.) You have my life in your hands.

CROMWELL bites the apple.

ANNE. You have mine in yours.

CROMWELL. Yes. We are at a balance.

CROMWELL bites the apple. A pause. Then ANNE laughs.

ANNE. They see you as a vicious man on the make.

CROMWELL. They see you as a hussy who planned to get your claws into the King from the moment you came to Court.

CROMWELL bites the apple. ANNE looks at him calmly.

ANNE. Let us say we are both creatures of this world.

CROMWELL. While being servants of another.

A pause.

ANNE. The Cardinal will go to the King, say terrible things about Master Tyndale’s book, blast me as a heretic who has ensnared him…

CROMWELL (laughs). You are a heretic, you have ensnared him.

ANNE. Don’t you understand? I have gone headlong, these years. Headlong. Everything has come to me. But for the first time I’m… frightened.

CROMWELL. I learnt as a boy: when you know someone’s going to hit you, hit them first. When I was big enough, I tried it on my father. It worked. Go to the King, now, tonight. Wolsey will be having his dinner, he always stuffs himself before he politicks.

ANNE. Yes. Yes. I’ll go…

CROMWELL. Though take a moment with me.

ANNE hesitates.

You know Martin Luther’s evening prayer?

ANNE. Yes.

They hold their hands out, looking up – not kneeling. They take alternate lines until the last.

My Heavenly Father, I thank You, through Jesus Christ, your beloved Son, that you have protected me by Your Grace…

CROMWELL.… Forgive, I pray, all my sins and the evil I have done…