She came back beside him, took his hand in hers and pressed it to her lips and then held it to her heart, like a pledge. He could feel her heartbeat, steady and reassuring, as her earnest face looked into his. ‘John, this duke is not a good man. I have spoken with the people of the house and half of them worship him and will hear nothing against him, and the other half say that he is a sinner of dreadful vices. There is no balance in this household. There is no steadiness. This is a whirlwind of worldly desires and we have strayed into the very heart of it.’

John wanted to speak but she gently pressed his hand and he let her finish.

‘I did not want to leave Canterbury but you prevailed and it was my duty to obey you,’ she said softly. ‘But please now, husband, hear this. We can go to any household in the world that you choose as long as we do not stay here. I will pack our goods and our clothes and go tomorrow, wherever you say, as long as we do not stay here. I will follow you overseas even, Virginia even, as long as we do not stay here.’

John waited until she was silent then he spoke cautiously, feeling his way. ‘I never thought to hear you speak so. Why do you dislike him so much? As a man? As my master?’

She shrugged and looked towards the fire where the flames were leaping over the wood and casting a flickering light on her face. ‘I don’t know him as a man, and it’s too early to say how he will be as your master. All I have seen of him is worldly show. The diamonds in his hat, the horses in his coach. What man in England has ever had a coach before? No-one but the old queen and King James, and now this man has one, with rare horses to go before it. All I have seen of him would make me suspect that he is not a true Christian. And all that I have heard of him, and all that I know of him, tells me that he is very deep in sin.’ She dropped her voice. ‘Have you not thought that he may even be in league with the devil himself?’

John tried to laugh but Elizabeth’s sincerity was too much for him. ‘Oh, Elizabeth!’

‘Where did he come from?’

‘Not from hell! From Leicestershire!’

She frowned at the flippancy of his tone. ‘The son of a servant and a mere knight of the shires,’ she said. ‘Look at his rise, John. D’you think a man can get such fortune honestly?’