‘Rest,’ the duke said. ‘Go as soon as you wake and are fit to ride. Take her this message, I shan’t write it down.’ He crossed the room to John and spoke very low. ‘Tell her that the king is sick but not yet dying, and I need her help. Badly. D’you understand?’

John hesitated. ‘I understand the words, and I can repeat them. But I dare not think of your meaning.’

Buckingham nodded. ‘John, my John,’ he said softly, ‘that is what I wish. Just remember the words and leave the rest to me.’ He met John’s worried look with an open face. ‘I loved the king like my own father,’ he said persuasively. ‘I want him cared for with love and respect. That crowd in there will not leave him alone, they torture him with remedies, they bleed him, they turn him, they blister him, they sweat him, and chill him. I want my mother to come and nurse him gently. She’s a woman of much experience. She will know how to ease his pain.’

‘I’ll fetch her at once,’ John said.

‘Rest now, but go as soon as you wake,’ the duke said and went quietly from the room.

John peeled the borrowed breeches off his sore buttocks, tumbled into the pallet bed and slept for six solid hours.

When he woke it was past noon. Someone had placed a jug and ewer on the dark wooden chest at the head of his bed, and he washed. In the chest was a change of clothes, and John slipped on a clean shirt and breeches. He did not trouble to shave. The duke’s mother could take him as he was. He went quietly down the stairs and out to the stable yard.

‘I need a good horse,’ he said to the chief groom. ‘The duke’s business.’

‘He said you would be riding,’ the man replied. ‘There’s a horse saddled and ready for you, and a lad to ride part of the way with you to bring back the horse when you need to change. In which direction are you going?’

‘London,’ John said briefly.

‘Then this horse will take you all the way. He’s as strong as an ox.’ The groom took in John’s stiff walk. ‘Though I imagine you’ll not be galloping.’

John grimaced and reached for the saddle to haul himself up.

‘Where in London?’ the groom asked.

‘To the docks,’ John lied instantly. ‘The duke has some curious playthings come from the Indies which he thought might amuse the king and divert him in his illness. I am to fetch them.’

‘The king is better then?’ the groom asked. ‘They said this morning he was on the mend, but I did not know. He has ordered his horses to move to Hampton Court so I thought he must be better.’

‘Better, yes,’ John said.