He stepped through the front door and towards the first of the beautiful knot gardens. They wanted weeding, he thought, and then smiled at himself. These were not his weeds any more, they were the king’s.

He saw Buckingham before dinner that night. ‘If you do not need me, I shall go home tomorrow,’ he said. ‘I did not warn my wife that I was going with you, and there is much to do in the garden at New Hall.’

Buckingham nodded. ‘When you go through London you can see if my ship has come from the Indies,’ he said. ‘And supervise the unloading of the goods. They were ordered to bring me much ivory and silk. You can fetch them safely down to New Hall and see them installed in my rooms. I am making a collection of rare and precious things. Prince Charles has his toy soldiers, have you seen them? They fire cannon and you can draw them up in battle lines. They are very diverting. I should like some pretty things too.’

‘Am I to wait in London for the Indies goods to arrive?’

‘If you will,’ Buckingham said sweetly. ‘If Mrs Tradescant can spare you so long.’

‘She knows your service comes first,’ John said. ‘How does the king today? Still better?’

Buckingham looked grave. ‘He is worse,’ he said. ‘The ague has hold of him, and he is not a young man, and was never strong. He saw the prince privately today and put him in mind of his duties. He is preparing himself … I really think he is preparing himself. It is my duty to make sure he can be at peace, that he can rest.’

‘I heard he was getting better,’ John ventured cautiously.

‘We give out the best reports we can, but the truth is that he is an old man who is ready to meet his death.’

John bowed and left the room, and went down to the hall for his dinner.

The place was in uproar. Half a dozen of the physicians that John had first seen in the king’s chamber were calling for their horses and their menservants. The courtiers were shouting for their carriages and for food to take on their journeys.

‘What’s this?’ John asked.

‘It’s all the fault of your master,’ a woman replied shortly. ‘He has flung the physicians from the king’s presence, and half the court too. He said they were troubling him too much with their noise and their playing, and he said the physicians were fools.’

John grinned and stepped back to watch the confusion of their departure.

‘He will regret it!’ one doctor shouted to another. ‘I warned him myself, if His Majesty suffers and we are not at hand, he will regret this insult to us!’

‘He is beyond counsel! I warned him but he pushed me from the room!’