‘And I sailed to Russia with Sir Dudley, he’s not a man for false accusations, he’s a man of most careful honour! Why, I’d trust his judgement as I’d trust my own. We were shipmates on a long hazardous voyage and when he was sick I nursed him. I’d have gone with him overland to Moscow if I could have done. He’s a fine man, a fair man. He’d not bear false witness against anyone. He would not do it.’

The steward looked bleakly at him. ‘It is his word against the duke’s.’

‘I would have wagered my life on his honesty,’ Tradescant said uncertainly.

The steward shook his head. ‘It was those two who spoke against our lord, and are imprisoned for it. And now the king has them in the Tower and they’re not to be released.’

‘But what are the charges?’

‘None. There are no charges – except that they spoke against the duke.’

John took a swift stride to the window and looked out at the terraces below: the golden terrace with the goldfish, the silver beneath, and the dappled trout ponds at the lowest level.

‘They are men you could trust with anything,’ he said softly. ‘If it was any other cause I would be with them.’

The steward said nothing.

When Tradescant turned back his face was very grave. ‘This is a bad business. No-one can call Sir Dudley a liar. But no-one can say that my duke did – all these things that they say he did.’

The steward looked at him closely. ‘You were there. At the king’s death. You must have seen.’

‘I saw nothing,’ John answered swiftly. ‘I saw nothing but my lord watching and waking with his master. The prince was there, do they say he killed his own father? The Bishop of Lincoln was there. Do they say he did it too?’

‘The Villiers mother was there,’ William Ward remarked. ‘And the doctors were dismissed.’

John looked at him, baffled. ‘We have to trust him,’ he said stoutly, but it sounded more like an appeal. ‘He’s our master. We are sworn to be his men. We have to trust him until we have absolute evidence that he has gone against the king or against the word of God itself. We can’t give ourselves as his men and then take ourselves back again when his star is coming down. I am his man through good and bad times. I have eaten his bread.’

William Ward nodded. ‘At least the duke is to come home for a few days. He writes me that he will stay and then go on to the New Forest for hunting with the king.’

Tradescant nodded. ‘They’re going hunting? But what about the parliament? The king only just called it.’