‘Unless you wish to eat peaches while I go to war!’

‘You, my lord!’

Buckingham threw back his head and laughed once more. John thought for a moment that he might have crowed like a cock on the farmyard wall. ‘Listen to this, my John. We are to take on the French! Won’t that be a game? While they trouble us in the Lowlands and threaten the fair Queen Elizabeth, driven off her rightful throne in Bohemia, we will sail around and attack their soft underbelly.’

‘In the Mediterranean?’

‘La Rochelle,’ Buckingham said triumphantly. ‘We will sail in to a hero’s welcome from the Protestants. They have been besieged by their own countrymen, martyrs for their faith, for long enough. Our arrival will turn the tables. I doubt we will need to fire a shot! And what a snap of fingers in the face of Richelieu!’

‘But only last year you sent a fleet to fight for Richelieu, you were his ally against them –’

‘Policy! Policy!’ Buckingham dismissed the idea. ‘We should have supported our brothers in religion as soon as the siege was raised. The country was wild to go to war against the Catholics, I was wild for it. But with a French queen new-come to the English throne and the Spanish such a threat – what could I do? It’s different now. It will be better now.’

‘The people may have longer memories,’ John warned. ‘They may remember that you hired our Navy out to Richelieu and English guns were trained on the Protestants at La Rochelle.’

Buckingham shook his head and laughed. ‘What is wrong with you today, Tradescant? Don’t you want to come with me?’

‘You are never sailing yourself?’

Buckingham smiled his heart-stopping smile. ‘I? But of course! Who else is Lord High Admiral?’

‘I didn’t think …’ John broke off. ‘Are you not needed at home, by the king? And your enemies in the country, will they not mass against you if you are gone on an expedition for months at a time? The gossip is loud against you, I’ve heard even here that they are making accusations – my lord, surely you cannot risk being away?’

‘How better to silence them than with a victory? When I come home with a victory against France, a triumph against the Papists, and a new English port on the west coast of France, don’t you think my enemies will disappear in a moment? They will be my dearest friends again. Sir John and Sir Dudley will love me like brothers again, come rushing out of the Tower to kiss my hand. Don’t you see? It will turn everything around for me.’

John put his hand on the richly slashed sleeve of his master’s fine doublet. ‘But, my lord, if you fail?’