Buckingham did not throw him off, as he could have done, did not laugh, as John half-expected. Instead he put his white fingers on John’s hand, and held his touch closer. ‘I must not fail,’ he said softly. ‘To tell you truth, John, I dare not fail.’

John looked into his master’s dark eyes. ‘Are you in so much jeopardy?’

‘The worst. They will execute me for treason if they can.’

The two men stood still for a moment, hands clasped, their heads close.

‘Come with me?’ Buckingham asked.

‘Of course,’ John replied.

‘You are going where?’ Elizabeth demanded, icily furious.

‘To France with the fleet,’ John said, keeping his head low over his dinner. J, at the other end of the table, watched his parents in silence.

‘You are nearly sixty.’ Elizabeth’s voice trembled with rage. ‘It is time you stayed home. The duke pays you as his gardener and the keeper of his rarities. Why can he not leave you to garden?’

John shook his head and cut himself a slice of ham. ‘This is sweet meat,’ he remarked. ‘One of our own?’

‘Yes,’ she snapped. ‘Why does the duke want you?’

‘He has asked me to go,’ John said in his most reasonable tone. ‘I can hardly ask him if he is sure, or what his reasons are. He has ordered me to go.’

‘You are at an age when men sit by their fireside and tell their grandchildren of their travels,’ she said. ‘Not going as a common soldier off to war.’

He was stung. ‘I’m not a common soldier. I travel as a gentleman in his train. As his companion and adviser.’

She slapped the table with her hand. ‘What can you advise him? You are a gardener.’

He met her challenging eyes squarely. ‘I may be a gardener but I have travelled farther and faced worse danger than any other in his train,’ he said. ‘I was at the battle of Algiers, and the long voyage to Russia. I have travelled all over Europe. He needs all the wise heads he can muster. He has asked for me and I will go.’

‘You could refuse,’ she challenged him. ‘You could leave his service. There are many other places where you could work. We could go back to Canterbury, Lord Wootton would have you back. He says that no-one can grow melons like you. We could go back to Hatfield and work for the Cecils again.’

‘I will not be forsworn. I will not leave his lordship.’