‘We should do it on the turn of the tide,’ John proposed. ‘So the tide pulls the ships out of range, helps the barges to do their work.’

Buckingham nodded. ‘Give the orders, John. You will know how it should be done.’

‘I shall make them practise first.’

‘Very well. But do it out of sight of the fort, and have them ready for dawn tomorrow, as near to dawn as the tides permit.’

John bowed and went to leave the cabin. He hesitated at the door. ‘And the attack on the castle?’ he asked.

‘A textbook attack!’ one of the officers enthused. ‘While they are looking out to sea we attack on land. Speed, stealth. May I have the command, sir?’

Buckingham smiled at his enthusiasm. ‘You may.’

‘What about the ladders?’ John asked. ‘And the ropes?’

The officer turned on him impatiently. ‘You may leave all that to me!’

‘I beg your pardon,’ John said politely. ‘But that’s only a rough sketch I did. Someone needs to check the angle of the walls, any overhangs, the best places for the ladders. The ground beneath the walls.’

The officer laughed. ‘I had no idea you were a soldier of experience, Mr Tradescant!’ He emphasised the ‘Mr’ to remind John that he was among gentlemen on sufferance, he had no right to the tide. Buckingham, leaning back in his chair, sniffed his pomander and watched John control his temper.

‘I am a gardener, and a collector of my lord duke’s rarities,’ John said tightly. ‘I’ve never pretended to be anything else. But I have seen action.’

‘Once,’ someone said softly at the back. ‘And hardly glorious.’

John did not look around. ‘It is in my line of work to look at the little things, to see that they are not forgotten. All I am saying is that the height and the dimensions of the walls have to be known exactly.’

‘Thank you,’ the officer said with icy courtesy. ‘I am grateful for your advice.’

John glanced at his duke. Buckingham gave a small jerk of his head to the door and John bowed and withdrew.

It was a small slight after three months of slights but it was the one conversation that John was to hear in his head, in his dreams, over and over again.