‘You won’t mind her coming into your house?’

Elizabeth shook her head. ‘She’s a pleasant girl, and I will enjoy having someone to talk to during the day when you and J are both out.’ She turned back the cover on the bed. ‘Come to bed, husband, we have done a good day’s work today.’

Still he lingered at the window, looking down at the cobbled London street, empty except for a scavenging cat, silent except for the occasional call of the night watchman. ‘You have been a good wife to me, Elizabeth. I am sorry if I have ever grieved you.’

‘And you have been a good husband to me.’ She hesitated. The other love and the vow of love till death was still between them, even on this day. ‘Shall you call to see the duke to see if he needs any service before we go back to New Hall?’

‘He’s hunting at Richmond,’ John answered. ‘And I may not go to him until he sends for me.’

‘When will he send for you again?’

‘I don’t know.’

She slipped from the bed and stood beside him, her hand on his shoulder. The draughts from the window were icy but John was not aware of them.

‘Did you part on bad terms?’ she asked. ‘Is that why he never sends for you now? And why you are waiting and waiting for him and why you look so pained when someone mentions his name?’

‘We parted on no terms at all,’ John said heavily. ‘He dismissed me. There are no terms between us but those of a master and his man, it was I who forgot my place and he did right to remind me. You would have thought I would have known, wouldn’t you, Elizabeth?’ He shot her a brief unhappy smile. ‘Trained with Cecil. You would have thought that of all the men in England I would have known that you can be close to a great man, you can be in his confidence. But he is always the great man and you are always his servant.’

‘You forgot that?’ she asked gently.

‘I was reminded quick enough,’ John said quietly. The dismissal on the quayside when Buckingham had turned from him to his wife and the courtiers was still as sharply painful as when it had happened. ‘But he was in the right and I in the wrong. I thought I would stay with him but he did not need me. And still he does not need me now. He is busy with the king, with his wife, with his mistresses. He will not send for me until he needs an honest man, and he has no need of an honest man at court. Indeed, there is no room for an honest man at court.’

‘I am sure he will send for you soon,’ she said. It was the only comfort she could think of.