‘I cannot believe that this is your wish,’ John said. ‘My lord has been dead and buried for a month and I am to steal from him like a dishonest pageboy?’

‘There are the tulips,’ J said in a sudden rush. His face was scarlet with embarrassment, but he faced his father as one man to another. ‘What would you have had me do? The tulips were ready for lifting, they were in their bowls in our garden, the place was in uproar, men were running out of the house with wall-hangings and linen trailing behind them. I did not know what to do with the tulips. Nobody there would have nursed them up. Nobody there knew what to do with them. Nobody would advise me.’

‘So what did you do?’ John asked.

‘I brought them with me. And more than half of them have spawned. We have nigh on two thousand pounds’ worth of tulip bulbs.’

‘Prices holding?’ John’s acumen flared briefly, penetrating his grief.

‘Yes,’ J said simply. ‘Still rising. And we have the only Lack tulips in England.’

‘How much are you owed?’ Elizabeth suddenly demanded. ‘In back wages? Did he pay you for the last expedition to Rhé? Did he advance you wages for this one? Did he give you money for the cost of the journey to Portsmouth? Or for your stay in Portsmouth, or this journey home? Because if he gave you nothing you will never have more from the duchess. She is in hiding and the king himself is refusing to tell anyone where she is. They say she is afraid of assassins, but we all know she is more terrified of creditors. How much are you owed, John?’

‘I was not paid at midsummer,’ J reminded him. ‘They said they had no coin and gave me a note of promise, and I will not be paid this Michaelmas. That’s twenty-five pounds I am owed. And while you were away I had to buy some plants and some saplings and they could not repay me.’

Unconsciously John put his hand to his throat where the bag of diamonds nestled warm against his skin.

‘You cannot agree to this?’ He turned to Josiah. ‘It is theft.’

The merchant shook his head. ‘I no longer know what is right and wrong in this country,’ he said. ‘The king takes money from the people without law or tradition, Parliament denies that he has the right, and so he closes Parliament and imposes the fines anyway. If the king himself can steal honest men’s money then what are we to do? Your lord stole your service from you for years, and now he is dead and no-one will repay you. They will not even acknowledge the debt.’

‘Stealing is still a sin,’ John said doggedly.