Reluctantly he looked up from the letter. ‘Very pretty,’ he said.

‘Come and see,’ she commanded. ‘You can’t see the painting from there!’

He handed back the page of paper to John and went towards her. With a sense of relief, J saw that the question of how many of the exhibits had been the property of Lord Buckingham had completely slipped away.

‘I must have one just like this!’ she cried. ‘I shall borrow this and have it copied.’

J was not courtier enough to assent. John stepped quickly forward. ‘Your Majesty, we would be honoured if you would have it as a gift,’ he said.

‘Do you not need it in your collection, to show to people?’ she asked, opening her eyes wide.

John bowed. ‘The collection, the Ark itself, is all yours, Your Majesty, as everything lovely and rare must be yours. You shall decide what you leave here, and what you take.’

She laughed delightedly and for a moment J was afraid that her greed would outrun her desire to seem charming. ‘I shall leave everything here, of course!’ she said. ‘But whenever you have something new and rare and pretty I shall come and see it.’

‘We will be honoured,’ J said, with a sense of a danger narrowly avoided. ‘Will Your Majesty take a glass of wine?’

The queen turned for the door. ‘But who is this?’ she asked as Frances leaped forward and opened the door for her. ‘A little footman?’

‘I’m Frances,’ the little girl said. She had forgotten all about the curtsey which Jane had reluctantly taught her. ‘I was waiting for you for ages.’

For a moment J thought that the queen would take offence. But then she laughed her girlish laugh. ‘I am sorry to keep you waiting!’ she exclaimed. ‘But am I what you thought a queen would be?’

Both John and J moved forward, J smoothly standing beside Frances and giving her thin shoulder blade a swift admonitory pinch, while John filled the pause. ‘She was expecting Queen Elizabeth,’ he said. ‘We have a miniature of Her Majesty, painted on ivory. She did not know that a Queen could be so young and beautiful.’

Henrietta Maria laughed. ‘And a wife, and the mother of a son and heir,’ she reminded him. ‘Unlike the poor heretic queen.’ Frances gasped in horror and was about to argue but to J’s enormous relief the queen went past the little girl without another glance. Jane threw open the parlour door and curtseyed.

‘I wasn’t expecting Queen Elizabeth, and anyway she wasn’t a heret–’ Frances started to argue. J leaned heavily on her shoulder as the king went past.

‘She is my first granddaughter and has been much indulged,’ John explained.

The king down looked at her. ‘You must repay favour with duty,’ he said firmly.