John realised that his son thought he was speaking of a woman, perhaps a lover from long ago. He did not correct him. ‘So I do understand,’ he said.

‘You will let me go?’

John rested his hand on J’s shoulder and hauled himself to his feet. He recognised again, to his continual surprise, that the stripling had grown to be a man with a shoulder as broad and strong as his own. ‘It’s not for me to order you,’ he said. ‘You are a man grown and an equal partner with me. If you need to go, you must go, and my blessing will go with you. I’ll care for Frances and Baby John, and for the Ark and for Oatlands while you are away. And I will trust you to come back as soon as you can. I’m getting old, J, I need you here and your children will need you.’

J rose too but his shoulders were slumped. ‘I shan’t forget my duty.’

‘And they will need a mother,’ John ventured.

J flung his head up. ‘I can’t marry again,’ he said flatly.

‘Not for love,’ John said gently. ‘No-one is asking for that. But the children need a mother. They cannot be raised by me and by a couple of maidservants. Baby John is only just walking, he will need a mother to bring him up and teach him his manners and play with him. And you will need a wife. You’re a young man, J. There are long years ahead of you. You will need a companion and a friend for those years.’

J turned away and put his hand on the rough bark of the apple tree to steady himself. ‘If you knew how it hurts me even to think of another woman, you would not say that,’ he said. ‘It is the cruellest, most unkind thing you could say. There will never be a woman in her place. Never.’

John put his hand out once more, and then let it drop back. ‘I will not say it again,’ he said gently. ‘I miss her too.’ He paused. ‘I don’t believe there is another woman who could take her place,’ he acknowledged. ‘She was a rarity. I have only ever seen one of her.’ It was his greatest praise.

They could not find the passage money, the Ark was a sinking ship. Then J thought that he could put the idea of sending him into the queen’s mind. He briefly mentioned it when she stopped beside him in the queen’s court one day as he was tying back the creepers against the wall.

‘You would think of leaving my garden? Of leaving my service?’ she asked.

J dropped to his knee. ‘Never,’ he said. ‘I was thinking of the wealth that Raleigh and Drake brought back for Queen Elizabeth. I was thinking that I would like to bring back treasures for you.’