John thought of his master, who believed that a monarch could only rule by a combination of bluff and seduction to gain the consent of the people, and whose watchword was practice not principle, kept silent, touched the chestnuts in his waistcoat pocket for luck, took up his hat and went from the room to his solitary bed.

He arrived at Meopham at noon and nearly turned into the courtyard of the Days’ family farmhouse, before he recalled that he should find Elizabeth in her new cottage – in their new cottage. He rode back down the mud track of the village street and then skirted around to the back of the little house where there was a lean-to shed and a patch of ground for his horse. He took off its saddle and bridle and turned the animal into the field. It raised its head and whinnied at the strangeness of the place and he saw Elizabeth’s face at an upstairs window, looking out at the noise.

As he walked towards the little cottage’s back gate he heard her running down the wooden stairs and then the back door burst open and she was racing towards him. As she suddenly recollected her dignity, she skidded to an abrupt halt. ‘Oh! Mr Tradescant!’ she said. ‘I should have killed a chicken if I had known you were coming today.’

John stepped forward and took her hands and kissed her, formal as ever, on her forehead. ‘I did not know what time I should arrive,’ he said. ‘The roads were better than I thought they would be.’

‘Have you come from Theobalds?’

‘I left the day before yesterday.’

‘And is everything well?’

‘It is.’ He glanced down at her and saw that her usually pale face was rosy and smiling. ‘You look very well … wife.’

She peeped up at him from under her severe white cap. ‘I am well,’ she said. ‘And very happy to see you. The days are rather long here.’

‘Why?’ John asked. ‘I should have thought you would have much to do in a house of your own at last?’

‘Because I am used to running a farmhouse,’ she said. ‘With care for the still room, and the laundry, and the mending, and the feeding of the family and all the farm workers, and the health of the staff, the herb garden and the kitchen garden too! Here all I have to look after is two bedrooms and a kitchen and parlour. I have not enough to do.’

‘Oh.’ John was genuinely surprised. ‘I had not thought.’

‘But I have started on a garden,’ she said shyly. ‘I thought you might like it.’