‘Then may I request, my Lady, that you ask Jane where she went, and what she might have seen, from the time she entered the privy lodgings on the sixth of July?’

‘Well, Jane?’ the Lady Mary asked encouragingly. ‘Do you remember anything?’

Jane Fool gave me a quick look before addressing her mistress. ‘I wanted to show the Queen a new trick I have taught Ducky, to seek out herbs which I have hidden. But the ladies would not let me past the Privy Chamber, they said she was not in.’ To my surprise Jane then stamped her foot like a child, and raised her voice. ‘Often they try to keep me from the Queen, though I alone can divert her when she is sad. She has often been sad of late—’

Mary raised a hand, and Jane was instantly silent. ‘Yes,’ Mary said dryly. ‘She has. And now such a fuss over a missing ring.’ However hard the Queen might have tried to bring the King’s children into amity with her and each other, it seemed that with Mary at least her success had been limited.

‘It was of great sentimental value,’ I murmured. ‘My Lady, if Jane could say where she went – ’

Mary turned back to Jane. She spoke patiently. ‘When you went past the ladies into the privy lodgings, where did you go? Did you see anything strange?’

‘I looked in all the rooms for the Queen,’ Jane replied. ‘And when I saw she was truly not there, I came out again into the Privy Chamber. Nobody was in her quarters, the pages had gone and Mary Odell not yet come.’

‘Then all is well.’ Mary spoke in a tone of finality and Jane Fool shot me a quick, triumphant look.

I persisted. ‘Did she notice anything unusual in the Queen’s bedchamber? About her private chest, perhaps, where she kept the ring and other valuables?’

‘No. Nothing,’ Jane said – too quickly, I thought. ‘The Queen never lets me near it. My Lady, this crookback frightens me.’ I thought, you are lying. From the change in the Lady Mary’s expression I realized she saw it too.

‘Any information would be received most gratefully by the Queen,’ I dared to venture.

The Lady Mary looked at Jane. ‘Be calm, my dear. You know I can tell when you are playing games. Tell the gentleman anything you know, and I give you my word you will come to no harm.’

Jane Fool was red-faced now. Like a child, she pouted and stuck a finger in her mouth.

‘Jane – ’ A stern note had crept into the Lady Mary’s voice.

‘It’s rude, it’s naughty,’ Jane blurted out.

‘What is, Jane?’

There was a long moment of silence. Then she said, ‘When I went into the bedchamber to see whether the Queen was there – ’

I leaned forward. The Lady Mary said encouragingly, ‘Yes – ?’

‘I had Ducky with me, and – ’

‘Yes – ?’

‘He shat on the floor.’