He looked me in the eye for a moment, then leaned forward and spoke quietly. ‘A few times, these last months. You have little idea of the control and composure she must have. It has always been one of my niece’s greatest qualities, that control. But underneath she is a woman of powerful feeling, more so as her faith has grown stronger. And since the spring – the questioning of those close to her, the persecutions, the knowledge that the King might turn on her – yes, she has broken down before. In front of me, and Mary Odell, and her sister. She is lucky to have those she can trust.’ He paused and looked at me hard.

‘She can trust me, too, my Lord,’ I said quietly.

He grimaced. ‘For a commoner to see the Queen as you did – well, let us say you are the first. And I pray the last.’ He sat up straight, looking over my shoulder. ‘Here, the Baynard’s Castle steps are close ahead.’

THE TWO OF US had agreed our approach, the words we would use to bring a confession if Barwic was guilty. We had no time to waste. Lord Parr strode through the courtyard and then the central hall, looking stern, all the guards saluting the Queen’s Chancellor in turn. He came to the carpenter’s door and flung it open. Barwic was planing a length of oak – I noticed little pieces of sawdust in his russet beard – while his assistant sanded another. They both looked up at our entrance, the assistant in astonishment and Barwic, I saw, in fear.

Lord Parr slammed the door shut and stood with his arms folded. He inclined his head to the apprentice. ‘Go, boy,’ he said bluntly, and the lad fled with a quick bow. Barwic faced us.

‘Michael Leeman, the thief, is discovered,’ I said, bluntly. ‘And his confederate, Zachary Gawger.’

Barwic stood there for a second, his face expressionless, his wild red hair and beard, flecked with sawdust, looking almost comical. Then, like a puppet, he sank slowly to his knees, lowering his head and clasping his work-roughened hands together. From this position he looked up at the Queen’s Chancellor, the clasped hands trembling.

‘Forgive me, my Lord. At first I only made a copy of the key lest the original be lost. It is not a good thing for a chest containing valuables to have only one key.’

‘So you made another secretly and kept it?’ I asked. ‘Where?’

‘Safe, my Lord, safe. In a locked chest to which only I have the key.’ All the while he did not shift his gaze from Lord Parr’s face.

‘Have you ever done this before?’