‘Why not?’ he asks, as if he did not know.

‘I am sick of trials,’ I say from the heart. ‘I am afraid of the king’s desires now. I don’t know what he wants. I don’t know how far he will go. I don’t want to give evidence at a queen’s trial—not ever again.’

‘I am sorry,’ he says without regret. ‘But we need someone to swear that she had a conversation with the queen in which the queen made it clear that she was a virgin untouched, absolutely untouched, and moreover quite ignorant of any doings between a man and a maid.’

‘She has been in bed with him night after night,’ I say impatiently. ‘We all put her to bed the first night. You were there, the Archbishop of Canterbury was there. She was raised to conceive a son and bear an heir, she was married for that single purpose. She could hardly be ignorant of the doings of a man and a maid. No woman in the world has endured more unsuccessful attempts.’

‘That is why we need a lady of unimpeachable reputation to swear it,’ he says smoothly. ‘Such an unlikely lie needs a plausible witness: you.’

‘Any of the others can do that for you,’ I protest. ‘Since the conversation never happened, since it is an impossible conversation, surely it does not matter who says that it took place?’

‘I should like our name entered as witness,’ the duke says. ‘The king would be pleased to see our service. It would do us good.’

‘Is it to prove her a witch?’ I ask bluntly. I am too weary of my work and sick of myself to pick my way around my ducal uncle tonight. ‘Is it, in fact, to prove her a witch and have her sent to her death?’

He draws himself up to his full height and looks down his nose at me. ‘It is not for us to predict what the king’s commissioners might find,’ he says. ‘They will sift the evidence, and give the verdict. All you will provide is a sworn statement, sworn on your faith before God.’

‘I don’t want her death on my conscience.’ I can hear the desperation in my voice. ‘Please. Let someone else swear to it. I don’t want to go with her to Richmond and then swear a lie against her. I don’t want to stand by while they take her to the Tower. I don’t want her to die on the basis of my false evidence. I have been her friend, I don’t want to be her assassin.’

He waits in silence till my torrent of refusals is finished, then he looks at me and smiles again, but now there is no warmth in his face at all. ‘Certainly,’ he says. ‘You will swear only to the statement that we will have prepared for you, and your betters will decide what is to be done for the queen. You will keep me informed of whom she sees and what she does in the usual way, my man will go with you to Richmond. You will watch her with care. She is not to escape. And when it is over, you will be Katherine’s lady in waiting, you will have your place at court, you will be lady in waiting to the new Queen of England. That will be your reward. You will be the first lady at the new queen’s court. I promise it. You will be head of her privy chamber.’