I nod. Rochford Hall, my house, went to George’s parents at his death and from them to Mary. They should have left it to me, he should have left it to me; but no. I faced all the danger and the horror of what had to be done and ended up saving only my title and earning only my pension.

‘And little Catherine Carey? Is she another queen in the making?’ he asks, just to tease me. ‘Shall we have her schooled to please Prince Edward? Do you think we can put her in a king’s bed?’

‘I think you will find her mother has already forbidden it,’ I say coldly. ‘She will want a good marriage and a quiet life for her daughter. She has had enough of courts.’

The duke laughs, and lets it go. ‘So what of our present passport to greatness, our queen: Katherine?’

‘She is happy enough.’

‘I don’t really care if she is happy or not. Does she show any sign of being with child?’

‘No, none,’ I say.

‘How did she mistake before, in the first month of marriage? She had us all in hopes.’

‘She can barely count,’ I say irritably. ‘And she has no sense of how important it is. I watch her courses now, there will be no mistake again.’

He raises an eyebrow at me. ‘Is the king even capable?’ he asks very quietly.

I do not need to glance towards the door, I know it must be secure or we would not be having this most dangerous conversation. ‘He can do the act in the end, though he labours overlong on it, and it exhausts him.’

‘Then is she fertile?’ he demands.

‘She has regular courses. And she seems healthy and strong.’

‘If she does not get with child then he will look for a reason,’ he warns me, as if there is anything I can do about the whims of a king. ‘If she is not with child by Easter at the latest, he will be asking why.’

I shrug my shoulders. ‘Sometimes these things take time.’

‘The last wife who took time died on the scaffold,’ he says sharply.

‘You need not remind me.’ I am fired into defiance. ‘I do remember all of that, and what she did, and what she attempted, and the price she paid. And then the price we paid. And the price I had to pay.’

My outburst shocks him. I have shocked myself. I had promised myself I would never complain. I did my best. And so, in their terms, did they.

‘All I am saying is that we should prevent the question coming into his mind,’ he soothes me. ‘Clearly, it would be better for us all, for the family, Jane, for us Howards, if Katherine were to conceive a child before he has to wonder. Before a question even enters his head. This would be the safest course for us.’

‘Bricks without straw,’ I say coldly. I am still irritated. ‘If the king has no power to give her a child, then what can we do? He is an old man, he is a sick man. He has never been a fertile man and what potency he has must be soured by his rotting leg and his locked-up bowels. What can any of us do?’