* * *

On Tuesday, one of my ladies gazing out of the window remarks: ‘Here is the ambassador, running up the garden from a river boat. What can have happened?’

I rise to my feet. Dr Harst never visits me without first sending notice that he is coming. Something must have happened at court. My first thought is for Elizabeth or Mary, my first fear is that something has happened to them. If only Mary has not been driven by her father to defy him! ‘Stay here,’ I say shortly to my women, and I throw a shawl around my shoulders, and go down to greet him.

He is entering the hall as I come down the stairs and at once I know that something serious has happened.

‘What is it?’ I ask him in German.

He shakes his head at me, and I have to wait until the servants have come and gone, served him with wine and biscuits, and I can send them all from the room. ‘What is it?’

‘I came at once, without the full story, because I want you to be forewarned,’ he says.

‘Forewarned of what? It is not the Princess Mary?’

‘No. It is the queen.’

‘She is with child?’

He shakes his head. ‘I don’t know exactly. But she has been confined to her chambers since yesterday. And the king will not see her.’

‘She is ill? He is terrified of taking the plague.’

‘No. There are no physicians called.’

‘She is not accused of plotting against him?’ I name the greatest fear.

‘I will tell you all I know, and it is mostly gathered from the servant we have in the king’s rooms. The king and queen attended Mass on the Sunday, and the priest gave thanks for the king’s marriage, as you know.’

‘I know.’

‘Sunday evening the king was quiet and dined alone, as if he was sinking into his old illness. He didn’t go to her rooms. Monday he locked himself in his rooms and the queen was locked in hers. Today Archbishop Cranmer went in to talk with her, and came out in silence.’

I look at him. ‘She was locked in? And the king locked himself away?’

Silently he nods.

‘What d’you think it means?’

‘I think the queen has been accused. But we cannot yet know the accusation. What we must consider is whether she will implicate you.’

‘Me?’

‘If she is accused of a Papist plot, or of bewitching the king into impotence, people will remember that you were accused of a Papist plot, and that he was impotent with you. People will remember your friendship with her. People will remember that you danced with her at court at Christmas and he was ill by Lent, as soon as you left. People may think that the two of you have made a plot against him. They may even say the two of you have ill-wished him.’

I put out my hand as if I would stop him. ‘No, no.’