‘Stop right there,’ one of them orders, seeing the open door. Lotte stops, she does not even look towards me.

‘I was just going to the garden,’ she says in English. ‘I need to take the air. I am unwell.’

‘You are under arrest,’ he replies.

I step forwards. ‘On what grounds? What is alleged against her?’

The senior man, one I don’t know, steps towards me and bows slightly. ‘Lady Anne,’ he says. ‘There are reports circulating in London that there has been grave wrongdoing in your household. The king has commanded that we investigate. Anyone attempting to hide anything or failing to assist our investigation will be regarded as an enemy to the king, and guilty of treason.’

‘We are all good subjects of our lord the king,’ I say quickly. I can hear the fear in my own voice. He will hear it too. ‘But there is no wrongdoing in my household, I am innocent of any wrongdoing.’

He nods. Presumably Kitty Howard said the same; as did Culpepper and Dereham.

‘These are trying times and we have to root out sin,’ he says simply. ‘If you please you will stay in this room, with this lady as companion if you wish, while we question your household. Then we will come to speak with you.’

‘My ambassador should be informed,’ I say. ‘I am not to be treated as an ordinary woman. My ambassador will need to know of your inquiry.’

The man gives me a smile. ‘He is being questioned at his house right now,’ he says. ‘Or rather, I should say, at the inn where he stays. If I had not known that he was an ambassador for a great duke I should have thought him an unsuccessful merchant. He does not keep a great estate, does he?’

I flush with embarrassment. This again is my brother’s doing. Dr Harst has never had a proper fee, he has never had a proper establishment. Now I am being taunted for my brother’s meanness.

‘You may question who you like,’ I say as bravely as I can. ‘I have nothing to hide. I live as the king bid me when we made our agreement. I live on my own, I entertain no more than is right and proper, my rents are collected and my bills are paid. As far as I can tell my servants are under good and sober discipline and we attend church and pray according to the king’s rule.’

‘Then you have nothing to fear,’ he says. He looks at my white face and smiles. ‘Please, do not be fearful. Only the guilty should show fear.’

I crack my lips into a smile and I go to my chair and sit down. His eye turns to the fallen crucifix and the cloth pulled down from the prie-dieu and he raises an eyebrow, shocked.

‘You have thrown down the cross of Our Lord?’ he whispers in horror.

‘I had an accident.’ Even to myself it sounds feeble. ‘Pick it up, Lotte.’