“I am a prisoner, but that does not guarantee my safety. I was alarmed when I heard the bell ringing, and your questions have not reassured me. Please tell me, Sir Peter, what is happening? Please reassure me that my cousin the queen is safe and well.”

“Do you think she might be in danger?”

She glances down as if the question is an embarrassment. “I know there are many who disagree with her rule,” she says, shamefaced. “I am afraid there are those who would plot against her. There may even be those who would plot against her in my name. But that does not mean that I have joined with them. I wish her nothing but good, and I always have done. I am here in her country, in her power, imprisoned by her, because I trusted to the love that she promised me. She failed that love; she failed the bond that should be between queens. But even so, I would never wish her anything but good health and safety and good fortune.”

“Her Grace is blessed with such a friendship,” Sir Peter says, and I wonder if he is being ironic. I look at him quickly, but I can tell nothing. He and the queen are equally bland. I cannot tell what either of them is truly thinking.

“So, is she safe?” she asks.

“When I left London the queen was on progress in the country and enjoying the warm weather,” he says. “My lord Burghley has uncovered a plot in time to destroy it. All those who were party to it will go to the scaffold. Every one of them. I am here only to ensure that you are safe also.”

“And where is she?” Queen Mary asks him.

“On progress,” he replies levelly.

“This plot concerns me?” she asks.

“I think many plots concern you,” he says. “But luckily my lord Burghley’s men are thorough. You are safe here.”

“Well, I thank you,” she says coolly.

“A word,” Sir Peter says to me as he turns away from her, and I follow him to the garden gate. “She is lying,” he says bluntly. “Lying like a trooper.”

“I dare swear she is not—”

“I know she is,” he says. “Ridolfi was carrying a letter of introduction from her to the Pope himself. He showed it to Cecil’s man. He boasted of her support. She told the Pope to trust Ridolfi as he would trust her own self. Ridolfi has a plan he calls ‘the Great Enterprise of England’ to destroy us all. It is this plot which is coming to us now. She has called down six thousand fanatical Papist Spaniards on us. And she knows where they are landing, and she has organized for their payment.”

I hold on to the gate to conceal the weakness in my knees.