‘And Lord Robert Dudley?’ he whispered.

‘He will have the making of a prince who will change the history of the world,’ I whispered in reply. ‘And he will die, beloved by a queen, safe in his bed.’

* * *

When I recovered my senses John Dee was standing by me with a drink which tasted of fruit with a tang behind it of metal.

‘Are you all right?’ he asked me.

I nodded. ‘Yes. A little sleepy.’

‘You had better go back to court,’ he said. ‘You will be missed.’

‘Will you not come, and see Lady Elizabeth?’

He looked thoughtful. ‘Yes, when I am sure it is safe. You can tell Lord Robert that I will serve him, and I will serve the cause, and that I too think the time is ripe now. I’ll advise her and be her intelligencer during these days of change. But I have to take care.’

‘Are you not afraid?’ I asked, thinking of my own terror of being observed, my own fear of the knock on the door in darkness.

‘Not very,’ he said slowly. ‘I have friends in powerful places. I have plans to complete. The queen is restoring the monasteries and their libraries must be restored too. It is my God-given duty to find and restore the books to their shelves, the manuscripts and the scholarship. And I hope to see base metal turn to gold.’

‘The philosopher’s stone?’ I asked.

He smiled. ‘This time it is a riddle.’

‘What shall I tell Lord Robert when I go back to see him in the Tower?’ I asked.

John Dee looked thoughtful. ‘Tell him nothing more than he will die in his bed beloved of a queen,’ he said. ‘You saw it, though you did not know what you could see. That’s the truth, though it seems impossible now.’

‘And are you sure?’ I asked. ‘Are you sure that he will not be executed?’

He nodded. ‘I’m sure. There is much for him to do, and the time of a queen of gold will come. Lord Robert is not a man to die young with his work unfinished. And I foresee a great love for him, the greatest love he has ever known.’

I waited, hardly breathing. ‘Do you know who he will love?’ I whispered.

Not for a moment did I think it would be me. How could it be? I was his vassal, he called me Mistress Boy, he laughed at the girl’s adoration that he saw in my face and offered to release me. Not even at that moment when John Dee predicted a great love for him did I think that it would be me.

‘A queen will love him,’ John Dee said. ‘He will be the greatest love of her life.’

‘But she is to marry Philip of Spain,’ I observed.

He shook his head. ‘I can’t see a Spaniard on the throne of England,’ he predicted. ‘And neither can many others.’

* * *