Finally the man called John Dee let me go. ‘May I see your library?’

I saw my father’s reluctance to let the man browse the shelves and drawers of his collection. He was afraid that some of the books might now, under some new ruling, be banned as heretical. I knew that the books of secret wisdom in Greek and Hebrew were always hidden, behind the sliding back of the bookshelf. But even the ones on show might lead us into trouble in these unpredictable times. ‘I will bring them out to you here?’

‘No, I will come inside.’

‘Of course, my lord,’ he surrendered. ‘It will be an honour to me.’

He led the way into the inner room and John Dee followed him. The young lord, Robert Dudley, took a seat on one of the stools and looked at me with interest.

‘Twelve years old?’

‘Yes, sir,’ I lied promptly, although in truth I was nearly fourteen.

‘And a maid, though dressed as a lad.’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘No marriage arranged for you?’

‘Not straight away, sir.’

‘But a betrothal in sight?’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘And who has your father picked out for you?’

‘I am to marry a cousin from my mother’s family when I am sixteen,’ I replied. ‘I don’t particularly wish it.’

‘You’re a maid,’ he scoffed. ‘All young maids say they don’t wish it.’

I shot a look at him which showed my resentment too clearly.

‘Oho! Have I offended you, Mistress Boy?’

‘I know my own mind, sir,’ I said quietly. ‘And I am not a maid like any other.’

‘Clearly. So what is your mind, Mistress Boy?’

‘I don’t wish to marry.’

‘And how shall you eat?’

‘I should like to have my own shop, and print my own books.’

‘And do you think a girl, even a pretty one in breeches, could manage without a husband?’

‘I am sure I could,’ I said. ‘Widow Worthing has a shop across the lanes.’

‘A widow has had a husband to give her a fortune, she didn’t have to make her own.’

‘A girl can make her own fortune,’ I said stoutly. ‘I should think a girl could command a shop.’

‘And what else can a girl command?’ he teased me. ‘A ship? An army? A kingdom?’

‘You will see a woman run a kingdom, you will see a woman can run a kingdom better than any in the world before,’ I fired back, and then checked at the look on his face. I put my hand over my mouth. ‘I didn’t mean to say that,’ I whispered. ‘I know that a woman should always be ruled by her father or husband.’

He looked at me as if he would hear more. ‘Do you think, Mistress Boy, that I will live to see a woman rule a kingdom?’

‘In Spain it was done,’ I said weakly. ‘Once. Queen Isabella.’

He nodded and let it go, as if drawing us both back from the brink of something dangerous. ‘So. D’you know your way to Whitehall Palace, Mistress Boy?’