I nodded. I could not imagine meeting Daniel’s sisters.

‘There will soon come a time when we all live together,’ he said. ‘It would be better if you meet now, so that you can all become accustomed.’

I said nothing. We had not parted as a betrothed couple but clearly Daniel wanted to ignore that quarrel, as he had overlooked others. Our betrothal was still unbroken, then. I smiled at him. I could not imagine living in his house with his mother ordering things as they had always been done and his sisters fluttering around him as the favoured child: the son.

‘Do you think they will admire my breeches?’ I asked provocatively.

I saw him flush. ‘No, not particularly,’ he said shortly. He leaned back on the counter and took a sip of wine. He looked towards my father. ‘I think I’ll finish that page now,’ he said. He stepped down from the stool and reached for his printer’s apron.

‘Shall I bring your syllabub out later?’ I asked.

He looked at me, his eyes dark and hard. ‘No,’ he said. ‘I have no taste for things that are sweet and sour at the same time.’

* * *

Will Somers was in the stable-yard while they were saddling up the horses for our journey, cracking jokes with the men.

‘Will, are you coming with us?’ I asked hopefully.

He shook his head. ‘Not I! Too cold for me! I’d have thought it no job for you either, Hannah Green.’

I made a face. ‘The queen asked it of me. She asked me to look into Elizabeth’s heart.’

‘Into her heart?’ he repeated comically. ‘First find it!’

‘What else could I do?’ I demanded.

‘Nothing but obey.’

‘And what should I do now?’

‘The same.’

I drew a little closer. ‘Will, d’you think she was really plotting to throw down the queen and put herself on the throne?’

He smiled his little world-weary smile. ‘Fool, there is not a doubt of it. And you a fool even to question it.’

‘Then if I say she is pretending to be ill, if I report that she is a liar, I bring her to her death.’

He nodded.

‘Will, I cannot do that to a woman such as the princess. It would be like shooting a lark.’

‘Then miss your aim,’ he said.

‘I should lie to the queen and say that the princess is innocent?’

‘You have a gift of Sight, don’t you?’ he demanded.

‘I wish I did not.’

‘It is time to cultivate the gift of blindness. If you have no opinion, you cannot be asked to account for it. You are an innnocent fool, be more innocent than fool.’

I nodded, a little cheered. One of the men brought my horse out of the stable and Will cupped his hand to throw me up into the saddle.

‘Up you go,’ he said. ‘Higher and higher. Fool and now councillor. It must be a lonely queen indeed who turns to a fool for counsel.’