Lord Howard came to the litter and put out his hand for her.

‘An apartment has been prepared for you,’ he said shortly. ‘You may choose two attendants to take with you.’

‘My ladies must come with me,’ she argued instantly. ‘I am not well.’

‘The orders are two attendants and no more,’ he said briefly. ‘Choose.’

The coldness of the voice that he had used with her on the journey was now barbed. We were in London, a hundred eyes and ears were on him. Lord Howard would be very certain that no-one would see him show any kindness to his traitor cousin. ‘Choose.’

‘Mrs Ashley and . . .’ Elizabeth looked around and her eye fell on me. I stepped back, as anxious as any other turncoat not to be linked with this doomed princess. But she knew through me she had a chance to reach the queen. ‘Mrs Ashley and Hannah the Fool,’ she said.

Lord Howard laughed. ‘Three fools together then,’ he said under his breath and waved the gentleman to go ahead of the three of us into Elizabeth’s apartments.

* * *

I did not wait to see Elizabeth settled in her rooms before I sought out my fellow fool Will Somers. He was dozing in the great hall on one of the benches. Someone had draped a cloak over him as he slept, everyone loved Will.

I sat on the bench beside him, wondering if I might wake him.

Without opening his eyes he remarked: ‘A pair of fools we must be; parted for weeks and we don’t even speak,’ and he sat bolt upright and hugged me around the shoulders.

‘I thought you were asleep,’ I said.

‘I was fooling,’ he said with dignity. ‘I have decided that a sleeping fool is funnier than one who is awake. Especially in this court.’

‘Why?’ I asked warily.

‘Nobody laughs at my jests,’ he said. ‘So I tried to see if they would laugh at my silence. And since they prefer a silent fool, they will love a sleeping fool. And if I am asleep I will not know if they are laughing or not. So I can comfort myself that I am very amusing. I dream of my wit and then I wake up laughing. It’s a witty thought, is it not?’

‘Very,’ I said.

He turned to me. ‘The princess has come, has she?’

I nodded.

‘Ill?’

‘Very. Truly ill, I think.’

‘The queen could offer her an instant cure for all pain. She has become a surgeon, she specialises in amputations.’

‘Please God it does not come to that,’ I said quickly. ‘But Will, tell me—did Robert Dudley make a good death? Was it quick?’

‘Still alive,’ he said. ‘Against all the odds.’

I felt my heart turn over. ‘Dear God, they told me he was beheaded.’

‘Steady,’ Will said. ‘Here, put your head between your knees.’

From a long way off I heard his voice ask me:

‘Better now? Swoony little maid?’