‘You will be identified with her and with him,’ he whispered passionately. ‘When they come to hang the servants you will be among them.’

I did not even answer him, something nagged in my mind. ‘What was that you said about Wyatt?’

He flushed, I saw that I had caught him out. ‘Nothing.’

‘You did. When I saw the barge. You said something about Wyatt. What about him?’

‘He has been tried and found guilty and sentenced to death,’ Daniel said abruptly. ‘They have his confession to convict Elizabeth.’

‘You knew this? And kept it from me?’

‘Yes.’

I drew my cloak around my dark breeches, and went around to the back of the wagon.

‘Where are you going?’ He put his hand out and grabbed me at the elbow.

‘I am getting my bag, I am going to the Tower, I am going to Elizabeth,’ I said simply. ‘I will stay with her till her death and then I will come to find you.’

‘You can’t travel to Italy on your own,’ he said in sudden rage. ‘You cannot defy me like this. You are my betrothed, I have told you what we are doing. See, my sisters, my mother, all obey me. You have to do the same.’

I gritted my teeth and squared up to him as if I were in truth a young man and not a girl in breeches. ‘See, I do not obey you,’ I said bluntly. ‘See, I am not a girl like your sisters. See, even if I were your wife you would not find me biddable. Now take your hand off my arm. I am not a girl to be bullied. I am a royal servant, it is treason to touch me. Let me go!’

My father climbed out of the wagon and Daniel’s sister Mary tumbled out after him, her face bright with excitement.

‘What is happening?’ my father asked.

‘The Lady Elizabeth has just been taken to the Tower,’ I explained. ‘We saw the royal barge go in by the watergate. I am certain she was on board. I promised I would go back to her. I was going to break that promise to come with you. But now she is in the Tower and under sentence of death. I cannot leave her. I am honour bound to go to her and I will go.’

My father turned to Daniel, waiting for his decision.

‘It is nothing to do with Daniel,’ I went on, trying to keep the rage from my voice. ‘There is no need to look to him. This is my decision.’

‘We will go to France as we planned,’ Daniel said steadily. ‘But we will wait at Calais for you. We will wait for Elizabeth’s execution, and then you will come to us.’

I hesitated. Calais was an English town, part of the English settlement which was all that remained of the great English kingdom in France. ‘Don’t you fear the Inquisition in Calais?’ I asked. ‘If they come here, their writ will run there too.’