‘Just arrived,’ I said.

She tapped my shoulder to bid me rise and I warily got to my feet and looked at the two men.

The king was not glowing like his wife, he looked drawn and tired as if the days of winding his ways through English politics and the long English winter were a strain on a man who was used to the total power and sunny weather of the Alhambra.

The cardinal had the narrow beautiful face of the true ascetic. His gaze, sharp as a knife, went to my eyes, my mouth, and then my pageboy livery. I thought he saw at once, in that one survey, my apostasy, my desires, and my body, growing into womanhood despite my own denial and my borrowed clothes.

‘A holy fool?’ he asked, his tone neutral.

I bowed my head. ‘So they say, Your Excellency.’ I flushed with embarrassment, I did not know how he should be addressed in English. We had not had a cardinal legate at court before.

‘You see visions?’ he asked. ‘Hear voices?’

It was clear to me that any grand claims would be greeted with utter scepticism. This was not a man to be taken in with mummer’s skills.

‘Very rarely,’ I said shortly, trying to keep my accent as English as possible. ‘And unfortunately, never at times of my choosing.’

‘She saw that I would be queen,’ Mary said. ‘And she foretold my brother’s death. And she came to the attention of her first master because she saw an angel in Fleet Street.’

The cardinal smiled and his dark narrow face lit up at once, and I saw that he was a charming man as well as a handsome one. ‘An angel?’ he queried. ‘How did he look? How did you know him for an angel?’

‘He was with some gentlemen,’ I said uncomfortably. ‘And I could hardly see him at all for he was blazing white. And he disappeared. He was just there for a moment and then he was gone. It was the others who named him for an angel. Not me.’

‘A most modest soothsayer,’ the cardinal smiled. ‘From Spain by your accent?’

‘My father was Spanish but we live in England now,’ I said cautiously. I felt myself take half a step towards the queen and instantly froze. There should be no flinching, these men would detect fear quicker than anything else.

But the cardinal was not much interested in me. He smiled at the king. ‘Can you advise us of nothing, holy fool? We are about God’s business as it has not been done in England for generations. We are bringing the country back to the church. We are making good what has been bad for so long. And even the voices of the people in the Houses of Parliament are guided by God.’

I hesitated. It was clear to me that this was more rhetoric than a question demanding an answer. But the queen looked to me to speak.