I put myself to sleep on the bottom shelf of his books collection. I tucked a couple of folio volumes under my cheek for a pillow and gathered some French quarto volumes to hold me into the shelf. Like a lost text myself, I curled up in the shape of a G and closed my eyes and slept.

* * *

In the morning, when I woke, I was determined on my future. I found a piece of manuscript paper and wrote a letter to Daniel, a letter I thought I would never write.

Dear Daniel,

It is time for me to leave the court and England. Please come for me and the printing press at once. If this letter miscarries or I do not see you within a week, I shall come on my own.

Hannah

When I sealed it up I was certain, as I had known in my heart for the last few months, that there was no safety for anyone in Queen Mary’s England any more.

There was a tap at the door. My heart plunged with the familiar terror, but then I could see, through the shutters, the silhouette of our next-door neighbour.

I opened the door to him. ‘Slept well?’ he demanded.

‘Yes,’ I said.

‘Ate well? They are a good baker’s?’

‘Yes. Thank you.’

‘Better now?’

‘Yes. I am well.’

‘Are you going back to court today?’

For a moment I hesitated, then I realised that there was nowhere else for me to go. If I went missing from court it was tantamount to a confession of guilt. I had to go back and act the part of an innocent woman rightly freed, until Daniel should come for me and then I could get away.

‘Yes, today,’ I said brightly.

‘Would you see this gets to the queen?’ he asked, abashed but determined. He offered me a trade card, an illustrated label which assured the reader that he could supply all the books that were moral and improving and approved by the church. I took it, and thought wryly that at my last visit to the shop I had made a comment about the paucity of reading that the church permitted. Now I would not speak a word against it.

‘I will put it in her hands,’ I lied to him. ‘You can depend upon it.’

* * *

I came back to a subdued court. The maids in waiting that I slept with had thought that I had gone to my father’s shop. The queen had not missed me. Only Will Somers cocked an inquiring eyebrow at me when I came into dinner and made his way over to my bench. I shifted up, and he sat down beside me.

‘Are you well, child? You’re white as a sheet.’

‘I’ve just got back,’ I said shortly. ‘I was arrested.’

Any other person in the court would have found an excuse to move elsewhere to take his dinner. Will planted both elbows on the table. ‘Never!’ he said. ‘How come you got out again?’