‘Will, they’re searching the Princess Elizabeth’s London house.’

‘Aye, I know,’ he said, lifting his face away from the puppy, which was enthusiastically licking his neck.

‘What are they looking for?’

‘Doesn’t matter what they were looking for, what matters is what they found.’

‘What did they find?’

‘What you would expect,’ he said unhelpfully.

‘I expect nothing,’ I snapped. ‘Just tell me. What did they find?’

‘Letter and pamphlets and all sorts of seditious nonsense in Kat Ashley’s box. A May-day plot cooked up between her and the princess’s new Italian lute player and Dudley—’ He broke off as he saw my aghast face. ‘Oh, not your lord. His cousin, Sir Henry.’

‘Lord Robert is not under suspicion?’ I demanded.

‘Should he be?’

‘No,’ I lied instantly. ‘How could he do anything? And anyway, he is loyal to Queen Mary.’

‘As are we all,’ Will said smartly. ‘Even Tobias the hound, here. Well, Tobias is more loyal because he can’t say one thing and think another. He gives his love where he eats his dinner which is more than others I could mention.’

I flushed. ‘If you mean me, I love the queen and I always have done.’

His face softened. ‘I know you do. I meant her pretty little sister who has not the patience to wait her turn; but has been plotting again.’

‘She’s guilty of nothing,’ I said at once, my loyalty to Elizabeth as reliable as my love of the queen.

Will laughed shortly. ‘She’s an heir in waiting. She’d attract trouble like a tall tree attracts lightning. And so Kat Ashley and Signor the lute player are for the Tower, half a dozen of the Dudley household with them. There’s a warrant out for Sir William Pickering, her old ally. I didn’t even know he was in England. Did you?’

I said nothing, my throat tightening with fear. ‘No.’

‘Better not to know.’

I nodded, then I felt my head nodding and nodding again, in trying to look normal I was looking ridiculous. I felt that my face was a folio of fear that anyone could read.

‘What’s the matter, child?’ Will’s tone was kindly. ‘You’re white as snow. Are you enmeshed in this, little one? Are you seeking a charge of treason to match your charge of heresy? Have you been a fool indeed?’

‘No,’ I said, my voice coming out harshly. ‘I would not plot against the queen. I have not been well this last week. I am sick. A touch of fever.’

‘Let’s hope it doesn’t spread,’ Will said wryly.

* * *

I held to my lie of fever and took to my bed. I thought of Elizabeth who seemed to be able to summon ill health as an alibi when she needed one, and I knew the pangs of a terror which made me sweat so much that I would have passed for a sick girl indeed.

I heard the news from my room mates. Cardinal Pole headed the inquiry into the conspiracy and every day another man was arrested and taken for questioning. First Sir Henry Dudley, who had been betraying his own country to the French in return for their help. He had pockets full of French gold and the promise of a small army of mercenaries and French volunteers. From then they followed the trail to a traitor at the court of the Exchequer who had promised to steal money to pay for the army and the weapons. Under questioning he revealed that they were planning to send the queen to her husband in the Low Countries, and put Elizabeth on the throne. Then the cardinal discovered that Kat Ashley and William Pickering were old friends, and had met at the very heart of the court, Sir William had been smuggled into the country, into the Hampton Court itself.