‘This is Mrs Carpenter. She can share with your housekeeper,’ Lady Dudley said abruptly. ‘She is a woman known to my lord, that he rescued from Calais. I daresay he will let me know what she is to do, shortly.’

Lady Philips raised an eyebrow at Amy’s abrupt tone, which all but named me as Robert Dudley’s whore. Mrs Oddingsell curtseyed and went to the stairs but I did not immediately follow her. ‘I need some things for the child,’ I said uncomfortably.

‘Mrs Oddingsell will help you,’ Robert Dudley’s wife said icily.

‘There are some baby clothes in the paupers’ cupboard,’ Lady Philips said.

I curtseyed. ‘It was very kind of his lordship to give me a place on his ship from Calais,’ I said clearly. ‘The more so since he had not seen me for so long, since I had been in royal service to the queen. But I am a married woman now, my husband a doctor in Calais, and this is my husband’s son.’

I saw that they both understood me and had heard the reference to royal service.

‘My lord is always good to his servants, however lowly,’ Amy Dudley said unpleasantly, and waved me away.

‘And I need proper clothes for my son,’ I said, standing my ground. ‘Not from the paupers’ cupboard.’

Both women looked at me with renewed attention. ‘I need clothes for a gentleman’s son,’ I said simply. ‘I will sew him his linen as soon as I can.’

Lady Philips, not at all sure now what cuckoo she had welcomed into her house, gave me a cautious smile. ‘I have some things put by,’ she said carefully. ‘My sister’s boy wore them.’

‘I am sure they will suit the purpose excellently,’ I said with a pleasant smile. ‘And I thank you, your ladyship.’

* * *

Within a week I was desperate to leave, the bleak countryside of Sussex in winter seemed to press on my face like a pane of cold glass. The Downs leaned over the little castle as if they would crush us into the unresponsive chalky earth. The sky above the hills was iron grey, filled with snow. Within two weeks I had developed a headache which plagued me all the hours of daylight and would only leave me at night when I would fall into a sleep so deep that it could have been death.

Amy Dudley was a welcome and regular guest here. There was some debt between Sir John Philips and my lord which was repaid by his hospitality to Lady Dudley. Her stay was indefinite, no-one remarked when she might leave, or where she might go next.

‘Does she not have a house of her own?’ I demanded of Mrs Oddingsell in frustration.

‘Not one that she chooses to use,’ she said shortly and closed her lips tight on gossip.

I could not understand it. My lord had lost most of his great lands and fortune on his arrest for treason, but surely his wife must have had family and friends who would have kept at least a small estate for him?