I tried to laugh but I could see Amy coming to claim her husband.

‘You will want to wash and change out of your riding clothes,’ she said firmly.

Robert bowed to her.

‘There is hot water in your bed chamber,’ she said.

‘Then I’ll go up.’ He glanced over his shoulder. ‘And someone must show Dee where he is to lodge.’ I shrank back, but my lord did not notice. He called out: ‘Here, John—look at who we have here!’

John Dee came forward and I saw that he was more changed than Robert. His hair was greying at the temples, his eyes were dark with fatigue. But his air of confidence and his inner peace were as strong as ever.

‘Who is this lady?’ he asked.

‘I am Hannah Carpenter, Mr Dee,’ I said guardedly. I did not know whether he was going to acknowledge that we had last met in the most terrible place in England when I was on trial for my life and he was my judge. ‘I was Hannah Green. The queen’s fool.’

He looked quickly at me again and then a slow sweet smile spread from his eyes to his lips. ‘Ah, Hannah, I would not have known you in your gown.’

‘And he is Dr Dee now,’ my lord said casually. ‘Bishop Bonner’s chaplain.’

‘Oh,’ I said guardedly.

‘And is this your son?’ John Dee asked.

‘Yes. This is Daniel Carpenter,’ I said proudly, and John Dee reached forward and touched my little boy’s fingers with his own. Comically, Danny turned his head away and pressed his face into my shoulder.

‘How old is he?’

‘Nearly two.’

‘And his father?’

I frowned. ‘I parted from my husband at Calais, I don’t know if he is safe,’ I said.

‘You have no . . . sense of him?’ John Dee asked me, his voice low.

I shook my head.

‘Dr Dee, Hannah will show you to your chamber,’ Amy’s voice broke in abruptly, speaking of me as if I were her servant.

I led the way up the stairs to one of the small bedchambers on the first floor, John Dee following me. Lord Robert sprang up the stairs two at a time behind us, we heard the door bang as he went into his room.

I had barely showed John Dee where he was to sleep, the cupboard where he could put his clothes, and poured hot water for him to wash, when the chamber door opened and Lord Robert came in.

‘Hannah, don’t go,’ he said. ‘I want to hear your news.’

‘I have none,’ I said coolly. ‘I have been here, as you know, all this long while, with your wife, doing nothing.’

He gave a short laugh. ‘Have you been bored, Mistress Boy? It cannot be worse than married life, surely?’

I smiled. I was not going to tell Lord Robert that I had parted from my husband within a year of our marriage.

‘And have you kept your gift?’ John Dee asked quietly. ‘I always thought that the angels would only come to a virgin.’