He nodded. ‘Half the city is sick,’ he said. ‘I don’t think we’ve had one day of clear sunshine in the whole of this summer. How is your son?’

‘Well, and I thank God for it,’ I said.

‘Has he spoken a word yet?’

‘No.’

‘I have been thinking of him and of our talk about him. There is a scholar I know, who might advise you. A physician.’

‘In London?’ I asked.

He took out a piece of paper. ‘I wrote down his direction, in case I should meet you today. You can trust him with anything that you wish to tell him.’

I took the piece of paper with some trepidation. No-one would ever know all of John Dee’s business, all of his friends.

‘Are you here to see my lord?’ I asked. ‘We expect him tonight from Hatfield.’

‘Then I shall wait in his rooms,’ he said. ‘I don’t like to dine in the hall without the queen at its head. I don’t like to see an empty throne for England.’

‘No,’ I said, warming to him despite my fear, as I always did. ‘I was thinking that myself.’

He put his hand on mine. ‘You can trust this physician,’ he said. ‘Tell him who you are, and what your child needs, and I know he will help you.’

* * *

Next day I took Danny on my hip and I walked towards the city to find the house of the physician. He had one of the tall narrow houses by the Inns of Court, and a pleasant girl to answer the door. She said he would see me at once if I would wait a moment in his front room, and Danny and I sat among the shelves which were filled with odd lumps of rock and stone.

He came quietly into the room and saw me examining a piece of marble, a lovely piece of rock, the colour of honey.

‘Do you have an interest in stones, Mistress Carpenter?’ he asked.

Gently, I put the piece down. ‘No. But I read somewhere that there are different rocks occurring all over the world, some side by side, some on top of another, and no man has ever yet explained why.’

He nodded. ‘Nor why some carry coal and some gold. Your friend Mr Dee and I were considering this the other day.’

I looked at him a little more closely, and I thought I recognised one of the Chosen People. He had skin that was the same colour as mine, his eyes were as dark as mine, as dark as Daniel’s. He had a strong long nose and the arched eyebrows and high cheekbones that I knew and loved.

I took a breath and I took my courage and started without hesitation. ‘My name was Hannah Verde. I came from Spain with my father when I was a child. Look at the colour of my skin, look at my eyes. I am one of the People.’ I turned my head and stroked my finger down my nose. ‘See? This is my child, my son, he is two, he needs your help.’