‘You may take a seat with my ladies and see me privately after dinner,’ the princess ruled. ‘Did you come alone with your son?’

I shook my head. ‘Jane Dormer came with me, and we were escorted by two gentlemen from the queen’s household.’

The count turned quickly back. ‘Mistress Dormer is here?’

‘She is dining alone,’ I said, my face insolently blank. ‘She did not want to keep this company.’

Elizabeth bit her lip to hide another smile, and waved me to the table. ‘I see you are not so choosy,’ she taunted me.

I met her bright black gaze without shrinking. ‘Dinner is dinner, Princess. And both of us have gone hungry in the past.’

She laughed at that and nodded at them to make a space for me. ‘She has become a witty fool,’ she said to Lord Robert. ‘I am glad of it. I never had much faith in seeings and predictions.’

‘Once she told me a pretty vision,’ he said, his voice very low, his eyes on me but his smile for her.

‘Oh?’

‘She told me I would be adored by a queen.’

They both laughed, that low-voiced chuckle of conspiring lovers, and he smiled down the hall at me. I met his gaze with a face like flint.

* * *

‘What is the matter with you?’ Elizabeth demanded of me after dinner. We were standing in an alcove in the gallery at Hatfield. Elizabeth’s court was at a distance, our words hidden by the playing of a lute nearby.

‘I don’t like Count Feria,’ I said bluntly.

‘You made that clear enough. Do you really think I will allow you to come into my dinner and insult my guests? You took off a fool’s livery, you will have to behave like a lady.’

I smiled. ‘Since I carry a message that you want to hear I think you will listen to it before you have me thrown out of the gates, whether I am a fool or a lady.’

She laughed at my impertinence.

‘And I doubt that you like him either,’ I said boldly. ‘First he was your enemy, now he is your friend. There are many such as him around you now, I should imagine.’

‘Most of this court. And you among them.’

I shook my head. ‘I have always admired you both.’

‘You love her more than you love me,’ she insisted jealously.

I laughed aloud at her childishness; and Lord Robert, standing near, turned to look at me with a smile. ‘But Princess, she loves me, and you have never done anything but abuse me and accuse me of being her spy.’

Elizabeth laughed too. ‘Yes. But I don’t forget that you came to serve me in the Tower. And I don’t forget that you brought me a true vision. When you smelled the smoke from the burnings I knew then that I must become queen and bring peace to this country.’

‘Well, amen to that,’ I said.