‘And what is your message?’ she asked more soberly.

‘Can we talk in your privy chamber? And can I bring Jane Dormer to you?’

‘With Lord Robert,’ she stipulated. ‘And John Dee.’

I bowed my head and followed her as she walked down the gallery to her chamber. The court billowed into bows as she went past as if she were queen already. I smiled, remembering a day when she had limped with her shoe in her hand and no-one had offered her an arm. Now they would lay down their cloaks in the mud to keep her feet dry.

We went into her chamber and Elizabeth took a small wooden chair by the fireside. She gestured that I could pull up a stool and I took it to the other side of the fire, put Danny on my knee, and leaned back against the wooden panelling. I had a sense that I should be quiet and listen. The queen wanted me to advise her if Elizabeth would keep the true faith. I had to listen through the words to the meaning behind them. I had to look through the mask of her smiling face and into her heart.

The door opened, and Jane came into the room. She swept Elizabeth the scantest of curtseys and stood before her. Elizabeth gestured her to sit.

‘I will stand, if it please you,’ Jane said stiffly.

‘You have business with me.’ Elizabeth invited her to begin.

‘The queen has asked Hannah and me to come to you and put a question to you. The queen requires you to make your answer in very truth. She would want you to swear on your soul that the answer you give is the truth and the whole truth.’

‘And what is this question?’

Danny squirmed in my lap and I shifted him in a little closer, putting his small head against my cheek, so that I could look over him to the princess’s pale face.

‘The queen bid me tell you that she will name you as her heir, her one true heir, and you will be queen on the throne of England without a word of dissent if you will promise her that you will cleave to the true faith,’ Jane said quietly.

John Dee drew in a sharp breath, but the princess was absolutely still.

‘And if I do not?’

‘Then she will name another heir.’

‘Mary Stuart?’

‘I do not know and I will not speculate,’ Jane replied.

The princess nodded. ‘Am I to swear on a Bible?’ she asked.

‘On your soul,’ Jane said. ‘On your immortal soul before God.’

It was a solemn moment. Elizabeth glanced towards Lord Robert and he took a little step towards her, as if he would protect her.

‘And does she swear to name me as heir in return?’

Jane Dormer nodded. ‘If you are of the true faith.’

Elizabeth took a deep breath. ‘I will swear,’ she said.

She rose to her feet. Robert Dudley started forward as if he would stop her but she did not even look at him. I did not rise as I should have done, I stayed completely still, my eyes fixed on her pale face as if I would read her like a clean page of text, fresh off the press, with the ink still drying.