‘Oho, did you not know that, my little seer? I thought you knew everything?’

‘I did not know . . .’ I began.

‘Oh yes, I have been married since I was a lad. And I thank God for it.’

‘Because you like her so much?’ I stammered, feeling an odd pain like sickness under my ribs.

‘Because if I had not been married already, it would have been me married to Jane Grey and dancing to my father’s bidding.’

‘Does your wife never come to court?’

‘Almost never. She will only live in the country, she has no liking for London, we cannot agree . . . and it is easier for me . . .’ He broke off and glanced towards his father, who was mounting a big black hunter and giving his grooms orders about the rest of the horses. I knew at once that it was easier for Lord Robert to move this way and that, his father’s spy, his father’s agent, if he was not accompanied by a wife whose face might betray them.

‘What’s her name?’

‘Amy,’ he said casually. ‘Why?’

I had no answer. Numbly, I shook my head. I could feel an intense discomfort in my belly. For a moment I thought I had taken Guilford Dudley’s bloat. It burned me like bile. ‘Do you have children?’

If he had said that he had children, if he had said that he had a girl, a beloved daughter, I think I would have doubled up and vomited on the cobbles at his feet.

But he shook his head. ‘No,’ he said shortly. ‘You must tell me one day when I shall get a son and an heir. Can you do that?’

I looked up and tried to smile despite the burning in my throat. ‘I don’t think I can.’

‘Are you afraid of the mirror?’

I shook my head. ‘I’m not afraid, if you are there.’

He smiled at that. ‘You have all the cunning of a woman, never mind the skills of a holy fool. You seek me out, don’t you, Mistress Boy?’

I shook my head. ‘No, sir.’

‘You didn’t like the thought of me married.’

‘I was surprised, only.’

Lord Robert put his gloved hand under my chin and turned my face up to him so that I was forced to meet his dark eyes. ‘Don’t be a woman, a lying woman. Tell me the truth. Are you troubled with the desires of a maid, my little Mistress Boy?’

I was too young to hide it. I felt the tears come into my eyes and I stayed still, letting him hold me.

He saw the tears and knew what they meant. ‘Desire? And for me?’

Still I said nothing, looking at him dumbly through my blurred vision.

‘I promised your father that I would not let any harm come to you,’ he said gently.

‘It has come already,’ I said, speaking the inescapable truth.

He shook his head, his dark eyes warm. ‘Oh, this is nothing. This is young love, green-sickness. The mistake I made in my youth was to marry for such a slim cause. But you, you will survive this and go on to marry your betrothed and have a houseful of black-eyed children.’