‘I’m not free,’ I whispered. ‘My father told me to come to see you and to say goodbye. But I am not free. I never will be.’

‘Would you serve me still?’

I nodded.

Lord Robert smiled and leaned forward, his mouth so close to my ear that I could feel the warmth of his breath. ‘Then do this one last thing for me. Go to Lady Elizabeth. Bid her be of good cheer. Tell her to study with my old tutor, John Dee. Tell her to seek him out, and study with him, without fail. Then find John Dee and tell him two things. One: I think he should make contact with his old master, Sir William Pickering. Got that?’

‘Yes,’ I said. ‘Sir William. I know of him.’

‘And two: tell him to meet also with James Crofts and Tom Wyatt. I think they are engaged in an alchemical experiment that is near to John Dee’s heart. Edward Courtenay can make a chemical wedding. Can you remember all of that?’

‘Yes,’ I said. ‘But I don’t know what it means.’

‘All the better. They are to make gold from the basest of metal, and cast down silver to ash. Tell him that. He’ll know what I mean. And tell him that I will play my part in the alchemy, if he will get me there.’

‘Where?’ I asked.

‘Just remember the message,’ he said. ‘Tell it back to me.’

I repeated it, word for word, and he nodded. ‘And finally, come back to me just once, for one last time, and tell me what you can see in John Dee’s mirror. I need to know. Whatever becomes of me, I need to know what will happen to England.’

I nodded, but he did not let me go at once. He put his lips to my neck, just below my ear, a little brush of a kiss, a little breath of a kiss. ‘You’re a good girl,’ he said. ‘And I thank you.’

He let me go then, and I stepped back, backwards and backwards from him as if I could not bear to turn away. I tapped on the door behind me, and the guard swung it open. ‘God bless you and keep you safe, my lord,’ I said. Lord Robert turned his head and gave me a smile which was so sweet that it broke my heart even as the door closed and hid him from me.

‘God speed, lad,’ he replied evenly, to the closing door, and then it was shut and I was in the darkness and the cold and without him once more.

* * *

In the street outside I took to my heels and started to run home. A shadow suddenly stepped out of a doorway and blocked my way. I gasped in alarm.

‘Hush, it’s me, Daniel.’

‘How did you know I was here?’

‘I went to your father’s shop and he told me you were taking books into the Tower for Lord Robert.’