“No!” Thomas exclaims. “I’ve been at the court of the King of Hungary, I have spoken with the emperor himself. They are great men who are obeyed without question but they can question themselves! They have doubts! They ask for true reports. They take advice. This is not the same. This king is blind to his own failings, deaf to counsel.”

“Hush, hush,” I say anxiously, glancing at the closed door.

“Every year it gets worse,” he insists. “All his honest advisors are dead or disgraced; he has killed all the friends of his childhood. Nobody around him dares to tell him the truth. His temper is completely out of control.”

“You shouldn’t say—”

“I should say! I must say—because I am warning you.”

“Warning me of what?”

He comes a step closer; but he puts out his hands to prevent me reaching for him. “Don’t. I cannot be near you. I came only to tell you: he is dangerous. You have to be careful.”

“I am unendingly careful!” I exclaim. “I dream of you but I never speak of you. I never write to you, we never meet! I have given you up; I have completely given you up for him. I have broken my heart to do my duty.”

“He will tire of you,” he says bitterly, “and if you give him no cause to divorce you, he will kill you to be rid of you.”

It is such a deadly prediction that I am stunned into silence for a moment. “No, Thomas, you are wrong. He loves me. He made me regent. He trusts me like no other. I have brought his children to court. I am their mother. I am an exception. He has never loved a wife as he loves me.”

“It is you who are wrong, you little fool. He made Katherine of Aragon regent. He ordered a nationwide service of thanksgiving for Katherine Howard. He can turn in a moment and kill within the week.”

“Not so! Not so!” I am shaking my head like one of the little figures on my clocks. “I swear to you that he loves me.”

“He threw Queen Katherine into a cold damp castle and she died of neglect, if not poison,” he lists. “Anne, he beheaded on false evidence. My sister would have been abandoned within the year if she had not got a child, and even then he left her to die alone. He would have executed Anne of Cleves for treason if she hadn’t agreed to a divorce. His marriage to Katherine Howard was invalid because she was married already, so he could have abandoned her to her shame, but he chose to execute her. He wanted her dead. When he is tired of you, he will kill you. He kills his family, his friends, and his wives.”

“Traitors must be executed,” I whisper.