“Oh, this is Christopher, who serves my husband,” Joan says, surprised. “What are you doing here, Christopher? You should have come in the main door. You gave us a fright.”

“Sir Anthony said to come to you unobserved,” he replies, and he turns to me. “Sir Anthony said to tell Your Majesty at once that Mistress Anne Askew has been arrested and questioned.”

“No!”

He nods. “She was arrested and questioned by an inquisitor and then by the Lord Mayor of London himself. Now she is in the keeping of Bishop Bonner.”

“She is charged?”

“Not yet. He is questioning her.”

“On the very day that the king gives you the prayers in English?” Nan whispers to me incredulously. “On the very day that he promises that England will be freed from superstition? He has her arrested and questioned?”

“God help us and keep us; this is his dogfight,” I say, my voice shaky with dread. “Set up one cur and then another. Let the two of them fight it out.”

“What d’you mean?” Nan asks, frightened by my tone. “What are you saying?”

“What shall we do?” Catherine Brandon demands. “What can we do to help Anne?”

I turn to Christopher. “Go back,” I say. “Take this purse.” Nan goes to a drawer in my table and brings out a small purse of gold that I keep for my charitable giving. “See if there are men around Bishop Bonner that will take a bribe. Find out what the bishop requires of Mistress Askew, whether he needs an oath, or a recantation, or an apology. Find out what it is that he wants. And be sure that the bishop knows that I have heard Anne preach, that she is a kinswoman to George Saint Paul, who works for the Brandons, that I have never heard a word from her that is anything but devout, holy, and within the law, that this very day the king has his liturgy in English back from the printers. And that I expect her to be released.”

He bows as Nan makes a little fearful noise. “Is it wise to confess acquaintance with her? To let yourself be identified with her?”

“Anyone can discover that she has preached here,” I say. “Everyone knows that her sister works at court. What the bishop needs to know is that we, her friends, will stand by her. He needs to be aware that when he questions her, he is questioning one of my preachers, a friend to the Suffolk household. He must be told that she has important allies and we know where she is.”

Christopher nods that he understands, and swiftly turns and goes out of the door.

“And send a message back as soon as she is released,” I call after him. “And if they proceed against her, come back at once.”

* * *