I cancel the preachers who come to my rooms and instead I summon the king’s chaplains to give us readings from the Bible. I don’t invite them to comment or lead a discussion, and my ladies say nothing, but listen in respectful silence as if none of us is capable of thought. Even when the reading is of great interest to us, something that we would normally study, perhaps even go back to the original Greek to make a new translation, we nod like a convent of orthodox nuns hearing the laws of God and the opinions of man, as if we had no minds of our own.

We go to chapel before dinner and Catherine Brandon, the king’s new favorite, walks beside me.

“Your Majesty, I am afraid that I have some bad news,” she starts.

“Go on,” I say.

“A London bookseller, who has supplied me for years with texts, has been arrested for heresy.”

“I am sorry to hear it,” I say steadily. “I am very sorry for the trouble for your friend.” I make sure that I don’t even check in my stride as we go side by side down the gallery to the chapel. I incline my head to a group of bowing courtiers.

“I’m not asking for your protection for him. I am warning you.” She has to hurry to keep up with my rapid pace. “This man, a good man, was arrested on the orders of the Privy Council. The arrest was made out specifically to him by name. He is John Bale. He brings in books from Flanders.”

I raise my hand. “Better that you tell me nothing,” I say.

“He sold us the Testament in French that you have,” she says. “And the Tyndale translation of the New Testament. They’re banned now.”

“I don’t have them,” I reply. “I have given away all my books, and you had better get rid of yours, Catherine.”

She looks as frightened as I feel. “If my husband were alive, then Bishop Stephen Gardiner would never have dared to arrest my bookseller,” she says.

“I know,” I agree. “The king would never have allowed Charles Brandon to be questioned by such as Wriothesley.”

“The king loved my husband,” she says. “So I was safe.”

I know that we are both wondering if he loves me.

GREENWICH PALACE,

SUMMER 1546