“What is it?” I say, stepping back into my bedroom and beckoning her in. “What’s the matter?”

She closes the door behind her. In the silence I can hear the ticking of my new clock.

“Where is Nan?”

“I have some bad news.”

“Is it Anne Askew?”

At once I think that they are going to execute her. That they have done the thing that we were sure they would not do. That they have taken her to trial, and rushed through a guilty verdict, and they are going to burn her. “Tell me it’s not Anne? Has Nan gone to the Tower to pray with her?”

Anne shakes her head. “No, it’s your ladies,” she says quietly. “It’s your own sister. In the night, after you had left the king, the Privy Council sat in judgment, and they have arrested your sister Nan Herbert; your kinswoman Lady Elizabeth Tyrwhit; and your cousin Lady Maud Lane.”

I cannot even hear her. “What did you say? Who is arrested?”

“The ladies-in-waiting who are your kinswomen. Your sister and your cousins.”

“For what?” I ask stupidly. “On what charge?”

“They have not been charged yet. They were questioned all through the night; they are still being interrogated now. And the yeomen of the guard have entered their rooms, their private family rooms that they share with their husbands, and into their chambers here, in your quarters, and taken their papers away: all their boxes, all their books.”

“They are looking at papers?”

“They are looking for papers and books,” Anne confirms. “It is an inquiry about heresy.”

“The Privy Council is accusing my ladies, my cousins, my own sister, Nan, of heresy?”

Anne nods, her face impassive.

There is a long silence. I feel my knees are weak beneath me and I sink down to a stool by the grate where a little fire flickers.

“What can I do?”

She is as frightened as I am. “Your Majesty, I don’t know. All your papers are gone from your rooms?” She glances at the desk where I used to write notes with such pleasure, where I used to study with such excitement.

“All gone. Yours?”

“Edward took them to Wulf Hall when he left for France. He warned me—but I did not think it would be this bad. He never thought it would get this bad. If he were here... I have written to him to come home. I have told him that Bishop Gardiner is dominating the Privy Council and that nobody is safe. I have told him that I fear for you, that I fear for myself.’

“Nobody is safe,” I repeat.

“Your Majesty, if they can arrest your own sister, then they can arrest any one of us.”

I suddenly rouse myself, my temper flares. ‘The bishop dares to advise the Privy Council to arrest my sister, Nan? My chief lady-in-waiting? Sir William Herbert’s wife? Get my gown. I shall dress and see the king.”