“Yes,” James said. Out of habit he glanced behind him to see that the door was closed. “To England . . . not . . . not to our own home.”

“I heard there were problems.”

The young man nodded, and his father seated himself at the head of the dark wood refectory table, and gestured that his son should sit. His mother took her place at the foot. James thought that it was three years since they had been seated at the head and foot of their great table in their own home, three years of living on what rents they could collect from their English estate, three years of living off the hand-to-mouth royal courts, three years of exile from home.

“How do you hear?” James asked. “For really, no one should hear anything at all.”

“It’s this damned country,” his mother said wearily. “Everyone knows everything. Nothing is ever private, no one is discreet. Everyone gossips and makes things up.”

“It puts me in danger,” James pointed out. “And everyone who goes to England to serve the faith, or the king. Don’t people realize that? And it puts our cause in danger too. Don’t they understand they must serve in secret? Keep silence?”

“Were you in danger, cheri?” his mother asked.

“Yes,” James said flatly. “Of course. Every day.”

His mother blanched. “But you are unhurt?” She put her white hand over his and scanned his face, as if she might see a hidden mortal wound.

“Did you see His Majesty?” his father asked him. “Are you allowed to say?”

“Yes, I saw him. I had organized an escape for him, as I imagine you know, since the queen’s court knows, I suppose all of Paris knows. But he didn’t come. He wouldn’t come.”

“He refused rescue?” his father asked incredulously.

“Didn’t the gossips tell you that?”

“I only heard that it miscarried. I am sorry, I thought it was—”

“Me that failed?” James interposed bitterly. “No. It’s true to say that my rescue failed. But it was because he would not walk out of the open door, to the boat that I had waiting, to the men risking their lives to guard him.”

“Was it not safe?”

“Of course it was as safe as it could be! I would never have taken him into danger,” James said angrily. “I had arranged it, but he wouldn’t come. He believed he could outwit parliament. Play them off against the army. Threaten them with the Irish, or with an invasion from France.”

His father made a quick gesture with his hand. “There will be no invasion from France. There’s no money, and God knows . . .”

James looked at his father. “God knows . . . ?” he asked.

Now it was the older man who glanced at the door to see it was tightly closed. “No leadership,” he said quietly. “No common sense at the queen’s court, no discipline at the court of the prince. No one you would trust with a spaniel, let alone an army. A court of favorites and backbiting and endless gossip, quarrels about nothing, and scandals. Good men throwing what’s left of their fortunes away on desperate plans. People dreaming of a future and swearing they will have revenge. Nothing reliable. No one to rely on. Rewards promised, bribes handed out. It’s sickening.”