He put his mouth to her ear and Hester smelled the familiar scent of sandalwood that the young men of court used as pomade. ‘Lady d’Aubigny,’ he whispered. ‘A great lady and the widow of a hero. Her lord fell at Edgehill and she is trusted by the king to call out the royalists of London to fight for him. And she is trusting you.’

Hester felt a deep sense of relief that John was far away. ‘I am sorry,’ she said swiftly. ‘My husband is away in Virginia, gathering rarities, and making his own plantation.’

‘When will he return?’

She shrugged. ‘I don’t know.’

The man’s gleeful, conspiratorial mode deserted him in a moment. He swore and took two hasty paces away from her. ‘Then what are we to do?’ he demanded. ‘Mr Tradescant was to secure Lambeth and the riverside. We were counting on him.’

‘You were counting on him to secure the king’s safety and you did not think to discover if he was at home?’ Hester asked, disbelieving. ‘He could be sick, he could be dead of the plague, he could have changed sides!’

The man threw her a swift, angry glance. ‘War is a gamble,’ he said grandly. ‘Sometimes the gamble pays off, sometimes it does not. I was gambling that he would be here, in good health, and keeping faith with his master.’

Hester shook her head. ‘He does not break his faith. But he can be of no use to you.’

‘His son?’

‘Johnnie is not yet ten.’

‘What about you? Surely you have influence with local people. You could use this house as a rallying point. I could send you an officer to raise the men, or your father … d’you have a father?’

Hester shook her head. ‘No father, and no influence. I am a newcomer here,’ she said. ‘I am Mr Tradescant’s second wife. We have only been married four years. I have no friends here. And I have no family.’

‘Someone has to do it!’ he burst out. ‘Someone has to secure the riverside and Lambeth!’

Hester shook her head again and led the way to the front door. The royalist conspirator trailed unhappily after her.

‘What about someone at the bishop’s palace? What about the local vicar?’

‘The Archbishop is in the Tower for his service to the king, as you well may recall. And his servants are long gone.’ Hester opened the front door. ‘And the vicar here is an Independent. He was one of the first to preach against Archbishop Laud’s reforms.’

The man would have hesitated but she ushered him out of the house. ‘I shall call on you if we need a safe house this side of the river,’ he promised. ‘D’you have horses, or barns where a small troop of horse could lie hidden?’

‘No,’ Hester said.