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are a veritable walking library! We stand in the shade of your towering learning.’
    The others chuckled at his lame joke.
    ‘Thank you, sir, I will take your words as a compliment.’ Ellie toyed with the food on her plate, wondering when she could make her excuses. She knew that Charles disliked her, largely because of the influence her father had over Lord Mountjoy, but he had no liking for bookish girls on principle. It was like the Earl of Dorset all over again, though this time she was held to be part of the alchemical conspiracy to extract as much money from the family as possible. Then again, looking down at her dress, which she owed to the Mountjoys, she supposed he had good reason to think this.
    Charles leant across the table, dropping his voice to a confidential level. ‘I was wondering if a woman’s heart beat under that armour of scholarship you have donned. The doctors say that learning dries up the passions in a female, rendering her withered as an old apple and as sour to the taste. What say you to that?’
    ‘Indeed, sir, I do not consider myself a very learned person.’ She opened her eyes wide with the appearance of innocent wonderment. ‘Perhaps you should direct your enquiry to one of greater wit than myself? Her Majesty, perhaps? I am sure you would be the first to admit that our sovereign lady is famed for her scholarship and understanding.’
    Blount sat back with a grunt of displeasure. ‘Clever, very clever,’ he muttered. ‘Lady Eleanor, I fear that your wit may prove your undoing. And I for one cannot wait.’
    ‘I beg you, sir, not to hold your breath for such an event. It may prove detrimental to your well-being.’ She piled a cheese tart on her plate, not because she was hungry but for something to distract from her shaking hands, and mashed it to pieces with her spoon.
    Charles gripped her wrist, stilling her motion. ‘Lady Eleanor, my case is urgent. My father will hear no reason since yours seduced him with his promises of gold. He’s like a sick man throwing off all covers, unable to see that the fever burns inside him and not in the room. You must take your father away before it’s too late.’
    He was right – Ellie knew it. But if she had had any influence over her own parent, she would have long since exercised it. He’d had the fever first; Lord Mountjoy was merely unfortunate to have caught it from him.
    ‘You’re hurting me,’ she whispered, tears starting in her eyes.
    Bully that he was, Blount didn’t let go. ‘Will you do as I ask?’
    ‘How, pray, may I achieve this thing? I am only his daughter, not his master. He’ll not leave until your father tells him to go.’
    Blount released his grip with a snort of disgust. ‘You like your comfortable life here too much to try.’
    Ellie rubbed her wrist. ‘I pray you pardon me,’ she whispered.
    ‘Pardon is not enough. There will be a reckoning. Pray God that he’ll have more mercy on you than you have shown to my family.’
    ‘Excuse me, sir.’ She rose from her seat, leaving her plate full. She would not be able to force down a mouthful under his disapproving gaze.
    ‘Go, go.’ He waved her off. ‘Unlike my father, I do not wish for your company.’
    Ellie bolted from the hall, cursing the day when Sir Arthur had first styled himself an alchemist.
    Will watched the little black-haired lady depart in haste, wondering what had upset her. From the expression on the face of the gentleman she had been sitting opposite, they did not part as friends. A lovers’ tiff? He hoped not. He’d prefer her to be without attachments.
    ‘So, my lord, are you intending to try your skill at the joust?’ asked Robert Cecil.
    ‘For my sins, sir, that is my intention.’
    ‘Then I hope you may win. There are some in this hall that royally deserve to be knocked off their perch.’ Cecil glared across the table at Ralegh, who, catching the look raised his goblet mockingly in his direction.
    ‘Why does he bait you?’