‘Roger! What are you saying?’
‘That you know how to defend your own, my love.’
I turned my head from him. ‘Humphrey Berkeley accused you of treason.’
‘I know. He had good cause.’
‘You mean that you have really given your support to Perkin Warbeck?’ I was shocked. Roger had sworn his allegiance to Tudor, after all, and it was not his style to break his word except in an absolute emergency.
‘No, but I gave him cause to believe that I had. He was one of those whose loyalty I was ordered to test.’
‘You’ve been working for Henry Tudor?’
‘How do you think I got out of the Tower, Alianore?’
I stared at him, aghast. I’d never told him about the deal I’d cut with Margaret Beaufort, and it had never occurred to me that he’d struck one of his own. We’d paid for our freedom twice over! I just stopped short of laughing.
‘But what about Lovell?’ I asked. ‘Lovell has been here half a dozen times. You never betrayed him.’
‘Lovell was a friend. I told them from the first that I wouldn’t do the dirt on friends. They accepted it. Shits like Berkeley and William Stanley are in a different class. It’s been a pleasure to see them ruined. Though I must admit, I was surprised when Berkeley took the bait. And even more surprised when he told Perkin Warbeck, in writing, of my loyalty to King Henry. Hard to explain, that bit.’
‘Very hard,’ I agreed.
‘Best not to try,’ he said.
THE END