I remembered what the Queen had told me about her thoughts of marrying Henry Darnley, her first cousin when he started to become more prominent  at court. It was now early 1565, about three and a half-years after we had returned from France, and the country had settled into an uneasy truce between the Catholic Queen and the Protestant nobles. John Knox, too, had settled into some sort of mellowness, he no longer bothered the Queen and seemed to accept her right to practice her faith.

There had been developments in the life of us Four Maries as well. Fleming was being wooed by the Queen’s secretary, William Maitland. Their courtship had begun some months earlier, when Fleming took the part of the Queen during the twelfth night pageant. She was unsure whether she should encourage his attentions.

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