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good friend and mentor to me since I was eight years old, and I hope he will remain so, but the risk is, indeed, too high. I shall not divulge any of this to him. And as for the earl, I fully agree with your sentiments. I would not trust him one inch, neither his intentions nor his competence. I am tied to his party at the present time, but if I can extricate myself from that position, I will surely do so.’
    My words seemed to satisfy them and we moved on. There was little specific action to undertake at this stage: only to remain loyal, to maintain communication, and to try to influence events in England as they arose. It was, as Walsingham said, a long game, and I hoped I would prove as adept at it as he clearly was.
    There was one skill I had to learn. ‘We need to communicate with each other in code.’Walsingham was deadly serious. ‘There is a code I will share with you, but first you must tell me what books you carry with you.’
    I confirmed that, unlike Thomas, I owned few books. I did, however, have a copy of Bullinger’s Of Christian Perfection, given to me by Lady Jane herself.
    ‘I hoped you would say that. It has come to act as our common text and a key to our secret communication. Sir John has a copy here. Now look.’
    He took a piece of paper and wrote on it:
    12 4 7 36 374 66 8 2 72 8
     
    There, what does it say?’
    I looked at him blankly. I had no idea.
    Walsingham signalled to John Cheke with his open hand, fingers extended. Cheke grinned, took his book and began to turn the pages. From time to time he paused and wrote down a letter on the sheet before us.
    GOD BE WITH US
     
    ‘How did you make that out?’
    Walsingham smiled. ‘It’s a variable code and a powerful one. You can vary it by including code-words in your covering letter. In this case we need to know it’s four numbers, alternating. Show him, John.’
    John Cheke took the copy of Of Christian Perfection and read aloud: ‘Page 12, line 4, word 7 . . .’ He looked it up: ‘God’. ‘Page 36, word 374: “be”. Page 66, line 8, word 2: “with”. Page 72, word 8: “us”.’
    ‘There!’
    I was bemused. ‘I still don’t follow.’
    Walsingham took my arm. ‘We use a code with a variable pattern. If it’s two digits we specify page, then word; if it’s three we use page, line, word; if it’s five we alternate three then two, and so on. It means that code-breakers cannot decipher it easily, even if they know the book. Without the book, it’s impossible.’
    ‘Let me try.’ I took the book and worked through, number-group by number-group. It was laborious, but it worked. ‘What do you do if you want a word that is not in the book, or you can’t find it?’
    Walsingham winked at Cheke. ‘He’s getting better. I think he’ll do.’ He turned to me. ‘You find a substitute you think will be understood. On occasions you have to spell out the word and put clues in a covering letter, which you send alongside your coded sheet. It is our usual practice, as a casual observer may take the letter at face value and ignore the little scribblings that sit beside it. But to you, or to me, it is the scribblings that carry the heart of the message.’
    ‘What do you do at the end of the word?’
    ‘Just revert back again. The decoder will know when a word is complete.’
    It all seemed so complex. ‘Is this really necessary?’
    Walsingham smiled. ‘Wait until they are on your trail. Then, yes, it’s necessary. You only have to include a small part of the message in code, normally on a separate piece of paper from the main letter. It can either carry a separate message, or you can use it to tell the reader how to interpret the plain-language letter itself. You’ll get the hang of it.’
       
     
    As I left the room some time later, Walsingham’s voice followed me through the door. ‘Richard?’
    I paused and turned back.
    ‘Don’t lose the book!’
    I left the meeting with a mixture of sentiments. While I was pleased