“We can manage for a short spell,” John said.

“We earn more in the spring than we do for all the rest of the year,” she said. “I have been looking at the account books. We have to make money in spring. A war starting in springtime is the worst thing that could happen for us. If the uncertainty carries on till June or July we will not make a profit this year.”

“What about the rarities?”

“There are more visitors because there are more people in the city,” Hester said. “The country gentry who have come in for the parliament are curious to see Tradescant’s Ark. But if the business between the king and Scots grows more serious I think they’ll stop coming too. A trade like ours depends on people feeling safe enough to spend money on pleasure: on visiting, on rarities, and on their gardens. A country at war does not plant gardens.”

“I still have my post at Oatlands,” John pointed out. “And I will succeed my father as chief gardener and draw his wage.”

Hester nodded. “If the worst comes to the worst we can live on your wages.”

“At the very worst we can close the Ark and live at Oatlands,” John said. “The house there is only little; but we could manage for a while if we cannot afford to keep the Ark open.”

“I’m not sure that I would want to live in the grounds of a royal palace in times like these,” Hester said cautiously.

“I thought you were such a royalist?”

“I don’t want to take sides,” Hester said. “Not when I don’t know exactly what the sides will be. Nor when I don’t know which side will win.”

The sides became rapidly clearer after the king’s army, unenthusiastic and poorly paid, were defeated by the Scots who went on to occupy Newcastle and Durham and hammer out a peace with the king which would force him to call a new parliament in England. It became clear to everyone in the country, except perhaps to the king and the queen, that the Scots and the Independent English thinkers had the king on the run. Hester started a correspondence with Mrs. Hurte, the mother of John’s first wife, who kept her eyes and ears open in the City and was as skeptical as Hester, and rightly concerned for the safety of her grandchildren.

The new Parliament will impeach Strafford, just as the old one was wild to impeach Buckingham. If J has ever had any dealings with the Earl, or if his father kept any correspondence, it should be hidden or, better yet, burned. They are saying that Strafford is a traitor prepared to wage war against his own country for the benefit of the king and queen. They will accuse him of treason – treason against the people of England, and once one royal servant is accused how many others will be charged?

Hester went upstairs to the attic and opened John’s old chest of papers. The Tradescants had supplied seeds and young saplings to the Earl but there were no incriminating letters left from the years when John Tradescant had been known as a discreet man who regularly visited Europe and could be trusted with a letter or a message.

The Earl was a loudmouthed unattractive old man, twisted with gout and losing his sight. He had been a relentless force in Ireland, hammering a Protestant will on a Catholic people; but he was old now. The king had recalled him to England only for the unscrupulous clarity of his advice, and been indebted to him for the suggestion that if towns did not send enough money for the king’s army their aldermen should be hanged in their robes to clarify the urgency of the situation. The Earl had walked past John in the gardens of Oatlands a dozen times and never wasted more than a glance on him.

The Tradescants were safe from any accusation of complicity with the king. But many royal servants slipped away and went abroad, or retired to their country estates. Others were not so quick or careful. In December, Archbishop Laud was arrested and imprisoned in the Tower to await the pleasure of the Houses of Parliament.

Hester did not pray from any prayer book at evening prayers that night but read from the King James Bible as the only text which did not define the household as for or against the king.

“No prayers?” John asked her quietly as the household went about its last tasks of the day and Hester counted out the bedtime candles.

“I don’t know any more what words God would prefer,” she said drily. “And no one knows what man requires.”

Spring 1641

The day that Strafford was called to account in the great hall at Westminster there were no visitors to the Ark at all. Everyone who could get a ticket or a pass to see Strafford at bay before his accusers was in the city. Even the streets were deserted.

In the unnatural silence of the house at Lambeth there was suddenly a thunderous knock on the front door. Frances went running to open it, but Hester darted out from the rarities room and caught her in the hall.

“Frances! Don’t answer it!”

The girl halted at once.

“Go ’round to the gardens and find your father. Tell him to go to the stables, saddle a horse, and wait till I send a message.”

Frances caught the note of urgency in her stepmother’s voice, nodded, white-faced, and ran. Hester waited until she was out of sight, smoothed down her apron, straightened her cap, and opened the door.

It was a gentleman usher of the royal household. Hester showed him into the parlor. “My husband is not here at the moment,” she said, deliberately vague. “I can send a message for him if it is urgent.”

“The king is at Whitehall and wishes to see him.”

Hester nodded. “I shall have to write to him at Oatlands,” she said. “He is the king’s gardener at Oatlands, you know. May I tell him why the king wants him?”

The gentleman usher raised his eyebrows. “I should have thought it would be enough to tell him that he is wanted,” he said rudely.

Hester bowed slightly. “Of course,” she said. “But if the king requires some plants or seeds then we need to know at once, so that we can prepare them. Or if he wants some rarities delivered…”

“Oh,” the man said. “I see. The king is buying a hunting lodge at Wimbledon for the queen. They want Mr. Tradescant to design a garden.”

No trace of her relief appeared on Hester’s face. “I will send for him at once,” she said. “He may not even have arrived at Oatlands yet. He left only this morning. I may catch him on the road, and tell him to come back.”

The gentleman usher nodded.

“Can I offer you some refreshment?” Hester asked. “A glass of wine?”

The gentleman usher shook his head. “I shall return to Whitehall,” he said. “These are difficult times.”

“Very difficult,” Hester agreed with feeling. She showed him to the door and then went to the stables to find John. He was leaning against the pump in the stable yard, enjoying the early warm sunshine on his face.

“Frances came flying out as if all the devils in hell were at the door,” he said carelessly. “Why are you so fearful?”

“I thought it might have been the press gang or the tax collectors, or a message from the court that you would be safer to miss,” she explained. “I don’t know what I fear except I am uneasy, I am afraid for us. If the king’s own adviser can be on trial for his life then the king can protect no one. Indeed, it’s the loyal servants of the king who are the most endangered. And we have been known as royal servants for two generations. I don’t want this family suddenly named as enemies of the people of England because we have taken royal gold. We all have to make our own safety in these days.”

John put his hand on her shoulder. It was his first ever gesture of affection. Hester stood very still, as if she had been approached by a wary wild animal and did not want to scare it away. She felt herself lean, very slightly, toward his caress.