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was favourable for the double-coupling. He brought John Dee into the chamber and asked that we all make ourselves naked and invoke the higher power.
    John Dee did not want to do this but Edward told him that an angel had appeared to him in a dream to say that our bodies should be shared in common. The Great Work was to dissolve all boundaries. The Great Work was to transform one substance into another – one self into another. We would merge. We would be transformed.
    I was shy and modest. Elizabeth Southern was not. She asked Edward Kelley to take the long bellows and billow up the flames in the furnace and warm the room. While he was about it, she took thick sheep fleeces from the cupboard and spread them over the floor. Then she undressed.
    I have never seen a more beautiful body on a man or a woman. She was slender, full, creamy, dark, rich, open, luxurious. In her clothes she was like any other well-formed woman, but naked she seemed like something other than, or more than, human. I do not say like a goddess but like an animal and a spirit combined into human form.
An angel
, Edward Kelley said.
    Both men were erect. They moved to touch her and she kissed them both equally. She had no shame, no fear. What did I feel? I did not feel desire or fear. I felt proud. Does that seem odd to you? I was proud of her.
    John Dee and Edward Kelley had intercourse with her in turn. When it was done John Dee went back to his books, for he was never comfortable with much that was not a book. Edward Kelley fell asleep. They had forgotten me and I had not minded.
    It was evening and the room was hot now and the fire was red in the furnace and we had drunk wine. I was naked but covered.
    Elizabeth leaned up on one arm smiling at me. Looking into her eyes was like looking into another life. She kissed me on the lips. She put her hand between my legs and stroked me until I had nothing in my mind but the colour of magenta.
    ‘This is our love,’ she said.
    Another year passed and all four of us moved to London where John Dee had a laboratory at Mortlake. Then Edward Kelley and John Dee went for a time to Poland. For almost a year Elizabeth and I were alone.
    We rented a warehouse at Bankside where we proceeded with the alchemical work, and where I discovered, quite by chance, the secrets of the dye that has been the foundation of my fortune.
    That year 1582 was the happiest year of my life. Elizabeth and I were lovers and we lived as lovers, sharing one bed and one body. I worshipped her. Where I was shy, she was bold, and where I was hesitant , she was sure. I learned life from her and I learned love from her as surely as I learned astrology and mathematics from John Dee and necromancy from Edward Kelley.
    One night there was a performance at the Curtain Theatre in Shoreditch, a mean and riotous place, but a place we enjoyed. I do not remember what we saw, but the Queen herself was there.
    It so happened that I had perfected my magenta dye and I had a dress made that I had dyed myself. I wore it to the performance and every head in the theatre turned to stare at me, such was the shimmer and depth of the hue.
    The next day the Queen sent for me.
    And that was the beginning of my fortune and the beginning of my trials.
    Elizabeth was jealous. She was a jealous woman by nature, and she was jealous of my success and of my money. I was at fault because I did not share everything equally with her. As I grew wealthier I invested my money. I bought her anything she wanted but I would not make her equal.
    And I was no longer interested in the Great Work. What did I care about turning lead into gold when I could turn gold into gold?
    My wealth increased.
    And then the dark came.
     
    *
     
    I was at my labour one day when I heard terrible noises coming from the lower laboratory where Elizabeth worked. I ran to the door; it was locked. I begged her to open it, but she would not. I went upstairs, took an axe and broke down the door. Elizabeth was