Darnley was not stupid. He refused to lodge at Craigmillar because he loathed and feared Sir Simon Preston and had already heard whispers of a plot. But until Darnley was cured, he did not want to return to Holyrood. He was prodigiously vain and could not bear the thought of people seeing his pocks and pustules. Until his treatment was completed and his skin back to normal, he wished to remain in seclusion. Even in the privacy of his upstairs bedroom at Kirk o’Field, he wore a taffeta mask over his face.
