‘Here, sit close to me, it’s warmer.’ Ray produced two apples. ‘Red or green?’ he asked, holding them out.

Maggie shook her head. ‘I don’t mind.’

Ray sighed. ‘You have to choose.’

Maggie looked at them. ‘But if I choose the green one, the red one will feel left out. I’ll feel sorry for it.’

Ray laughed and gave her the red one. ‘There. I’ll choose for you.’

They bit into the apples and crunched in silence for a few minutes.

‘How does Pam seem to you?’ Ray asked, suddenly. ‘Have you noticed Norm being very … kind, shall we say?’

Since her fiancé had died, all the men had all been very solicitous of Pam and Maggie had wondered whether Ray might get close to her again. He and Pam had once been sweethearts, after all, if Nancy were to be believed. She’d watched them carefully but there’d been no sign of anything. It was a relief; they weren’t suited, of that Maggie was quite sure. Rather, it was Norm who’d become close to Pam. They sat together every mealtime, smoked cigarettes on the terrace and they laughed. They laughed an awful lot.

Now, Maggie nodded. ‘Charity says Norm’s “consoling her” and although he’s married, she’s probably not the first and she won’t be the last.’

‘Not shocked, are you?’ Ray asked. He shrugged. ‘It’s the war, Maggie. It does strange things to people. Look,’ he said, ‘someone’s coming over.’

An old woman with grey hair and leaning heavily on a wooden stick, was making her way across the green towards them. They watched her slow progress.

‘Blimey,’ Ray said, under his breath. ‘I hope she’s not bringing me a white feather.’

He stood up to offer her his place on the bench but she shook her head and stood, leaning on her stick.

‘I like to watch you two young’uns on that bicycle,’ she said. ‘I’ve seen you before, see.’ She gazed at Ray with rheumy eyes. ‘You remind me of my son. I lost him in the Great War.’ She nodded at the tandem. ‘What’s it called?’

‘It’s a tandem,’ Ray said. ‘It’s a bicycle made for two.’

The woman’s face broke into a gummy smile. ‘That’s the one. A tandem. I like to think of him, up there—’ she glanced skywards ‘—riding around, like you, with his girl on the back.’

They watched her totter back across the village green and return to her cottage.

‘Poor old dear,’ Maggie said. ‘She came out in the cold specially to tell us that.’ She took a deep breath and added, ‘I wonder if she’d think so well of us if she knew I was half-German.’

Ray stopped mid-bite and stared at her, holding the apple aloft.

‘That’s why I’m always with his Lordship,’ Maggie said. ‘I’m teaching him the language.’

Ray frowned.