‘Do we need more?’ She didn’t know. Last night, she hadn’t paid any attention to what was going on the fire and how fast it was consumed.

‘About half as much again.’ Still bemused, he added: ‘There’s two of us: it won’t take long.’

‘Where’ve you already looked?’

‘Over there,’ he said, pointing in a rough direction.

‘Then let’s try the other side.’

This time, she led the way.

8

8

By the time he’d wasted half the morning trying and failing to fix his hopelessly corroded torch, he’d almost missed the turning tide. The fish had run again, though not as many as the day before – Dalip guessed it was some sort of migration, and that it wouldn’t last. There were also geese-like things nesting on the flat plain of the estuary, on the sandbanks and in amongst the grasses. While the birds flew away when he approached, they couldn’t carry their fist-sized eggs with them.

The first nest he came across filled him with uncertainty. In the centre of the woven reed basket, reinforced with dried mud, were four white eggs still warm from brooding. Everything he’d learnt told him he shouldn’t even be touching them. Collecting eggs was illegal. Wild birds were protected by law. Just standing there, looking, seemed incredibly transgressive and he already felt guilty, because he knew what he was going to do.

He picked up two eggs out of the four, and walked back across the channels to where Mary was trying to emulate his fish-catching exploits. She was impatient, and therefore less successful. By waiting longer, she’d catch more. He knew that she knew, and he didn’t remind her. He put the eggs down next to the beached fish. In his family, the women worked in the kitchen, and men were excluded. He wasn’t going to let on that he had no idea what he was supposed to do with the eggs. If Mary didn’t know, someone would, he was sure.

Her face was fixed with so much concentration that she barely acknowledged him. She was strange, and he didn’t understand the first thing about her. As far as he knew, she was a cleaner, and gleaning what he could from her earlier shouting match with Mama, she’d been in trouble with the police more than once. That made her highly unsuitable in his mother’s eyes and someone he shouldn’t be spending any time with.

His mother wasn’t there though, and he didn’t have much choice as to his companions at the moment – and neither did they. He probably wasn’t the kind of person Mary would hang out with, either. They’d simply have to make the best of it, no matter what.

She wanted to help forage. That was good. It was a change from earlier too, but he’d rather have it that way than the shouting or sullenness.