Joan squeezed his hand tightly, heartened by his words. ‘John, let me play devil’s advocate for a moment. What if Bernice is right, and the sphere contains something of great value to you? Are you sure that you should give it away? I just want you to be certain of what you’re doing.’

Smith shook his head, certain. ‘What is there that I could have that I’m not aware of? I can hear and see, I have life and intelligence. Even if she is right, and the Doctor is some advanced being that I’m just the shadow of, I won’t feel the loss. I’ve gained so much, being human. I know I have.’

‘How can you be sure?’

‘Because I have you.’ He took her in his arms and kissed her again. ‘And the Doctor didn’t.’

Joan enjoyed the kiss, holding on to him gladly. If she was being honest, desperately. When the kiss was over, she whispered: ‘This may be a bad time to mention it, but in the last few hours, have you noticed anything different about me?’

‘Different? Apart from ragged, burnt and charmingly tousled? No.’

‘Rather more specific than that…’ said Joan. She tapped his chin with a finger.

Smith glanced down and saw his ring on it. ‘You’ve⁠ —’

‘Accepted, yes. Do you think that we should make an official announcement now, or wait until the remains of our workplace have been cleared away?’

‘I⁠ —’ Smith grabbed her and spun her round in a joyful, random dance. ‘Whatever you think best. Or let’s just get married. Tomorrow. Yesterday. Tonight!’

‘I think that your head was pointing in the wrong direction then,’ she laughed, holding on to her hat. ‘But there are vast, lately unexplored stretches of me that would quite appreciate being married this evening.’

‘Shall we just pretend?’ said Smith, his eyes sparkling.

‘Don’t tempt me.’ They fell against a tree and several apples fell from it, one bouncing off the top of Smith’s skull. ‘Oh, any new thoughts?’

‘Nothing Newtonian. I never liked him. He was always very bad-tempered and completely…’ His eyes narrowed, and he turned from Joan, fixing his gaze on the figure that had just appeared at the other end of the orchard.

It was Tim, clutching the Pod in his hand and staring at the teachers in wonder.

‘Obsessed with death,’ Smith finished.

‘Damn,’ whispered Joan.

The family came to the edge of the forest at a run. August activated the scanner and clicked his tongue approvingly. ‘There it is, a clear signal! Something’s happening.’

‘I wonder what?’ Greeneye muttered suspiciously.

‘We’ll approach them slowly and carefully.’

‘Why can’t we just run at them?’

‘Because when we run at them, they get away. We need to be more subtle.’

‘They get away when Greeneye’s being subtle, too,’ Hoff muttered.