‘Don’t…’ The Doctor stared down at the cat in his arms. It jerked about, wanting to move, and then hopped up to lie along his shoulders. ‘No. You must do what you have to.’

‘Of course.’ She quickly walked to the door and held it open for him. ‘We both must. It was good of you to come and tell me. Thank you for saving us all.’

He paused for a moment at the door and gazed at her face. ‘I hope that one day, when I’m old, when my travels are over, and history has no more need of me, then I can be just a man again. And then, perhaps I’ll find those things in me that I’d need to love, also. Not love like I do, a big love for big things, but that more dangerous love. The one that makes and kills human beings.’ He stretched out a finger to touch her face, but suspended it, an inch from her skin. ‘It’s a dream I have.’

He turned away and walked down the road.

He didn’t look back.

Joan closed the door and sat down, not feeling anything. ‘I should go to bed,’ she said. Then she stood up suddenly, seized by the idea that she should run after him and grab Wolsey back.

She made herself stand by the door, not opening it.

And she stayed there for a very long time.

Laylock looked up at a sound from outside the tent. It was night, but he’d been pacing for hours, checking to see if the signal had been picked up by the vortex cabinet again.

The sound wasn’t repeated, so he glanced at the dial once more.

‘Good evening, Laylock.’

He spun round.

Alton was standing there, in a black robe now, rather than his school uniform. The robe carried no seal or insignia, but the cut of it suggested, as it was meant to, that the wearer was equally used to the darkened corridors of the Capitol as to alien fields and foxholes. Besides, an owl sat on his shoulder. Alton was pointing a gun at Laylock.

‘Are they⁠ — did they⁠ —’ The old Aubertide took a step back.

Alton reached into a pouch at his belt. He produced a small bag of coins and handed it to the alien. ‘Greetings from Aberdeen.’

He turned and left.

Laylock held the bag in his hand and sighed in relief. Then he went and switched off the vortex cabinet.

That night, Major Wrightson, who’d set up a detail of his men in the market square, was surprised to take custody of a prisoner. Hadleman and Alexander handed Greeneye over, together with statements about Rocastle and the hospital. They gave lengthy warnings about the prisoner, but still they seemed to want to be away.

Alexander finally led Richard from all the camouflage and khaki, the younger man still calling things to Wrightson.