‘Then you’ll live to be as old and as happy as my friends Alexander and Richard, who managed to avoid time’s attention for…’ His own gaze wandered off again, but this time it found a focus. Two figures were standing on the corner by the cathedral grounds. Two figures that old Tim recognised from somewhere, maybe from a dream. They met the old man’s eyes, then smiled satisfied smiles. Timothy started to laugh. ‘For that’s the thing about time, you see! That’s the thing about time! It’s like a big story, and it’s never over! I remember, when I was very young, and Mother used to read to me in bed, I’d fall asleep before she’d stop reading. But the next night, she’d know where we’d been. She’d never lose her place.’

And Timothy lay his head back against his grandson’s hand, his cheek warm against the man’s skin. He breathed deeply, and fell into what would turn out to be his final sleep.

The white poppy had fallen from his lapel in his exertions, and was left, unnoticed, on the pavement as the Dean family went on their way.

Just before they turned the corner, the little girl looked over her shoulder and saw the Doctor bending down to pick the poppy up. She looked at him curiously and he gave her a smile.

Then she was gone. The Doctor slipped the white poppy into his buttonhole. ‘So, where do you want to go?’ he asked Bernice, who was shivering in her dufflecoat.

Earlier in the day, she’d consulted her Portable History Unit again, and discovered that, inexplicably, the casualty list for the Somme had changed. But then the thing had gone on the blink. The Doctor had refused to mend it again.

‘Somewhere that sells hot chocolate and crumpets.’

‘After that.’

‘Perhaps we could go and do something good. Help somebody.’

‘We could go back to Guy.’

‘We could go back to Joan.’

They looked at each other, and they might have looked sad.

But instead they smiled.

The Doctor took Bernice’s arm. ‘There’s a place that springs to mind. A planet called Oolis. A few things need sorting out there. But it might be dangerous.’

‘Oh, will there be monsters?’

They started to walk away.

‘Of course. The Oolians have wings, and beaks, and armoured battlesuits.’

‘And will there be villains? And deadly danger?’

‘Oh yes. And probably death, with or without a capital D.’

‘Then we should go there immediately. Who else is there to sort these things out?’

‘Who indeed?’

Benny shivered again. ‘There’s only one thing that I wouldn’t want to face again in a hurry.’

‘What’s that?’

‘Snow. Does Oolis have any?’

The Doctor glanced up at the snowflakes that sped by, and frowned. ‘But if it wasn’t for the snow, how could we believe in the immortality of the soul?’