He climbed with care down the steps and walked across the grass to her. Large raindrops burst on the side of his face. He looked up, above the walls the sky was blue, the sun was still shining.

‘Another monkey’s wedding.’

‘Monkeys are being married all the time. Quick into the gateway or we’ll be drowned.’

The day suddenly turned from blue to black and rain came tumbling out of the sky. They stood in the darkness and watched it and tried not to notice the bitter smell from the stones on the ground.

‘Food,’ she said. ‘I’m frozen. I can’t think how you were able to stay up there so long.’

He realised as she spoke that he was frozen too.

‘It was so …’ His jaws had become stiff. He rubbed at them with his hands, trying to get them back into working order. ‘… so … massive.’

She nodded. She took a plastic bag out of her shopping bag and handed it to him.

‘Here. That’s your share. I should have brought something hot to drink, but I didn’t. Eat up though. It’ll warm you a bit.’

They leant against the damp wall and munched. They munched cold sausages and ham sandwiches, egg sandwiches and lovely salty corned beef sandwiches. She obviously took picnics seriously. The rain continued to pour down and small streams began to trickle through the stones around their feet.

‘Oh dear,’ she said. ‘Oh help,’ and dropped a sandwich. He bent to pick it up.

‘Ugh, no. Leave it. I wouldn’t want to eat anything that had been on this bit of ground. Polluted, I would say.’

‘Have one of mine?’ He hoped she wouldn’t, he was ravenous. She shook her head.

‘No thanks. I’ll have another dangerous cigarette … Then we can warm ourselves around the match.’

He laughed.

‘Your face is purple.’

‘It’s nothing to what yours is, with bits of boiled egg stuck to it.’

He rubbed at his chin with the back of his hand.

‘Is it ever going to let up?’

He went over to the doorway and peered out. It was now almost impossible to see more than a hundred yards, the rain and the clouds were the same heavy grey.

‘It’s going to rain forever. This will be the only safe place for miles around. They’ll all be rowing out here in their boats in a couple of days.’

‘And we’ll be here to welcome them. Hot drinks and fires in the bedrooms.’

‘I’ve never had a fire in my bedroom.’ Behind the press there was a tiny black fireplace. He had found it one day when he was looking for a penny that had been trying to escape.

‘It’s the nicest thing in the world. I only ever had one if I was sick. Just to lie there and watch the flickering patterns on the ceiling.’

He laughed abruptly.

‘I can do that anyway.’

‘Oh damn,’ she said.

‘Well,’ she said, after a long silence. ‘There are two alternatives, we can run now and get soaked, or we can wait.’