“I hate roses. I’d rather have sunflowers.”

“Hang on, I’ll tell him.” Finn threw the window up. “Hey, mate! Mate! If you want to buy my sister flowers, get sunflowers, not roses! Okay?”

“I’ll bear that in mind, mate!” The reply drifted faintly up on a cloud of exhaust fumes and leaf-dust.

“We should go to bed,” Ava said, yawning. “Give me those wrappers, I’ll put them in the bin. What’s that?”

“Present.” Finn was grinning from ear to ear.

“What is it?” Ava tore impatiently at the thin brown paper. “Oh, no way! Oh my God! Oh, Finn, where did you find this?”

“At a jumble sale. It was some church thing. I was looking at the bric-a-brac, I moved a Bruce Springsteen LP and there was Winston looking up at me. I couldn’t believe it when I saw it.”

“It’s the exact same picture.” Ava caressed the biscuit tin, and then shook it. “And it’s even – has it got biscuits in it? It has! It has got biscuits in it! Finn, this is the best thing!”

“I took the packet out of the cupboard while Marie and Steve were putting boxes in the car.”

“So they’re stolen biscuits?”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t be,” said Ava with her mouth full. “You found Winston! After all these years.”

“You don’t think it could be the exact same one, do you?” said Finn. “I mean, it’s in the same area – and when – when – you know.”

“Yep.”

“Well, they, you know – they cleared everything out, and – I mean, it could be, couldn’t it? I know they must have made millions of them, but… ”

“Let’s say it is,” said Ava, putting her hand on the lid. “This is our Winston Churchill biscuit tin. Owned by our grandmother. Passed down through the generations.”

“And these,” said Finn with his mouth full, “are definitely our biscuits.”

“Definitely.”

They munched biscuits by the light of the sodium-lamp outside.

“Did you ever wonder if this wouldn’t happen?” Ava asked.

“Nope.”

“Not for a minute?”

“Not for a minute,” said Finn. “I knew you’d sort it. You’re amazing.”

“I don’t know about that.”

“You’re amazing,” Finn repeated. “And one day – I promise – one day I’ll do something amazing in return, okay? I mean, I don’t know what I’ll ever manage that’s as good as this.”

“It’s not much,” said Ava. “It’s just a grotty little city-centre flat. But we won’t be here forever. And we’ll get curtains and furniture, and we won’t have to sit on tea-chests and we’ll have a television.”

“Don’t say that, it’s great! But I didn’t mean that. I meant everything else, you know, after Mum and Dad.”

“No, don’t, we promised we wouldn’t.”

“No, I won’t, I promise, I just meant – I appreciate it. I really do. I don’t want to take it for granted.”

“You’re my little brother,” said Ava, stroking his hair. “What else was I going to do?”

Finn wiped his face fiercely with the back of his hand.