There’s no step up to the front door, but the lawn slopes down away from the house, so I don’t have to look up as much as usual. His hair is lit golden by the light from the hallway behind me, but his face is in my shadow. I’m aware of Ali’s eyes upon us both. “No, thank you for saving me from a night of nutritionless microwave food,” I say brightly.

“Night then.” He leans in carefully and kisses me on both cheeks. I can feel the soft grain of his skin, the warmth of the contact, and yet it feels curiously formal throughout. He crunches across the gravel to round the bonnet of his car, then suddenly stumbles. “What the—Christ!”

“What’s up?” asks Ali, from the open door of his own car.

“Come and look at this.” He’s leaning over a dark shape.

“What is it?” I call, but Ben doesn’t answer. He’s fiddling with his phone. The next moment a beam of light emerges from it. Ali is beside Ben now, blocking my view of whatever they are leaning over to look at; I catch a glimpse of bright fur and hear Ali mutter, “Fuck.” Curiosity pulls me out of the warm doorway into the cold night air.

It’s a fox. An absurdly healthy-looking fox, except for the fact that it’s dead. It looks like it could have been frozen whilst running.

“Poisoned, do you think?” asks Ben grimly.

“Probably,” says Ali. His tone is neutral but somehow I can sense an anger beneath it. He fishes out his own phone and trains another torch beam upon the carcass.

“You mean, deliberately?” I ask. Ali is concentrating his beam around the fox’s head. Now that I’m looking for it, I can see a rim of dried foam around its muzzle, like the ring left behind from a bubble bath.

“Could be. It’s not legal, but the farmers dinnae take kindly to foxes getting among the sheep. Especially now, when we’re coming into lambing season. The farmer next to our place is blatant about it. I cannae think who’d be doing that round here, though.” He looks around, frowning, as if the culprit might suddenly step out of the darkness, then shoves at it with his foot. “It’s stiff now. Must have been here a good while.”

I can’t help wishing that he would move the torch away from the single open sightless amber eye. I’m shivering. I wrap my arms across my middle.

“You okay?” Ben asks me.