Verity’s head was full of the image of Jack’s tongue licking her arm, when she saw a man on a bicycle in the distance. She knew at once it was Arthur. Instinctively, she slowed Gyps to a canter, then a trot. What light there’d been was already leaching from the sky. Arthur on his bike was a charcoal smudge. As she neared him, she saw he had a pair of binoculars slung over his shoulder.

There was no way she could avoid him. She trotted up behind him and called. As he turned to her and squinted, she saw him in the half light as if for the first time: his old, beloved, kinked hair, the straightness of his nose, the darkness of his eyes, in shades of grey and black. She was so used to him that she rarely saw him but all she could think was how different he was to Jack. How moulded and still, where Jack was always quick and live to the touch even when he wasn’t doing anything at all. She realised that she had never sketched Arthur.

‘What are you doing here? Birdwatching?’

He glanced at the binoculars. ‘Nothing,’ he said.

It was too late to make an excuse. She dismounted Gyps. He lit up a cigarette and passed one to her and they smoked as they walked, she with her horse, he with his bike.

‘Actually, I was watching the planes.’

He seemed tightly sprung, as if he would shoot off suddenly. It was an odd thing to be doing, spying on the Americans, but Arthur had been acting oddly for some time and it didn’t surprise her.

‘What on earth for?’

‘Their planes are carrying atomic bombs,’ he said finally, in a tone of defiance as if he didn’t care if she believed him.

‘Why do you think that?’ she said. It sounded far-fetched, a conspiracy theory, as if he’d been reading too many spy stories, and it would be laughable were it not for the needling suspicion that this was something to do with Jack. When she’d asked Jack if the bomb tests were anything to do with the activities at the base, he’d said they were connected. It could be true.

He took a deep suck on his cigarette and glowered at her. ‘I’ve thought it for months. I got some intelligence from a chap and I just needed proof. I’ve been tracking the types of plane they use and when they go out and I’ve noticed a pattern.’

‘But they’d tell us, wouldn’t they? They’d have to.’

‘That’s what I think. I’m right about this. I know I am. Anyway, I told the Eastern Daily Press about what I’ve found and they’re interested in an article.’ He sounded excited now.