Gwen rises earlier than usual and dresses swiftly, eager to wake Jack before Nora gets up in case she stumbles upon their arrangement. Though his nightmare excuse is plausible, she would rather not use it – she would rather Nora believe he is sleeping under her roof.

When she opens the back door, she is startled to see Jack waiting in the grey light, dressed in his uniform, crouched down stroking Kip. The dog whines with disappointment as he stops his fussing and rises to his feet.

‘I wasn’t sure if you still milked at five thirty. I thought I might as well help out while I’m here.’

‘Oh.’

‘That is … if you don’t mind.’

‘No … you remember what to do?’

‘I figured it would be like riding a bike – it’ll all come back to me once I start.’

‘Well … we’ll have to test that theory, won’t we?’

They walk down the lane together, Kip gambolling ahead. Blue tits and blackbirds, concealed by turning leaves, warble and peep. A robin, its red breast puffed, flies across the lane before them to land on a briar protruding from the hawthorn. Jack pinches himself that he is alive to revel in nature’s glories.

The cows welcome them with throaty bellows. Gwen grabs the gate and they lumber out, shuffling past each other to fill the lane.

‘Do you think they remember me?’ Jack calls across the array of broad bodies plodding between them, as a freckled cow he recalls as ‘Glenda’ butts him with her wet nose before walking on.

‘Perhaps.’

‘I remember them.’

They fall in step behind. It is as if no time has passed, and yet, Jack thinks, so much has changed. The drifting clouds marring the sky are like smudges of smoke from the bonfire of his dreams.

‘We were friends, Gwen,’ he says at last, unsure at first that the words have escaped his thoughts. ‘Is there any chance we can at least be friends again?’

When she fails to respond, he summons the courage to look her way.

Finally, she tilts her face towards him. And smiles.

Chapter Forty-Five

Nora is leaning against the back wall of the house, a mug of tea nestled against her chest, a cigarette smouldering between her fingers. She takes a deep drag as the cattle trudge up the yard, then angles her head back to blow out a stream of smoke, before tossing the dregs of her tea into the garden and grinding the cigarette under her boot.

‘Are you planning on making me redundant?’ she calls out as Jack and Gwen amble past.

‘I thought you might have appreciated the lie-in.’ Gwen leaves Jack to drive the cows on, while she waits for the Land Girl as she clumps down the steps.