‘Estranged is the word,’ her father said. He didn’t turn to face her. Rather he appeared to be studying the back of the chauffeur’s head. As if there was something there that might explain everything. ‘It was her choice, you know. That we separated all those years back. She wanted something more, someone else.’

‘Do you blame her? She’d had enough of the worry, Dad.’

‘That’s a bit rich. I reckon she was always more concerned about you than she ever was about me.’

‘That’s different. Parents are always worried about their children.’

‘She could never understand what drove you to sign up. She hated you being in the military. I think she felt by you choosing the army that somehow I’d won and she’d lost. She wanted something quite different for you, something more noble, as if fighting for what you believe in wasn’t noble enough.’

‘Dad, don’t. This isn’t the time.’

Her father fell silent, but what he’d said about her mother wanting something different for Silva was true. She’d wanted Silva to go to university, but Silva had struggled at school. She was clever but not studious; she excelled at sports, but not in examinations. At the behest of her father she’d taken up shooting at an early age, and at sixteen she’d won a gold medal in a junior class at the world championships. As a child she’d never associated what she did on the range with the military, but looking back she could see there was an inevitability about her future linked to her prowess with her rifle. When, at a careers fair, she’d come across an armed forces stand, she’d tried to hurry on past, but the female recruiting officer had caught her eye. Almost unwillingly she found herself drawn to the displays. The officer explained about the opportunities which were opening up for women now the UK was finally allowing them to serve in combat roles. ‘You could make a difference,’ she’d said, pointing to a picture of British soldiers alongside smiling Afghan children. ‘We’re building schools, providing sanitation, protecting the local population from those who want to impose their barbaric ideologies on them.’