‘Quite something, isn’t it?’ he whispered into the silence.

‘I’ve never been very religious, but I can see how a place like this could make you believe in God,’ she whispered.

‘Hindu temples are so different,’ he said. ‘Dark and smoky from all the incense and candles, and noisy with people chattering and children playing.’ He pointed to a carving at the top of a column. ‘That’s more the sort of thing you’d see in an Indian temple.’

She could see the carved face of a grinning imp, oddly out of place in the otherwise respectful piety of the place.

‘He’s quite famous,’ Vic said. ‘Apparently he was causing so much trouble, the other angels decided to make an example of him and turned him into stone.’

‘What a mean lot.’

A little further on, Vic went to speak to one of the clerics, and returned looking disappointed.

‘What’s wrong, Vic?’

‘Ruddy war spoils everything,’ he muttered. ‘I wanted to show you the copy of the Magna Carta, but he says it’s been removed for safekeeping along with all their other valuables.’

‘Why’s it so important?’

‘It’s one of only two known copies in the country, and it’s seven hundred years old. All our laws are based on it: the rights of individuals, the right to justice and the right to a fair trial. It’s one of the best things the English brought to India. That and trains.’

‘Crikey. I never knew all of that.’

‘And it’s those freedoms we’re fighting to protect,’ he said, with a small sigh.

‘We’ll just have to come back after the war to see it.’

‘Together, I hope. Now, are you feeling strong?’

‘Strong?’

‘Three hundred steps kind of strong?’

‘After all that square-bashing I could climb a mountain.’

Once they’d gathered their breath at the top of the tower, they could see for miles in every direction. The sun’s rays sliced between gaps in the gathering clouds, illuminating the patchwork of flat fenland fields below.

‘It reminds me of those religious paintings,’ Kath said. ‘When they’re trying to paint God’s divine light.’

‘I don’t think God’s got much to do with it,’ he said. ‘I’m afraid it’s just science: the rain falls, the sun comes out and evaporates it, clouds form and grow so they can’t hold the moisture any more, so it rains. And that lot over there,’ he said, pointing to the tallest clouds of all, lined up to the horizon like a fleet of ships, ‘are the ones our flyers fear the most.’

‘Why’s that?’

‘They bring thunderstorms.’ Even now, they could see stripes of rain falling from the dark underbelly of the clouds to the earth below. At that moment, they both noticed a rumbling noise. A deep vibration at first, and then louder.

‘Is that thunder?’

‘Doesn’t sound right.’

The sound was constant and growing.

‘Look.’ A shadow beneath the clouds grew larger until they could see that it was actually made out of dozens of individual dots. They were planes, squadron upon squadron of them, too far away to identify at first.