They were nine by then.

I had two junior officer badges in my pocket — the tin ones we hand out at school visits, which cost the department about a dollar ten each and which I had signed out of the supply cupboard entirely properly, because I was not going to end thirty-one years on a stationery discrepancy.

I got down on one knee, which took longer than it used to, and pinned one on each of them.

Delilah was delighted in the uncomplicated way of a nine-year-old and immediately went to show it to somebody.

Charlotte looked at hers for a while.

Then she said: “Is this because of the thing?”