And when I was old enough to understand what she’d done, I asked her about it, and she told me something I’ve thought about every week since.” Rosamund turned back.

“She said: ‘Children don’t need a rescue.

They need somebody who’s still there on Thursday.'”

Chadworth Prescott put his hand over his eyes.

“So I stayed,” Rosamund said.

“That’s all it was.

I don’t need it to be more than that, sir.

And you shouldn’t either, because if you make it into something heroic then it becomes rare, and it isn’t.