“And what would that be when it was at home?” asked Mrs. Owens, eyeing the yellow and brown object suspiciously.

“It’s a banana. A fruit, from the tropics. I believe you peel off the outer covering,” said Silas, “like so.”

The child—Nobody—wriggled in Mrs. Owens’s arms, and she let it down to the flagstones. It toddled rapidly to Silas, grasped his trouser-leg and held on.

Silas passed it the banana.

Mrs. Owens watched the boy eat. “Ba-na-na,” she said, dubiously. “Never heard of them. Never. What’s it taste like?”

“I’ve absolutely no idea,” said Silas, who consumed only one food, and it was not bananas. “You could make up a bed in here for the boy, you know.”

“I’ll do no such thing, with Owens and me having a lovely little tomb over by the daffodil patch. Plenty of room in there for a little one. Anyway,” she added, concerned that Silas might think she was rejecting his hospitality, “I wouldn’t want the lad disturbing you.”

“He wouldn’t.”

The boy was done with his banana. What he had not eaten was now smeared over himself. He beamed, messy and apple-cheeked.

“Narna,” he said, happily.

“What a clever little thing he is,” said Mrs. Owens. “And such a mess he’s made! Why, attend, you little wriggler…” and she picked the lumps of banana from his clothes and his hair. And then, “What do you think they’ll decide?”

“I don’t know.”

“I can’t give him up. Not after what I promised his mama.”

“Although I have been a great many things in my time,” said Silas, “I have never been a mother. And I do not plan to begin now. But I can leave this place…”

Mrs. Owens said simply, “I cannot. My bones are here. And so are Owens’s. I’m never leaving.”

“It must be good,” said Silas, “to have somewhere that you belong. Somewhere that’s home.” There was nothing wistful in the way he said this. His voice was drier than deserts, and he said it as if he were simply stating something unarguable. Mrs. Owens did not argue.