Thea found Toby extremely useful in the supermarket. He knew what he and his father liked to eat, and was good at finding things, like fresh orange juice and Greek yoghurt for Molly and Petal, and croissants for Thea who felt she deserved a treat. ‘He’s a very efficient shopper,’ she said to Ben as Toby spotted the dog food aisle and ran off.

‘We neither of us like it much, so we get it done quickly.’

Thea didn’t usually like shopping much either, but she had been enjoying this amble round an unfamiliar shop, looking at the different things that were available in Ireland. ‘Oh, look,’ she said, her spirits dampened by Ben’s lack of pleasure, ‘cooked chickens. I’ll get one for lunch.’

The dog food in the supermarket deemed inappropriate by Ben, they found a shop selling everything any farmer could want, from barbed wire to Barbour jackets. It also sold large bags of dog food, one of which was ‘for nursing bitches’.

Toby and Thea found dried pigs’ ears, looking pathetically like their undried origins. Suddenly remembering that Toby was a vegetarian, Thea wished she hadn’t drawn his attention to them.

‘Sorry, Toby, I forgot you didn’t eat meat, you probably think these are gross.’

‘It’s all right. I don’t like meat myself, but Dad has explained that if no one ate it there’d be no animals in fields and stuff.’

‘Quite right. Shall we get one of these for Lara?’

‘Yeah. She deserves a treat. But what if she doesn’t like pigs’ ears?’

‘I expect she will,’ said Ben. ‘Shall we go? Our parking ticket will run out.’

‘And the others will be up and starving,’ added Thea.

‘And Lara,’ Toby reminded them.

Just for a moment Thea wished the others and Lara didn’t exist, and the three of them could poke around the pretty riverside town at their leisure. Although Ben would probably hate it.

There had been a slight tussle at the checkout. Ben had got out his wallet, assuming he was going to pay, but Thea had got in first. Her argument was that as they were all there because of her, the least she could do was buy breakfast. Ben had regarded her as if she were a rare species that he’d heard about but never thought to see. While this gave Thea a warm feeling for a moment, she reflected later that he would probably brand her a rampant feminist and cross his fingers whenever he saw her.