He took up his spoon. ‘Am I allowed to say you’ll make a great witch?’ he asked his daughter gravely. ‘Or would that be rude?’

Josie clambered onto the chair next to his, giggles bursting from her like musical bubbles on the air. ‘Witches are cool, Daddy. Tilly’s going to buy me a long black cloak, too. And a little broomstick.’

He smiled to see her sparkling eyes. ‘Fantastic. After trick or treating on Saturday I’m taking you to Mum’s and she’ll be able to see you as a witch too.’

‘Am I staying overnight?’ Josie frowned as if trying to remember.

‘That’s the plan,’ he agreed. Loren owned a flat a ten-minute walk away. Maria’s father played no part in Maria’s life other than to pay minimal child support but Loren had inherited from her grandparents in time to buy a place for her and Maria. Just as well, as Nico was stretched enough meeting an Islington mortgage originally based on the earning power of two. The cost of a nanny, even if not full-time, was crippling, and the household bills were like boulders on his shoulders.

‘Can I come home, instead?’ Josie asked, tiny lines still puckering the space between her soft eyebrows.

Nico hesitated, trying to sense what was behind the question. Checking whether Nico wanted her around? Prodding boundaries? Did she not want to visit her mother? It wouldn’t be the first time and while he hoped it came from a wish to be in two places at one time his radar always beeped in case there was more to it. ‘Don’t you want to go?’ He made it a casual question, hoping for a genuine reaction.

‘Yeah, if Maria will still be up,’ Josie said, after a moment. Having tested the Weetabix had reached perfect sogginess, she scooped the first spoonful.

‘I don’t know Maria’s bedtime.’ Nico crunched granola, reflecting that Josie was a better example to him than he was to her, eating-wise.

She wrinkled her small brow. ‘I think it depends on how Mummy’s feeling. Maria always wants to share my room.’

‘Do you like that?’ Nico knew that Maria was a good sleeper and eater because, during civilised conversations as Nico picked Josie up or dropped her off, Loren would droop and sigh and murmur, ‘It’s a good job Maria’s an easy child or I don’t know what I’d do.’

He’d murmur, ‘Yes, good job.’ What was the point of observing acidly that her choices had put her in her current situation of bringing up Maria alone and being glad to let him have the major responsibility for Josie?