Benny nodded, reflecting on her conversation with Smith earlier on. ‘I’ll bet.’ She bit her lip, wondering if she should ask the question that had been nagging at her mind for the last few minutes. She reached out and took the Doctor’s hand between hers. ‘Listen, you know I’ve been going through it a bit in the last few weeks. Do I… does everything… turn out all right for me? I’d like to know. Can you tell me?’

The fair-haired man took a deep breath, and the look in his eyes scared her terribly.

‘Benny⁠ —’

‘No! Actually, I don’t want to know, I’ve changed my mind. Don’t tell me. Please.’

Benny raised her arms in a pacifying gesture. ‘I think I could do with that pint now.’

‘Benny, relax, nothing terrible happens to you. The last time I saw you, you had, oh, six husbands and three children, and were enjoying being first lady of the court of Cartufel, at the galactic core.’

Benny laughed in relief. ‘Six husbands? Really? Goodness, at least I get Sundays off.’

The man laughed with her. He had a pleasant chuckle. ‘Would you like to meet my new companion?’

‘Of course. Are they here?’

‘She’s round the back, in the beer garden, playing on the climbing frame.’

Benny raised an eyebrow. ‘I think this is going to make me feel very old.’

Aphasia had indeed been playing on the climbing frame in the otherwise deserted beer garden, her balloon tied to her wrist, but then she’d noticed something: a little wooden table on a pole, with bread laid out on it. A sparrow fluttered down, took a bit of the bread in its beak and flew away.

So Aphasia had taken the bread, put it on the other end of the wooden table where she was sitting, and stared at it, ready. The sparrow had bravely returned for more bread. A few minutes later, Benny came round the corner of the pub, clutching the pint that her new friend had bought her. He walked with her, having refilled his glass of wine. ‘Aphasia, say hello to an old companion of mine, Bernice Summerfield.’

Aphasia made a face, and Benny laughed, sitting down at the table beside her.

‘You’ve got a mouthful of crisps, haven’t you? Just like me. I was always told not to eat so⁠ —’

A feather sneaked out from Aphasia’s lips. She licked it quickly back in.

‘Fast…’ Benny stared at the semi-dissected bird that lay on the seat beside the little girl.

‘Aphasia! How many times have I told you not to do that!’ The man in white shielded the bird from Benny’s gaze with his boater. ‘I’m terribly sorry. She’s a little hunter, from one of the lost colonies. Her parents are dead. She survived in the wild until I found her. I’m gradually teaching her the ways of civilization.’