‘Are they really married?’ Claud asked Mavis, who stood now beside him, buttoned into an overcoat several sizes too large.

‘Common law,’ said Mavis. ‘Come on.’

Laura, rising from the dentist’s chair in the surgery across the street where she had been having her teeth scaled and polished, watched Claud take Mavis’ arm as they stepped out of the wine bar. ‘You certainly see local life from your window, Mr Owen.’

‘I haven’t time,’ said the dentist, ‘or the inclination. See you again in six months, Miss Thornby. Next,’ he said into the intercom.

‘You miss a lot,’ said Laura, ignoring his rudeness.

‘Ah, well.’ He was impatient to see her go.

And what am I missing? Laura speculated as she descended the stairs. What have I missed, she questioned as she wrapped her coat round her against the cold wind, swung her scarf round her neck as she stood on the dentist’s doorstep. Far down the street she could see Claud’s fair head lean towards Mavis’ orange aureole as they broke into a trot to avoid an oncoming car. She turned to walk in the opposite direction, lengthening her stride. I wonder why he is against fish. What would Freud say? More to the point, what do I say? She smiled as she thought that there was really no need for her to miss anything.

Brian and Susie, passing her in their battered old Land-Rover, waved, assuming that Laura’s smile was for them.

‘Found yourself a toy boy?’

Laura, turning, stood nose to nose with Nicholas Thornby who, softly shod, had crept up behind her.

‘Looking at you, dear Nicholas,’ she answered at a tangent, ‘I can see what I shall look like when I am really old.’ She stepped back a pace to observe him better. ‘A trim figure, not too wrinkled but pretty thin on top,’ she said, amused that he should bother to jerk his stomach in for her, a reflex action.

‘You’ll be so lucky, your mother and I are uniquely preserved. But who is the boy? He’s pretty,’ Nicholas persisted.

‘Claud Bannister.’

‘Margaret Bannister’s boy? He used to be so spotty, I didn’t recognise him.’

‘Ever beautiful, you must have had your share of acne in your day? I know I did.’

‘It’s too far back to remember. Why are you taking him up? I saw you with him in the market. You don’t usually go for lame dogs.’

‘Does he look lame?’ Laura wrapped her scarf tighter against the icy wind. ‘Rather than live on the dole, he’s going to run a junk stall in the market,’ she said.

‘How laudable.’ Nicholas’ tone indicated doubt.

‘I thought I’d offer him a look round the Old Rectory attics, it’s high time some of the debris was cleared out.’

‘You may have to ask Emily’s and my permission.’

‘I shall, perhaps.’

‘I don’t know what Emily will say.’

‘She will ask if it’s in a good cause and if it’s not, she’ll be glad of a clearance.’