‘He’s staying until tomorrow. I’ve got his number – I’m sure he won’t mind me giving it to you.’

‘Great. I’ll keep you updated.’

He ends the call and Lorna joins Saffy in the kitchen. She’s staring into the fridge. ‘We’ve run out of milk. Again. How are we getting through so much?’ she wails.

‘I’m sorry,’ says Lorna, remembering. ‘I used the rest of it for my coffee this morning. Why don’t you go back to bed? I’ll pop to the village and get some more.’ She rubs her daughter’s arm, the velour soft like a teddy bear under her fingers. ‘I’ll make something nice for dinner tonight. Something nutritious.’

‘Thanks, Mum. Would you mind taking Snowy with you?’

Lorna agrees and watches as Saffy pads down the hall and up the stairs, like she’s got the weight of the world on her shoulders.

Lorna is coming out of the corner shop clutching a plastic bag when she bumps into Melissa.

‘Lovely to see you again,’ she says, smiling brightly at Lorna. She has a pair of reading glasses on a chain around her neck. Lorna wonders what it must be like, living in the same village for all of your life. She’s not even been here two weeks and she’s already starting to feel oppressed.

‘After meeting you the other day I’ve been thinking a lot.’ Melissa lowers her voice as she leans on her stick. ‘About Rose. And Daphne . . .’

‘Oh, yes?’ Lorna tries not to get her hopes up. It was nearly forty years ago. What could Melissa remember that would be useful?

‘Would you like to come for a cup of tea? My cottage is only down there, by the river.’ Beside the market cross she can hear a toddler crying and a woman’s voice, coaxing.

‘That would be lovely,’ she says. She senses that Melissa is probably lonely and wants a trip down Memory Lane. It will give Saffy and Tom some time to themselves. And she’d like to know more about what her mother was like when she was younger. As well as the mysterious Daphne. She needs a distraction until she meets up with Theo and Jen later.

‘Do you mind dogs?’ she asks, untying Snowy’s lead from the lamppost. ‘He’s my daughter’s.’

‘Of course not.’ Melissa hitches her carpet bag over her shoulder. She walks slowly, resting heavily on her stick. They cross the little bridge and follow the river for a bit, Snowy stopping to sniff the trunk of a weeping willow, until they get to a row of cottages at the opposite end of the village to Saffy’s house. Melissa’s cottage is smaller, terraced, but with the same Cotswold stone and all of the character that Lorna has come to expect from properties in Beggars Nook.