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staring intently at him. In her hand she holds a lead, at the end of which is a black Labrador.
    â€˜No, Otto,’ the child says firmly to the dog. ‘You’re not allowed in. Stop pulling.’
    The dog sits down suddenly, floppy ears pricked forward as he watches someone inside, and Ben glances at the counter to see what has attracted its attention. A woman is standing there with her back to him. Between choosing and ordering she glances out at the girl and the dog and smiles encouragingly. Ben assesses that she’s probably early forties; thick blond hair wound into a casual knot, pretty profile, a long flowery skirt. The order completed, she goes outside, taking Otto’s lead and leading them towards a table under an umbrella.
    The child breaks away from them and comes back; waiting at the door, staring at Ben with an eager wistfulness that puzzles him. He smiles at her but makes no effort to encourage her. From the shop behind him another woman appears carrying a canvas bag full of groceries and vegetables. She stops, bending to speak to the child, who still looks at Ben. The woman glances round; her expression changing from a smiling motherly tenderness to irritation. She gives Ben an almost apologetic little smile, seizes the child’s hand and marches her away to the blonde woman and the dog, who wait for them at the table under the umbrella.
    It’s an odd little scene and Ben finishes his coffee watching them, glad that none of them is his responsibility, enjoying the luxury of being alone.
    Jemima Spencer puts the bowl of water, always available for visiting dogs, beside the table for Otto and sits down again with her friend Miranda beneath the umbrella. Maisie has taken a piece of cake and is sitting under the table with Otto, who watches each bite with close attention.
    â€˜Maisie’s driving me mad,’ mutters Miranda, ‘and now Dave’s dumped me. Honestly, Mimes, I am feeling completely bloody.’
    Jemima waits, sipping her coffee: it’s always a mistake to rush in where Miranda is concerned. If she is sympathetic Miranda will feel she is being patronized; if she is bracing, then Miranda will be aggrieved. It’s best simply to allow her to talk and get it out of her system. She met Miranda through a mutual friend, who has since moved away, and they’ve grown much closer with the friend’s departure but, just lately, Miranda has become rather needy; rather demanding. Nevertheless, Jemima has grown fond of her and of small Maisie. She respects Miranda’s commitment to her nursing work at the hospital, and she continues to attempt to support them with her friendship. She shifts so that she can concentrate, so that Miranda knows she has her whole attention.
    â€˜Of course, he and Maisie simply didn’t hit it off. I thought she might be pleased now that she’s got so fixated on this idea about her father turning up out of the blue. I wonder if I was right to tell her that he simply abandoned me when I told him I was pregnant. Did you see how she was staring at that poor chap in there? He looked rather nice, actually. Anyway, poor Dave simply couldn’t cope …’
    Jemima makes encouraging and sympathetic noises as the drama unfolds. There have been several Daves in the six years since Maisie’s father left but privately she wonders if it’s Miranda’s tendency to cling that frightens them off rather than Maisie’s behaviour. Miranda clings to her mother, to Maisie, to Jemima – and, when she meets a man that she really likes, she tends to come on a bit too strong too quickly. There is a neediness that is off-putting, combined with the slightly claustrophobic world that she has built around the two of them, which Maisie is beginning to challenge. Of course, Miranda’s nursing work keeps her busy, but her social life suffers because she is working shifts at the hospital, finding child-care for Maisie, running