Heather was saying goodbye to her customer, a young woman with a lot of shopping bags, who looked rather flustered, and Alison waited until they had shaken hands and the woman was on her way out of the door.

"So she didn't return it."

Heather gave a quick, perfunctory smile. "Well, not on the right day, anyway."

She waved Alison into the chair and tidied away the papers from the previous customer.

Alison glanced around at the customers standing around perusing ...