She felt Martin’s breathing upon her hand, a warm, rather comforting feeling. Then it stopped; he was holding his breath.

‘See anything?’ he asked.

‘Hold on. I’m just trying to see. Yes . . . Yes.’

‘Yes what? Are there any sodium rings?’

‘Yes. I think so. There are some white circles. I think those are sodium rings all right.’

She turned the torch off and stood back. Martin stared at her balefully.

‘What can I do?’

‘Eat less salt for starters.’

‘And?’

‘And the sodium rings should disappear.’ She paused. ‘But there were other things there.’

He looked at her in alarm. ‘Such as?’

‘Flecks. And quite a few yellow dots. I don’t know what those mean. I suppose we could look them up.’

They were interrupted by the arrival of the first customer of the morning. He wanted St John’s Wort and a bottle of Echinacea. Dee served him while Martin tidied the counter. Afterwards, when the customer had gone, Martin turned to her. His anxiety was evident.

‘Should I cut out salt altogether?’

She shrugged. ‘We need a certain amount of salt. If you cut out salt altogether you’d die. So maybe just a bit less.’

He nodded. There was a mirror in the washroom and he would have a quick look at his eyes in that. If he could see the sodium rings himself, then he could monitor his progress in getting rid of them.

‘It’s not the end of the world,’ said Dee reassuringly. ‘People live with sodium rings for a long time.’

‘And then they die?’

‘Maybe. But you’re not going to die, Martin. Not just yet. As long as you take sensible precautions.’

Martin looked thoughtful. ‘Supplements?’

Dee shook her head. She knew that Martin was already on a number of supplements - they all were - and probably needed nothing else. No, the yellow flecks she thought she had seen in his irises pointed to colon issues.