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guess what it is.’
    â€˜What?’ Cass negotiated the lights and crossings of Mutley Plain with care.
    Tom waited until she was through the worst before he spoke.
    â€˜George is getting married.’
    â€˜Good God! So she’s got him at last. Well, it’s not all that amazing, darling. It was only a question of time once Mark died. I’m only surprised that they waited this long.’
    â€˜Aha! But that’s the whole point. He’s not marrying Felicity.’
‘What?
’
    â€˜Careful! You nearly had that cyclist. You’ll never believe it. Itseems that he went on leave to see his old mum and met this girl at some friend’s house. He’s fallen for her, hook, line and sinker.’
    Cass drove for some moments, grappling with this information while Tom observed the effect of his news with immense satisfaction.
    â€˜Incredible, isn’t it?’
    Cass shook her head. ‘Felicity will never let him,’ she said at last. ‘She’ll kill him first. Don’t tell me she knows about it?’
    â€˜No, she doesn’t. And poor old George is like a cat on a hot tin roof.’ Tom chuckled. ‘Poor old boy. I couldn’t help feeling sorry for him. He’s absolutely shit-scared that she’s going to find out. He’s sworn me to secrecy.’
    â€˜How stupid. Of course she’ll find out. What an idiot he is. Why did he tell you if he’s so scared?’
    â€˜He wants me to be best man,’ explained Tom. ‘So I had to know. Which means you have to know. But he trusts us both not to breathe a word to another soul. He’s asking one or two others to the wedding and swearing them to secrecy, too.’
    Cass burst out laughing. ‘Oh, honestly, Tom. What a farce! Only George could imagine that he’ll get away with it. What’s he going to do? Carry on with Felicity as if nothing’s happened until the eve of the wedding and then send her a little note thanking her for her kind hospitality which will no longer be required?’
    â€˜He’s not seeing her at all. He’s told her that he’s been sent away on some top-secret stuff and hopes to keep a low profile until the wedding’s over. He thinks that it will be too late then for her to put a spoke in the wheel.’
    Cass laughed then in earnest. She laughed so much that Tom found himself laughing with her between his admonishments to watch her driving.
    â€˜Top secret!’ she said, when finally she could speak and they were driving through Roborough. ‘I’ve heard it all now. If he thinks that Felicity will believe that then he’s even more of a twit than I realised.She’ll hunt him down in no time. And the girl. Who is she? Do we know her?’
    Tom shook his head. ‘She’s not local. Her name’s Thea and she’s only twenty-three, apparently. Old George is like a dog with two tails.’
    â€˜Dear God! If Felicity finds her she’ll eat her alive. It’s too bad of George. God knows, I can’t stand Felicity, but I think he should have told her the truth. I think she deserves that after twenty-odd years.’
    Tom looked uncomfortable. Manlike, he felt that if Felicity had been prepared to deceive her husband all those years, she deserved what was coming to her at the end of it. He felt that George had a perfect right to marry whom he wished and if a charming and attractive girl twenty years his junior was prepared to take him on then good luck to him. He had sympathised openly with George and encouraged him. He shifted a little in his seat and Cass glanced at him.
    â€˜I suppose you urged him on,’ she said, accurately assessing his discomfort. ‘Well, I can’t really say that I blame you. I simply think that it will be worse for George when Felicity finds out he’s lying and deceiving her than if he’d told her the truth. But either way he hasn’t got a hope. Poor George.