Lying in bed now, waiting for sleep to claim her, Tess realised that she was no longer thinking of Jonty as a possible mate. Now he was simply her dearest and best friend, a young man for whom she would do anything in her power. Gran often said that she and Albert were just very, very good friends; well, that could apply equally to herself and Jonty, Tess thought; they were indeed very, very good friends. When the chips were down and storm clouds gathered it was to him that her thoughts turned, but that did not mean that they might become lovers. Satisfied that she had their relationship sorted out, Tess turned her face into her pillow and was drifting into that pleasant state between waking and sleeping when another thought occurred to her. Jonty had told her that Pamela Davies was a nurse, a sister in charge of a ward where her patients received intensive care, and that must mean that she was almost certainly older than Tess and indeed Jonty himself. Even in her sleepy state, Tess felt her mouth curve into a little smile. And it would do Jonty good to take orders now and then, instead of always being the one giving them. It will be grand to meet her at last, and forewarned is forearmed, Tess told herself just before she fell asleep. I wonder what she’ll think of me? She’ll be earning a proper salary, and she’ll be used to responsibility. She may despise me as a mere pet-shop girl. Or we may become firm friends, which would be nice. And if there was a little stab of pain at the thought of being just Jonty’s wife’s friend and having no other claim on him it soon passed, and Tess fell asleep at last.

Two days later Albert decided to chance his arm with Edie as soon as the opportunity arose. He often mentioned how well they got on together, how he enjoyed the practice which had now evolved of taking it in turns to cook Sunday lunch, how pleasant it was to finish off most days with cocoa and biscuits and a great deal of talk, either in Edie’s place or his own. When he had first hinted at marriage, however, Edie had slapped him down at once. Sitting behind the counter of the tobacconist shop now, Albert pulled a rueful face. Slapping him down was an unfair way of putting it because Edie was too kind to slap anyone down. She had merely said that whilst Tess was so dependent on her other relationships would always have to come second. She had explained, as though he did not already know it, that Tess desperately needed a family and that she, Gran, was all the family available.

‘But if you were to marry then Tess’s family would expand, wouldn’t you say?’ Albert had said hopefully, but Edie had shaken her head.

‘No, because Tess would feel that she had been supplanted and that we had shut her out. Oh, I know you’ll say her relationship with me would be quite separate from the relationship shared by us as a married couple, but that wouldn’t be how Tess would see it. She would see it as yet another rejection. It will be different when she has a man of her own.’