‘Oh.’ Marion was completely taken aback. In all her innocent, yet frequent imaginings of him, this was a scenario she had not thought of. Why hadn’t she? He was an older man who must have had a past, but she had felt that he and she were the same. Uncomplicated. Unblemished by the dirtier side of life.

It seemed she was wrong.

‘Have I shocked you?’ He turned briefly to look at her before returning his eyes to the road.

‘Not at all.’ She raised her eyebrows with a quick smile. ‘So you were … married before?’

‘I should have listened to Bailey. He saw that she was wrong for me straight away. But I was foolish and the war had just ended. My parents were not the affectionate kind, and Ena – well, she was a ray of sunshine after the trenches. We were happy for a couple of years but I began to realize that she was a sick woman.’

‘Oh dear,’ Marion said, desperate to know more about this woman who had, out of the blue, cast a shadow over any future she might have with George. If she had a future … She felt angry, cheated and possibly jealous.

‘Not physically ill – it was in her mind. Made her very difficult to live with. And jealous. I couldn’t go anywhere or see anybody without her throwing things at me when I got home. She accused me of all sorts. Women, drink, the lot. Then one day, I came home to find she’d put all my clothes outside the front door and locked me out. I went round the back, looked through the kitchen window and …’ His voice began to waver and he coughed to clear it.

Marion remained silent and alert.

‘She, er … she was lying on the floor with her head in the gas oven.’

Marion held her hand to her mouth. ‘My God, how terrible.’

‘I saved her, thankfully, but the doctors took her to hospital and after six months or so, they advised that she should stay there, for her own safety. And that I should divorce her, forget about her and find some happiness before I was too old.’

Marion was stunned. ‘How dreadful.’

‘I expect you think I was a coward.’ He looked over at her. She had opened the small side window and the wind was pulling her hair.

‘I think that must have taken a lot of courage,’ she said.

‘I shouldn’t have just blurted that out but sometimes … it was just so awful and Bailey pulled me through it all. There was a time when I … I thought my life wasn’t worth living. He saved me.’

‘Oh, George.’ Without thinking, she placed her hand on his leg. ‘Your poor man.’

He took his left hand from the steering wheel and put it on top of hers, holding it tight.

‘I’m sorry.’

Without hesitation she responded, ‘Nothing to be sorry for.’

‘Thank you. You are a wonderful girl, Marion.’