Chapter 1

Jane knew she was going to be friends with Elsie from that first morning when Elsie had knocked on her door to let her know she and George were moving into the flat across the landing.

And Tom had liked her too, and he got on well with George, although at 51 George was old enough to be Tom's father. He was, they had thought, a bit older than Elsie.

'Not what you would call good looking', Jane had mused after the pair of them had left that afternoon after a coffee-break in her kitchen, 'not with his rather big nose and his nearly bald head. But he's nice enough. He's interesting!' 'Yes', Jane had thought, 'he's interesting, all right! He gives me goose-pimples.But I'm not sure why?' And then she had felt guilty as she wondered what Tom would say if he knew that she had had such thoughts.

George wasn't that tall and his wide shoulders and leanness made him look smaller than he actually was. On the second occasion they met, this time, for a drink in Elsie and George's - Tom had had to explain that they were both teetotallers and Jane had wished that he had bent a bit and allowed a glass of wine - Jane found herself fascinated by his hands. Big they were, with long thick fingers. And his voice too, intrigued her. She could have listened to George all day. Not that he spoke a lot. In fact he was so soft spoken and quiet,

'Sometimes you forget he's there', Jane thought later, ' we all talk and laugh and then you look over and he's just sitting there looking at us with those big grey-green eyes and that hint of a smile.'

Jane found herself thinking a lot about George.

Elsie was so different. If he was quiet - which he was - she made up for him. Elsie could chatter all day long. And she had such a sense of humour. Always smiling and joking. Always with a story to tell. They complemented each other, Jane thought. George so quiet and calm, and her always chattering and laughing - and always touching him.

Jane noticed that, very soon after she and Tom started to spend time in their company. Elsie would rest her hand on George's thigh, in a kind of proprietorial way, as she bubbled away in conversation beside him. Or she would touch his hand or move against him. She seemed to be completely unaware of doing these things - they just seemed to happen whenever she was near him.

Once, in Tom and Jane's home when the four of them were sitting chatting and having a laugh together - George and Elsie had had a good deal of wine - and Elsie was talking in her usual animated way, she and Tom got into a head-to-head discussion.

As they rabbited on together, Jane had become aware of Elsie's hand resting, palm down, high up on George's thigh. The lighting in the room was turned down at the time but Jane could swear that she could see a large bulge in George's trousers as Elsie's hand slowly caressed his trouser leg, just there.

How long she looked she didn't know. She was held by the sight of the lump that seemed to move - or was it a trick of the light - under Elsie's hand. Until all at once she became aware that she had been staring for some time, and when she looked up she met George's eyes. Normally Jane would have been hugely embarrassed but those remarkable eyes of his did something to her, and that calm sort-of-serenity he gave out, it just seemed to soak all her confusion up and she found herself smiling back at him.

It was as if he was saying, 'Good! Isn't it' And later she had wondered why she and Tom didn't have that kind of easy way with each other. And she had felt rather envious...

... Jane stopped work on the book illustration and sat there at her desk, her chin resting on her cupped hands, elbows taking her weight on the desk, as she remembered the sense of wonder she'd felt as she had watched Elsie caressing George that time. And now, months later, she puzzled as to why she had felt that way.

She got up to put the kettle on and found herself thinking of some of the risque jokes Elsie had told. She herself had been embarrassed at first, feeling she ought to tell Elsie that she was a member of the local church - but she hadn't and instead she had found herself laughing at them.

But she had warned Elsie that Tom was very strait-laced and rather prudish. 'He's an elder in our church, Elsie' and Jane had added somewhat proudly 'he's the youngest elder we've ever had. But he's a bit old-fashioned about that sort of thing.'