Free A Friend of the Family by Marcia Willett Page A

George was a kindly man, who would hate to hurt anyone’s—and especially a woman’s—feelings, Thea felt certain that she could trust him absolutely. However, she feared the effect that Felicity’s loneliness, un-happiness and residual power over him might have if she chose to exert it.
    Thea felt genuinely sorry for Felicity who, she imagined, had probably expected to marry George after Mark died. Now she was alone, middle-aged, her lover taken by a younger woman. As the woman in possession, as it were, Thea could afford to feel generous but she felt more than that. She would have liked to befriend Felicity but couldn’t decide if it were naïve or merely patronising to assume that it could be done. Now, these small incidents were beginning to make Thea wonder if Felicity was using her, Thea’s, innocence to come close again to George and she felt fearful and helpless. What could she do, so young and inexperienced, to hold her own against someone like Felicity? She couldn’t bear to think of losing George or to think that their happiness could be destroyed. She drew her feet up on to the seat and wrapped her arms around her knees, burying her face in them. What could she do to hold on to all that she had grown to love so much? Panic seized her and she wondered to whom she could turn. If only her cousin Tim, Hermione’s grandson, were not so far away. When she was a little girl Tim had been her hero and her champion, the big brother she’d never had, hauling her out of scrapes and taking her part when things went wrong. Later she had been his confidante, boosting his ego through unhappy love affairs. During the years when she had been nursing her mother, Tim had qualified and taken thehighly prestigious job in computer programming with a Dallas-based company. They stayed in touch and he had flown over for the wedding but he was too far away for Thea to confide in him as she had in years gone by.
    Instinctively she fell back on the teachings and habits of her young life and, emptying her mind of its confusion, tried to pray. The collect for the second Sunday in Lent seemed the most appropriate on which to concentrate.
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    Almighty God, who seest that we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves: Keep us both outwardly in our bodies, and inwardly in our souls; that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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    The words brought Thea a measure of comfort. After all, as yet her terrors were formless and she knew that she must have faith in George and in their love. Surely it was great enough to overcome anything that might threaten it? She sighed deeply, feeling more hopeful, and, getting up, turned her attention to the bedding plants.
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    SOME WEEKS LATER, CASS wandered down Tavistock High Street wondering what she should buy for supper. The boys, Oliver and Saul, and Gemma, her twelve-year-old daughter, were home for the holidays and the days seemed to pass in a continuous series of mealtimes. It was lucky that the weather had changed. Meals could be less formal and more haphazardly put together when it was hot. Then there was the lunch party that she and Tom were giving on Sunday to be organised. The usual crowd was coming: Abby and William, Harriet and Michael, Kate, Thea and George. Even as she thought about George, she saw Felicity on the other side of the road staring into the shoeshop window. Cass paused for a moment and then crossed the road and touched her on the shoulder.
    â€˜Hello, Felicity. How’s it going?’
    It was a moment or two before Felicity could grasp the intrinsic difference in Cass’s approach and when she did it was as if she had been struck a blow to the stomach. Never in all their acquaintance, since she and Cass had first met at Felicity’s own wedding and Mark and George had behaved so foolishly over