First Friends by Marcia Willett Read Free Book Online

into the growing light of early morning and clenched her stomach muscles. The water trickled on.
    â€˜Hell’s teeth!’ she said softly.
    C ASS, DRESSED IN A flowery cotton smock and wearing a floppy linen hat on her fair head, strolled along the esplanade at Stoke’s Bay watching the holiday makers. She especially watched the very young children, enjoying their absorbed concentration on their games and the way they moved about.
    They’re like little clockwork toys, she thought. What fun it will be to have one of my own! I’m glad that Kate and I are having them atthe same time. If we have girls they can go to St Audrey’s together.
    She smiled to herself at the thought and then paused. Did she recognise the girl sitting on a huge striped towel rubbing sun lotion into her thin brown arms? Surely it was the one who had married Mark Main-waring. Cass and Tom had been invited to the wedding and George Lampeter had been best man. Cass racked her brains for a moment before she remembered that the girl’s name was Felicity. She also remembered that she had appeared to be totally lacking in humour and charm and if she had been like that on her wedding day she was unlikely to prove a congenial companion. Nevertheless, she was now a naval wife and if Mark had gone to sea his wife might be lonely. Cass made her way down the steps and across the shingly sand.
    â€˜Hi!’ she said. ‘Felicity, isn’t it? I’m Cass Wivenhoe. We met at your wedding. Not that I’d expect you to remember. Tom’s a very good friend of your Mark. How is he? I didn’t realise that you were here already.’
    Felicity Mainwaring, shielding her eyes from the sun, gazed up at Cass.
    â€˜Yes, I remember.’ She recalled, amongst other things, that Mark and George Lampeter had behaved in a very silly manner with Cass. They’d kissed her and flattered her outrageously and left Felicity quite out in the cold. Not what a bride expects at her own wedding. ‘I remember,’ she repeated, rather flatly, surveying Cass’s bump. ‘How are you?’ She did not invite Cass to share her towel.
    Cass flopped down anyway, obliging Felicity to draw back her thin legs.
    â€˜I’m fine. Gosh, it’s hot, isn’t it?’ She pulled off her linen hat and fanned herself with it. ‘Poor old Kate must be feeling it. She’s much bigger than I am. Any day now I should think. Do you remember Kate? She’s married to another Mark and she came with us. Mark Webster. He’s another friend of your Mark.’ She giggled. ‘We’ll have to call them Mark I and Mark II. Where are you living?’
    â€˜We’ve managed to get a naval hiring in Privett Road. Quite nice, actually. A thirties semi with a good garden.’
    â€˜Oh, I know. What they call in Alverstoke “one of a pair.” I shall come and visit. Is Mark at sea?’
    â€˜Yes,’ said Felicity, quickly. ‘He sailed yesterday.’
    â€˜Well, don’t be lonely. I’m in the village. Want to come back and have some lunch?’
    â€˜No,’ said Felicity, after a tiny pause. ‘No thanks. Not today. I’ve brought lunch with me and I want to make the most of the sun.’ Her eyes ranged over Cass’s pale, pearly flesh. ‘Must be infuriating not to be able to sunbathe.’ She glanced complacently at her own tanned limbs.
    â€˜Not a bit,’ said Cass cheerfully, getting to her feet. ‘Nanny brought me up to think that it was terribly common. Don’t want to end up looking like an old leather saddle. Pale and interesting—that’s me! Really pulls the chaps. See you around. ‘Bye.’
    She pulled on her hat, waggled her fingers and made her way back across the beach. Felicity watched her proud, graceful progress, noticed the covert admiring glances—despite the lump—and gnashed her teeth. She thought of all the things that she might