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exasperation behind her flippant comment, he sniffed the air and looked from the saucepan simmering on the stove to the table where she was rolling pastry. ‘If that’s one of your meat and potato pies, lucky Martin.’
    â€˜Judy told me you’re going over to her new flat tonight.’
    â€˜So?’ He looked quizzically at her.
    â€˜I’m sure she’ll make something for you.’
    â€˜You don’t know Judy, I’ll get fish and chips, and only if I go to the fish shop to fetch them.’ He watched as she opened the oven and took out an apple flan. ‘You enjoy torturing me, don’t you? You know that’s my favourite dessert. If your husband doesn’t appreciate you …’
    â€˜He does.’ She set the flan on a rack to cool.
    â€˜I’d give a week’s wages for a slice of that. And,’ he opened the fridge door, ‘I just knew it, real clotted cream.’
    â€˜Don’t you dare touch that bowl. And that flan is staying in one piece until Martin gets home.’
    â€˜You hard-hearted woman.’
    â€˜That’s me.’
    â€˜Can I at least smell it?’ He stood over the flan and sniffed theatrically.
    Relenting, she reached for a cake tin. ‘There are some rock buns in there that I made yesterday.’
    â€˜With sultanas and currants?’
    â€˜And candied peel.’
    â€˜If I get Judy to give me back my engagement ring, will you take it?’
    â€˜No.’
    â€˜That’s what I was afraid of.’ He opened the tin and took out a bun. ‘Any tea going?’
    She picked up the rolling pin and dusted it off with flour. ‘Only if you make it.’
    He lifted the kettle from the stove and carried it to the sink. ‘Has Judy taken everything from Helen’s to the flat?’
    â€˜Yes, but it’s not unpacked. She said you were going to help her do that tonight.’
    â€˜It’s not my idea of a perfect way to spend an evening but,’ he paused as he lit the gas hob and put the kettle on to boil, ‘what else can a man do when his woman gives him orders but obey?’
    â€˜You make it sound as though you’re Judy’s slave.’
    â€˜I am.’
    â€˜Poor, hard-done-by Sam.’
    â€˜You think I like living with Mike when he can’t even remember to buy the essentials?’
    â€˜You could try buying them yourself.’
    â€˜I do, sometimes,’ he qualified. ‘But I still have to do every single little thing for myself and it hurts when I come up here and see Martin’s whims, never mind needs, lovingly catered for by you. The man lives like a lord, eats like a king …’
    â€˜And works almost every hour God sends.’
    Although Lily had inherited the house from her aunt, Martin worked all the overtime he was offered in the council garage where he was employed as a mechanic. Sam had found that strange, until he realised that Martin felt he had to bring as much money home as he could because the house and furniture had been Lily’s, not his.
    â€˜We all work hard, even you in the bank.’ He lifted the teapot from a shelf, poured a little boiling water in it, and swirled it around to warm it.
    â€˜What do you mean, even me?’
    â€˜You’re a woman.’
    â€˜And women are?’
    â€˜Chattels and homemakers. Face it, Lily, you’re built to be men comforters.’
    â€˜If I were you, I wouldn’t say that around Judy, not even as a joke.’ Lifting the pastry from the table, she folded it over, eased it into the pie dish and patted it down.
    â€˜I don’t need the warning, I know my woman. Has she said anything to you about opening another salon?’
    â€˜Not since she opened the last one.’
    â€˜She won’t be happy until she has a dozen and maybe not even then.’ He poured milk into her cup. ‘No sugar, right?’
    â€˜Right.’ She took the tea he’d made her