“She has some case she wants him to look into, and he agreed to that, too. Apparently, her husband has run off with a graduate student, and instead of saying serves her right, he feels sorry for her.” Pausing, she sipped at her coffee and winced as it scalded her mouth.

“Do I take it he told you about this beforehand?” asked Hazel, brows lifting. “That he intended seeing her?”

“Well, he couldn’t very well help it, could he? I was there when she rang.” Reluctantly, Gemma added, “Although… I suppose he did ask me to go with him.”

“You suppose?” Hazel asked, amused. “And I suppose you climbed on your high horse and refused?”

“I’d promised Toby we’d visit Mum and Dad today. You know how they look forward to our coming.” It sounded a weak excuse to Gemma even as she said it-she could have easily postponed the visit a week.

Hazel didn’t offer any encouragement. “So who are you really angry with, him or her?”

“Her, of course,” said Gemma, incensed. “Of all the nerve, after the way she treated him.” She raised her cup to her lips again, more gingerly this time, then stopped as she saw Hazel’s expression. “Oh, all right. I’m bloody furious with him, if you want to know. He was such a pig about it. He said I didn’t know anything, and he more or less told me to mind my own business.”

Hazel took a bite of strudel and chewed it. “Well, what do you know about their marriage?”

Gemma shrugged and went back to flaking off bits of strudel with her fork. “Just that she left him without a word.”

“Has he said why?”

“He said it was because he worked too much and didn’t pay her enough attention,” Gemma admitted grudgingly.

“So if he’s not blaming her-what’s her name? Victoria?-then why are you? Surely you don’t wish she hadn’t left him?” Hazel grinned impishly. “Then you might have some real competition.”