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interesting jobs I've ever tackled. I like having Commonwealth backing too. It's the sort of thing we ought to be doing to help the poorer members in the Third World, not making the gap ever wider between us. One day we'll pay for our greed and stupidity in the West if we don't do a great deal more of this sort of thing.' His golden eyes mocked her. 'One way or another, the selfish always pay in the end, or hadn't you noticed?'
    Georgina's mouth trembled, betraying her hurt. 'Isn't there a parable about removing the beam from your own eye before you attempt the mote in your neighbour's? It could have been meant for you!'
    He laughed out loud. It was a great gust of mirth that made her want to join in. 'My word, you never give in, do you?' The words ended in another bout of hilarity. 'Who ever would have thought the elder Perry girl had so much to her? Yet perhaps I should have guessed. You have a passionate mouth and enough fire in your belly for any man to handle. I wonder why I never noticed it before?'
    Georgina made a face at him. 'My virtues will fade like candlelight before the sun when next you see Jennifer, no doubt. You can keep your compliments to yourself! I don't want to hear them!'
    He kissed her lightly on the cheek. 'Jealous?' he asked in an intimate, deep murmur. 'You don't like it that I kissed Jennifer first, do you? Never mind, my sweet, at least you have the comfortable knowledge that from now on it will be you I'll be kissing.'
    'Without love—'
    'Love is only the icing on the cake,' he cut her off, his good humour gone. 'A good cake doesn't need to be covered in sentimental nonsense. It matures with time and never goes stale.'
    'Cut and come again?' Georgina suggested wryly. 'That would never suit Jennifer, I'm afraid. She has a very sweet tooth.'
    'It isn't Jennifer who has to be suited. All that matters on this occasion is what sort of a cake are you?'
    Georgina thought she knew. A badly baked fruit cake that had sagged in the middle was how she felt. She could only hope that William would choke over one of the half cooked crumbs!
    CHAPTER THREE
    Georgina studied her husband sitting in the seat next door to hers, but the dreadful unreality of the day refused to go away. Not even the solid bulk of William's body could make her believe she had given way and had actually said the words that morning that had transformed her into being his legal wife.
    She would have held out if Peter hadn't betrayed her so thoroughly and with such a lack of subtlety that she still cringed when she thought about it. He had completely ignored her frantic signals that she would explain matters to him later. With a stupidity she had found deplorable, he had willingly confessed to William that he had no romantic interest whatsoever in Georgina Perry.
    'We're just good friends,' he had said. Georgina had told him afterwards that he might have found something more original to say than that, but her erstwhile suitor had merely looked hurt and puzzled and quite definitely lacking in push.
    'But, Georgie, you know we don't feel that way about each other,' he had defended himself.
    'I know,' she had agreed on a sigh. 'I would much sooner that William hadn't known, though. If I don't look out, the wretched fellow really will make me marry him!'
    Peter had been embarrassed. 'How can he unless you let him?' he asked unanswerably.
    Georgina still didn't know how he had done it, but the gold band on her finger refused to go away no matter how often she tried to blink it out of sight. There was no doubt about it, in the eyes of the law and in the sight of men she had been transmogrified into Mrs. William Ayres and it felt as though the whole bottom had fallen out of her world with a vengeance.
    And vengeance had been what it was all about. She was too honest with herself to pretend that William's first judgment of her had changed to liking in the past few weeks. Far from it. If anything, he seemed to dislike her more now than ever. She