u/Charming-Search4497

I'm looking for an obscure book. There's two english blokes, one of them skinny and one of them well built. They work in what I believe was a shipyard. It's set in the 'olden days,' but I don't know when exactly, but it sounded industrial. The well built fellow had a wife, and the skinny guy secretly loved her. I remember they went to a hotel/pub type establishment, and got a room for night together. The barmaid 'pulled the big toe' of the well built bloke when they were both asleep and he had an affair, and the skinny bloke was dreaming of the other's wife. This is in the very first chapter - I didn't read past it (I just picked it up on the tube years ago). I think the author was a woman, but I'm not 100% sure.