Somewhere Beyond Reproach by Tim Jeal Read Free Book Online Page A

don’t see what’s so funny about that, Andrew.’
    I wondered if she meant the remark or the face I had made.
    ‘Do you always wear bow ties?’ he asked out of the blue.
    ‘Why, do you think I do?’
    ‘I asked you.’
    Inevitably Granny didn’t let these beginnings of familiarity pass easily:
    ‘I don’t think you ought to speak to Mr Cramb like that.’
    ‘No, he’s quite right, he did ask me,’ I said in his defence. I turned to him: ‘Because I think I look smart in them.’ I puffed out my chest and stuck out my jaw in an absurdly sartorial gesture as I said this.
    Again he giggled. Mrs Lisle was not going to intervene again.
    ‘My mother says that bow ties are “poncy”.’
    Sure enough, the first genuine smile of the afternoon from Granny.
    ‘Did she think Winston Churchill poncy?’ I asked.
    ‘I never asked.’
    ‘You haven’t a clue what the word means,’ Mrs Lisle cut in as soon as she saw that I was unaffected by the sudden mention of her daughter in such a context.
    ‘Yes I have.’
    ‘Well I’m sure we don’t want to hear.’
    ‘So there,’ I said quietly to Andrew, who coughed loudly in answer.
    ‘Do you go out to the cinema in the evening with your grandson when he’s here?’ I asked Mrs Lisle.
    ‘They don’t finish till after his bedtime,’ she replied testily.
    It really hadn’t been too hard to make Granny into a terrible old spoilsport.
    ‘What do you like seeing best?’
    Andrew thought for a moment. Then, avoiding Mrs Lisle’s eye:
    ‘Battles, I think.’
    ‘You saw The Living Desert with me and you thoroughly enjoyed it.’
    ‘I still like battles.’
    Mrs Lisle glowered. I smiled as I said:
    ‘I don’t mind a good Western myself.’
    I hoped Granny was going to say there was quite enoughviolence in the world already. Instead she asked me if I was ready for my final cup of tea. There wasn’t a lot of time left.
    ‘When are you here next?’ I asked Andrew, praying that he’d answer before Mrs Lisle interrupted.
    ‘All next weekend.’
    I ignored his grandmother’s cold grey eyes as she stared at me.
    ‘Perhaps your Granny wouldn’t mind if I took you to a film.’
    ‘I think that’s up to his mother.’
    ‘I would have thought she trusted your judgement while he’s with you.’
    I didn’t think she was going to reply. I could see her breathing quicken with her anger.
    ‘I don’t care what you would have thought. It’s hardly for you to show me the extent of my authority.’
    ‘Do you remember my last visit?’
    She looked anxiously at Andrew. Hoping that I would be decent enough to take the hint.
    ‘I don’t see what that has to do with today.’
    I’d got her and knew it. If she didn’t consent to my taking him to the cinema I could go on about the past.
    ‘I want to show that I don’t resent what happened.’
    Andrew, who had been eating a sandwich and pretending not to listen, now looked at us with unashamed curiosity. Mrs Lisle saw this.
    ‘Granny wouldn’t mind your going.’ She smiled at Andrew, who heaved an excessive sigh of relief.
    ‘What time?’ I asked at once.
    ‘How about Saturday afternoon, Granny?’
    ‘You’d better collect him at two.’
    ‘I shall.’
    Mrs Lisle looked at me through narrowed eyes. She, like me, tended to believe that few people do something for nothing. I wasn’t going to give her a chance to get me alone before I left.
    ‘I must be getting along.’
    I slapped my thighs heartily and got up. My good spiritswere not infectious. Mrs Lisle picked up her plate and cup and saucer without giving me a look. I made my own way over to the door.
    ‘Andrew will see you out.’
    In the hall I winked at him and pressed the Cambodian envelope into his hand. I had left before he could thank me.
    In the driving seat of the car I looked back at the house. Andrew was watching me from the front ground-floor window . I was glad I had brought my large car.

Seven
    I wish that I could say that this second quest for