Such Men Are Dangerous by Stephen Benatar Read Free Book Online Page B

things. Because, although I talk of change, what I really mean is liberation.” Or am I waffling, he thought.
    Josh now stretched out his legs, lifting them off the ground a little; then crossed them at the ankles.
    “Can you liberate people into a sense of humour?” he asked, lazily.
    Simon stood up. “Yes, I believe so; if that’s something truly basic to a full life.”
    “Oh, it is. Let me assure you. It is.”
    “You’re the authority, are you?”
    Josh laughed. “Now that was a very underhand remark.” He applied to his sons, still sitting on the sofa. “Would you two call a jibe like that quite worthy of our vicar?”
    Simon had forgotten the presence of the boys and felt a little awkward at having, however indirectly, discussed their mother in front of them. Now, as he took his leave, he promised that he’d keep them posted. “And before long you’ll be able to bore everybody rigid with every detail of all this. But not yet, remember.” In the tiny hallway he called goodbye to Dawn. She came to the kitchen door, with a polite smile and a word of thanks but in a rather subdued manner. “Cheer up,” said Josh. “Your children are going to make history and I think you’ve found yourselves the perfect champion.”
    He stood with Simon for a minute on the stairs outside the flat.
    “I meant that. A knight-errant in shining armour, riding into battle on a milk-white charger. ‘A verray parfit gentil knight.’”
    Simon pulled a face. “Heaven forbid!”
    “Heaven forbid what? That people should regard you in that light?”
    “That I should regard me in that light.”
    “Oh, but, surely…an occupational hazard? One of the perks of the profession?”
    “No, I don’t think so. Not if you know yourself even half as well as you ought to.” In trying to escape one aspect of smugness, however, he had merely ended up with another.
    “Anyway, at least you haven’t made any serious effort to convert me , for which I’m duly grateful.”
    Simon was by now at the bottom of the flight of stairs immediately below the flat; the Heaths lived on the first floor. He raised a hand in casual valediction. “Not much of one, I agree. You see, I recognize my limitations.”
    As he turned the corner and went swiftly down the remainder of the stairs it occurred to him that this was hardly a characteristic for a vicar, or indeed for anyone, to boast about.

8
    “Oh, hell,” said Mrs Plummer. “What an anticlimax!” The table in the window was unoccupied. Except for condiments, the cloth was bare. “But why bother to leave your name, and where you come from, if you’re only passing through?”
    “Shall we puzzle it out later,” suggested Ginny, “while we seek to drown our sorrows at the bar?”
    Shortly afterwards the manageress moved amongst the diners with her usual bright inquiries.
    “Oh, Miss Bryanston. If that table over there happens to be free again…?”
    But it appeared that the Madisons had merely asked for an early dinner because they had needed to take care of something in the town and then wanted to see the summer variety show.
    “Darling, shall we go to that ourselves?” Miss Bryanston had barely moved away before Mrs Plummer was energetically peering at her watch.
    “Tonight? But why? We didn’t have an early dinner, so we’ll have missed the beginning. You’ll also be missing Daddy’s call.”
    “But I suddenly feel in the mood for a little entertainment.”
    “No, you don’t. All you feel in the mood for is a manhunt. Well, count me out.”
    Yet on the other hand the prospect of spending the evening listening to the residents in the lounge, who switched on the television and then unfailingly chattered above it, wasn’t enormously enticing, either. And it had been a long day of dragging pains, resentment and frustration—they arrived at the theatre some half-hour after the curtain had gone up.
    In the interval Mrs Plummer looked about her with animation.
    “I think I’d like