The Handsome Man's Deluxe Cafe by Alexander McCall Smith Read Free Book Online

when she married him, but the young man she had chosen was really a lion. He looked like an ordinary man, but there was something about him …”
    â€œIt would be the eyes,” said Mma Makutsi, glancing anxiously at Itumelang’s eyes to reassure herself. “You can tell if somebody is really a lion by examining the eyes. Lions have eyes that are a bit yellow, Mma. They are like the colour of grass when there has been no rain for a while. Or sometimes they are the colour of the sand out in the Kalahari, which is also a sort of yellow colour.”
    â€œI think that what makes a lion’s eyes different from other eyes is their fierceness,” said Mma Ramotswe. “There are other animals that have eyes that colour, but they are different. They are not fierce, like a lion’s eyes. They do not look at you in the same way—they do not make you wish you were somewhere else.”
    Mma Makutsi agreed. “But what about this girl?” she asked. “How did she know he was a lion? Was it the eyes, do you think?”
    Mma Ramotswe shook her head. “No, it was not the eyes. She did not say anything about his eyes; in fact, it was her brothers who noticed. It was the girl’s brothers.”
    â€œThey could tell?”
    â€œYes, Mma. They noticed that by the way he smelled. If you are a lion, you cannot really disguise the way you smell. You can change the way you look, but not the way you smell.”
    Mma Makutsi was thoughtful. “It is the same with people,” she said. “You can change your clothes. You can change the look of your hair. Doctors can even change the shape of your nose or ears, but you can never change the way you smell. That will always give you away.”
    Mma Ramotswe was used to Mma Makutsi’s theories, which were often rather unusual. This one, she thought, was distinctly unlikely, but she did not want to pursue the matter. Mma Makutsi was apt to argue a point tenaciously, and Mma Ramotswe did not want to get involved in a prolonged debate on the way people smelled.
    â€œThat may be so, Mma,” she said evenly. “Or it may not be. But the point here is that the girl’s brothers told her they thought her new husband was a lion because he smelled a bit like a lion. And they said there was also something in the way he walked that reminded them of a lion.”
    â€œLions walk on four legs,” observed Mma Makutsi. “Was this man walking on four legs? That can be a big giveaway, Mma.”
    Mma Ramotswe shook her head. “He walked normally, on two legs. But there was something in the way he walked that made them suspicious. I do not know what it was, as my cousin did not say anything about that. But you can imagine it, Mma, can’t you? He would have walked with that sort of sway that lions like to use. They sway their hips a bit.”
    â€œI have seen men walk like that,” said Mma Makutsi. “But I did not think they were lions.”
    â€œSo they told the girl, Mma,” continued Mma Ramotswe. “They said to her: this new husband is really a lion. You will have to get rid of him. And the girl was very upset.”
    â€œIt would not be a good thing to discover about your new husband,” said Mma Makutsi. “I don’t know what I would do if I discovered that Phuti was a lion. It would be a very sad thing to find out.”
    â€œI do not think your husband is a lion,” said Mma Ramotswe. “I see no evidence at all.”
    â€œThank heavens,” said Mma Makutsi. “It would be hard for me to go back up to Bobonong and tell my family. They would say: please do not bring your new husband up here, or he might eat our cattle.”
    They both laughed. Then Mma Makutsi said, “I am worried about this young woman, Mma. What did they do?”
    â€œThe brothers made a cage,” said Mma Ramotswe. “This cage was a trap and they put a goat in it. They said, ‘If